Chicken Adobo Is The Ultimate Comfort Food

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Chicken Adobo Recipe:
2.5– 3 lbs (1.5 kg) chicken thighs (bone-in, skin-on for flavor; boneless skinless also works)
1/2 cup (120ml) soy sauce (regular or light; avoid dark soy)
1/3 cup (80ml) vinegar (Filipino cane vinegar preferred, or white/coconut vinegar)
1 1/2 cups (360ml) water (or enough to partially submerge chicken)
1 medium onion, thinly sliced or diced
5–6 cloves garlic, minced or smashed
3 bay leaves (fresh or dried)
1 tsp whole black peppercorns (or 1/2 tsp coarse ground black pepper)
1–2 tbsp brown sugar (adjust to taste, or omit if using cane vinegar)
2 tbsp neutral oil (canola, vegetable, or avocado oil)
Salt, only if needed (soy adds a lot of salt already)
Chopped green onions or cilantro for garnish
Steamed white or jasmine rice for serving

Garlic Coconut rice Recipe:
2 cups (380g) uncooked jasmine rice
1 1/2 cups (360ml) water
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbsp coconut oil
1/4 cup finely chopped garlic
1 tbsp fish sauce

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What’s up, dude? When it comes to the best comfort food, chicken adobo is really hard to beat. Today, I’ll teach you how to make a version that keeps me coming back time and again. And as a bonus, it’s truly easy to make with just a few simple ingredients you might already have in your pantry. Now, let’s go. Now, to start, you’re only going to want to use chicken thighs for this dish. Don’t try to use breasts. This is not the kind of dish you want to use breasts for, okay? It just doesn’t make sense. They are going to be so dry if you try that. And you could buy boneless, skinless chicken thighs if you like. I prefer bone in and skin on, but the choice is yours. So, we’re starting here with just plain old soy sauce. Although, there are some notes on this because you generally want to use a light soy sauce when you’re making these kind of recipes like chicken adobo or showyu chicken would be another one where you reduce the sauce a bit afterwards. Remember, soy sauce is liquid salt and as it reduces, it gets saltier and saltier. So, if you don’t have light soy sauce, just cut down on the dark soy sauce. You can always add a little more later if you like, but if it’s too salty, it’s ruined. Next, we’re going in with 1/3 cup of cane vinegar. And I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, “Sunny, I’ve never seen cane vinegar. What can I use instead? There are so many great substitutions. You could use rice vinegar, which is actually what you’re going to see in a lot of chicken adobo recipes.” You could also just use plain white vinegar. That will work just great as well. Then, smash up some garlic. And what we’re going to do is first separate all these annoying little skins. And then what I like to do is set over the base of that knife and just give it one little tap, which makes that peel come off super easily, as you can see. And then I just like to remove that little hard end. And that’s done. Now, my cameraman Marcus just told me that you can put garlic peeled into a jar like this and shake it up to remove the peels. I’m generally against all this kind of stuff. Let’s see if it works. I don’t know if this works. I’ll change my mind. How long do I shake it for? Let’s have a look here. Well, my friends, if there’s one thing I can say about this cooking channel is I try to be as honest as possible if I’m wrong about something. And I would say this is a success. Although it’s maybe 60 70% peeled. Maybe if I shook it longer, they would all be peeled. But honestly, I’d say that’s valid. And now I’m just going to give these all just a light smashing. Not completely obliterated, but what we’re doing here is just really unlocking the flavor. Then drop that garlic in with the rest of your ingredients along with a couple bay leaves and some Sergeant Gilbert reporting for duty. And that’s just fresh cracked black pepper. Do as much or as little as you like. And I’m leaving it pretty coarse here as well. And then just drop all your chicken thighs in here because we’re going to start the marination process here. And all you got to do is cap this and put it in the fridge for only 30 minutes because generally with soybased marinades, you definitely don’t want to go too long. You want to edge on that shorter side. And also because of the vinegar that’s present in here, you don’t want to go too long either. So 30 minutes is all she wrote. And while your chicken marinates, it’s the perfect time to start the rice. And we’re not just going to make any rice for this dish. We’re going to make a special Filipino sort of garlic and coconut fried rice. I would try to pronounce the name for you, but I’ll totally butcher it. But it’s garlic and coconut milk fried rice with a touch of fish sauce. So starting with two cups of jasmine rice. And for the rice washing process, I just fill it up with water, then dump most of that water off. Then just swirl it with your fingertips for about 15 20 seconds before refilling with water and repeating that process about three times. And then in terms of how much water you put, the ratio is like 1 cup of rice to 1 and 1/2 cups of water. But what I do is I just measure it a little bit above my nail, which is just shy of 3/4 in. So a little more water. And that may seem silly to you, but it absolutely works. That’s perfect. And I’m just cooking this in a rice cooker today, but no worries if you don’t have one. I will put a link to a video down in the description where I show you how to make rice on the stove top. It works every time. Now, for our rice, we are going to take a whole bunch of peeled garlic. And I’m actually going to use a mandolin here and just make a couple test slices first. But if I do it with a mandolin, it’s going to make the next step perfect, which I will explain when that comes up, but it will all make sense soon. And if you don’t have a mandolin, it’s a way to get professional cuts without having to be a professional. It’s one tool all chefs will agree they need in their kitchen. So, I’ll put a link to this one down in the description. But be very careful when using a mandolin. I’ve seen these things take down quite a lot of chefs. Somehow I’ve never cut my Just kidding. Gotcha. Somehow I’ve never cut myself on one of these, which I’m very proud of. They do come with guards, but when I’m using such a small piece of garlic, it doesn’t really work. A lot of times what I’ll do is just take a little piece of paper towel just as one little layer of safety and use that. At this point, we can finish our rice. And to do that, I’m going to start by preheating my walk. You could definitely just use another pan. You don’t have to use a walk, obviously, but it is cool. And we’re going to add coconut oil. Couple tablespoons. And we’re going to drop in all of our garlic. And just begin cooking this in the coconut oil until it’s really just nicely golden brown, but not dark brown. We want a light golden brown for garlic. The darker it gets, the more bitter it gets. So, definitely don’t overdo it. And that’s exactly why I use that mandolin because if one slice is a little thinner, it’s just going to burn right away. But doing it this way, it should be pretty consistent. So, right about there, I just turn the heat off. You don’t want to cook it much more than this slotted spoon. I’m just getting it out. And this will burn fast, right? So, be quick. Honestly, that looks pretty darn perfect. Something around this color is what you’re after. And now, with that heat on high, we’re going to start adding our rice. This will work better with day old rice, but you don’t need it. Touch of salt going in, but not too much. And we’re just going to cook up our rice for a couple minutes here, making sure to declump, which the coconut oil would surely help with. And I pulled that garlic out because if I left it in while cooking this rice, I’m afraid it would keep burning. So, we’re going to add it back in towards the end. And after a few minutes of cooking, I’m going to add in the garlic. At this point, it’s basically done. Give it a little toss. And then, optional, but I’m going to finish with just a little bit of fish sauce. And after one final toss up here, that’s our rice completely done. And if you’re not using fish sauce, you can definitely add more salt cuz fish sauce is like pure salt. But let’s taste. I really like these flavors, man. Garlic, fish sauce, coconut. It’s awesome and going to be so much more interesting to serve this with your chicken adobo than just plain rice. That’s fire. And by the way, in terms of fish sauce, this abalone fish sauce, if you can find one made with abalone, oh my god, it’s like the Rolls-Royce of fish sauce. This stuff is insane. Now, before moving on, I don’t know about you, but personally, I start every day with a coffee. Whether it be hot or ice, it doesn’t really matter. The one thing that never changes is my love for fresh roasted beans. They have to be good beans or they don’t make good coffee. I mean, I think that goes without saying. And being a coffee snob also makes me a huge fan of the sponsor of today’s video, Trade. Trade is a coffee subscription service that delivers fresh coffee from the best roasters across the country right to your door. Each bag is roasted to order and you can immediately taste the difference in flavor and aroma. and their prices are on par with grocery store brands, but the quality is truly on another level. And plus, you’re supporting local roasters, which is also really cool. And whether you’re in the mood for a hot coffee or a cold brew, Trade truly has you covered. My personal go-to coffee is a double shot of espresso with a little bit of honey and steamed oatmeal. And whenever I crave a cold brew, thanks to Trade’s cold brew roast, I can easily make my own at home. It’s actually super simple. And right now, Trade is offering 50% off a 1-month trial at drinktrade.com/th that dude cancook. That’s drinktrade.com/th that dude can cook for 50% off your first month. Now, back to the recipe. And once 30 minutes is up, I’m just going to take all my chicken out, saving all your marinade. Do not throw that away. And we’re going to set on some paper towels here, skin side down. Another paper towel on the back side. And we’ll just dry these up a bit. Uh, I want to flip this over, but if I try to move it with the paper towel, the paper towel is too wet, so it’ll break. I wonder if I can just kind of didn’t work. Don’t do that. Now, into our reserved marinade here, we’re going to add water because this is going to reduce a lot. And just a little bit of brown sugar. If you don’t have brown sugar, you could absolutely just use white sugar. Then just give it a quick mix and set aside. We’re also going to be using some onions in this recipe. I don’t think it’s really traditional for chicken adobo, but onions just make everything better. I know a lot of people use them here as well. And all I’m going to do is just julian these. I just peeled them, took out the core, and once I get about twothirds of the way through, I just flip down and do the rest. Simple as that. Next, in a medium heat pot, and this will be the same pot that we cook the chicken in once we braze it. You don’t want it too ripping hot because of the soy sauce. And skin side down, we’re going to sear off all the thighs. I’m going to have to do mine in two batches. And after 3 minutes of searing, we’re just going to flip these over. And I can’t stress enough how you do not want to have regular searing temperatures for this. Medium is perfect. Nice bit of color. We’ll do them about 2 to 3 minutes as well on the other side. And once all your chicken is seared, I’m going to dump off a good bit of that oil and chicken fat. It’s just too much. I’m going to leave a little in there, though. Now, into that same pot, I’m going in with my onions. And I’ll start by cooking these down for about 5 minutes. Medium heat. And once those 5 minutes are up, we’re going to add back in all our chicken thighs. And I’m starting with them skin side down. Tell you why in a minute here. Pushing it to the limit, but that’s perfect. and any of those juices that were on the plate, definitely pour those over. And then just pour over your reserved marinade. Now, with the water and sugar, make sure you get the garlic and the bay leaves in there as well. Then I’ll turn it up to high just to get the heat in the pot. And once it has a nice light simmer going, just like this. You don’t want to see aggressive bubbles, but just slight little bubbling around the edges. Then we’ll reduce the heat down to low to maintain that level of simmering. And what I like to do is just pop a cracked lid on it so that it still traps all that steam while at the same time being able to breathe and evaporate a little bit. And that’s it, my friends. We’re just going to let this roll for first 20 minutes before we make a move on it. Now, after 20 minutes is up, we can go ahead and remove the lid at this point and we’re going to turn all this chicken over. And I started the chicken skin side down. So, it would be skin side up now because I have a nice way to finish this dish. Now, at this point, leave the heat at the exact same level, but keep the lid off because we need to reduce and concentrate and thicken this sauce. Now, and off on a little side road here, if you are a fan of gaming, definitely check out my gaming channel. I will have that linked down in the description. I’ve always loved playing video games as a way to unwind and relax. And I just thought, why not start sharing this? So, that’s what that channel is. We’re having a lot of fun over there. It’s really just comedy sort of focused and just silly. So, if you like that kind of thing, definitely go subscribe. So that’s another 20 minutes after the flip and our thighs are hitting about 190 internal, a little over. This is perfect time to just kill the heat on this pan. And then let this rest in the brazing liquid for at least 20 minutes. Trust me, this makes a world of difference. And we’re not done with this dish yet. We still need to reduce the sauce. But pulling this chicken out right away when it’s so hot is definitely going to dry it out. So just letting it chill a bit in that liquid is just a pro move. Trust me, it is. And so after that rests, what I’m going to do is just shake these little chickens off and put them in another pan, skin side up for my special little trick. And now with this sauce, we’ll set it back over the heat and reduce it even further. At this point, too, you can go ahead and pull out your little bay leaves. They don’t need to be in here anymore, that’s for sure. I’ve also heard from some Filipinos that sometimes they’ll put a little bit of Sprite in this, as well as finishing it with coconut milk for like a creamy version. I’m actually going to take a small amount of my chicken adobo and try that to see how it weighs up. next to the regular version. Now, before reducing too much, definitely give it a taste and see how salty it is. Because if it’s far too salty, like you use really dark soy sauce, you can always take a tablespoon of cornstarch with about a tablespoon of water, make a little slurry, and pour it in while whisking, and that will thicken up your sauce without you having to reduce it. But the best is to just reduce it as is and use light soy sauce. So, that’s about 6 7 minutes, and it’s reduced by about 50%. Now, I quite like the thickness, but I don’t like really thick sauces. So, if you want to thicken it up more, you absolutely can by reducing it or using the cornstarch, it’s up to you. But just giving it a taste and looking at it, this is perfect for me. And this is optional, but I’m going to bang my chicken under the broiler for just like a minute. You have to be really careful now because of the soy and the sugar. This will burn super quick. But I just think it’s going to give it a really nice look more than anything in a little texture. And so, I only had these in there for like 2 minutes. It took a little longer. But what it’s done is just like retextured that skin where it was so soggy before and now it just feels like regular kind of baked skin again. And now we can just go ahead and re add our thighs to that same pot with a reduced sauce. And then I’m just going to kick that heat on again and just give this like 2 or 3 minutes to sort of reduce and coat on that chicken a little bit. Here we go, dude. All glazed up, reduced down. I mean, look at that. That little sticky mess. And in a separate pan, I also took two chicken thighs with a little bit of the sauce and a splash of coconut milk to see how that compares to the regular version. Then just plate it up with your fried rice along with some thinly sliced green onions or cilantro and you are good to go. Let’s give it a taste with Marcus. All right, Marcus, here we go, dude. Let’s try the uh normal one first, right? And then the variation next. Guests first, employees first, you know. Wait, wait for me, dude. I’m waiting. Okay, let’s hit it. Oh. Uh-oh. Wow, dude. I can see how this is like I think it’s the national dish of the Philippines cuz it’s such a comforting dish, dude. And I love it with the garlicky fried rice. I might have put a tiny bit too much water in the rice. It’s a little sticky, but it I honestly I like sticky rice. We have a showyu chicken recipe on the channel and I think this beats it. I don’t know. Showy chicken is amazing. It’s great. That vinegar that’s present in here just lifts the whole dish. Nothing is flat. It’s just like very nice and vibrant and balanced. Awesome. Yeah. And the chicken is just like falling apart, but still retaining juice. It’s so tender. All right, let’s try the coconut milk variation. You going to Nice, dude. I like your style. It’s still a nightmare hot. Ooh. You leaning towards coconut milk? Just makes it luscious. Really does add that creaminess. I see why they do that because coconut milk acts just like cream does in French cooking where you can now like take a piece of your meat like so. And you dip it in that sauce and the way it coats is like it it just look at that. I can just pick up as much sauce as I want. And I like sauce. And because this dish has so much vinegar when you put in the coconut milk, it really balances it out because it’s the fat to the acid, you know, and that is a great great tasting sauce. It also just adds another You’re going right into the saucepan. Beautiful coconutiness. I don’t know. The right amount, you know, the more coconut the better to me. I love it in the rice. Better than sugary chicken for sure. Make it. Thanks for watching today, my friend. And if you’re a fan of written recipes, check out my master in the making ebook that will be linked down in the description. And if you’re looking for more recipes like chicken adobo, you should definitely learn how to make shooyu chicken first and foremost. It’s very similar, also very good. And then there’s this underappreciated gem from my channel. That’s Thai red curry. Someone please make that and get back to us in the comments. It is so good. Thanks for watching and until next time. You know I love you when I’m out. [Music]