Adobo Recipe

Adobo is dubbed as national dish (pambansang ulam) of Filipinos. It is an indigenous cuisine that dates back centuries even before the Philippines got conquered by Spain. If the books about adobo are true then this dish is an authentic Filipino recipe, made by the natives. Regardless of the adobo recipe origin, this dish is worth trying.

Adobo is a simple dish to prepare, anyone can cook adobo. With adobo the main ingredient pork or chicken got marinated in vinegar, soy sauce and garlic. In other countries like Spain adobo made marinating the meat in oregano, paprika, salt, vinegar and garlic.

My adobo recipe is also known as adobong baboy or pork adobo. Every household in the Philippines knows how to cook adobo. But since there are different versions of adobo across the country, it is not surprising that there are a lot of adobo recipes in the internet. In fact, I know someone who cooks adobo with coconut milk and according to her it is just the way they prepare this dish.

My husband love to put in sugar to the adobo sauces but not me. I want my adobo a bit salty, so I just use soy sauce. There is no restriction to this dish, you can improve the adobo recipe to suit your taste.

By the way, adobo is great for special occasion like birthdays, weddings, fiestas and Christmas. You can serve adobo to your family daily or anytime you are craving for this dish. Here’s my chicken pork adobo recipe, enjoy cooking!

Adobo Recipe

Ingredients:

  • 1 kilo liempo (pork belly), cut into desired portions
  • 1 head of crushed garlic
  • ½ onion, chopped
  • ½ tablespoon peppercorns
  • Bay leaves or laurel (optional)
  • ¼ cup soy sauce
  • ½ cup vinegar
  • 1 cup water
  • Cooking oil

Direction:

  1. In a medium pan, heat oil over medium heat and sauté garlic and onion.
  2. Next throw into the pan the pork or chicken or both.
  3. Cook until the meat starts to change color.
  4. Pour into the pan the soy sauce, vinegar, water and peppercorn…
  5. Cover the pan and cook the meat for 30 minutes or until the sauce thickens. When the adobo is done, throw in the bay leaves. If you are not adding bay leaves then remove the pan from heat.
  6. Transfer to a serving dish.  Serve hot and with rice.

P.s: If you don’t have time to cook or just want to have an easy to cook meal, instead of sautéing the garlic and onion just combine all ingredients in a medium pan. Cover and bring to a boil, when boiling reduce heat to medium then let it cook for 30 minutes or until the sauce thickens.