I made a chicken adobo recipe that tasted mainly of apple cider vinegar. Although the dish wasn’t bad, I was looking for more of the other ingredients to shine through.
Below are some links to more details, including photos:
My Story
I had a craving for chicken adobo, but wanted to try a different recipe than the one I previously used. Also, I was hoping to build upon my last experience.
Inspiring Recipe
During my search, I found a fast and easy recipe One-Pot Filipino Chicken Adobo Is Shockingly Easy to Make from POPSUGAR.com. How could I resist a recipe that was categorized under ‘Fast And Easy?’
First Try
With all the ingredients already at home, I was ready to see if this recipe was a keeper or not.
Ingredients to Use
Since I have not ventured into cutting up a whole chicken for cooking yet, I used eight thighs weighing 3.56 pounds for this recipe. With a little more chicken than the recipe asked for, I updated the rest of the ingredients as follows:
- 1/2 tablespoon of oil
- 1/2 cup of soy sauce
- 1 cup of apple cider vinegar
- 12 cloves of garlic
- 1 tablespoon + 1/3 teaspoon of black peppercorns
- 4 dried bay leaves
Steps to Prepare
In terms of the process, I made a couple of modifications to the recipe.
Instead of using a large straight-sided skillet or Dutch oven to cook everything, I used a large pot.
Also, I didn’t wait for the sauce to reduce to about one cup at the end, even though I did boil it for about 10 minutes.
Time to Eat
After I strained the sauce and poured it over the chicken, I garnished the dish with the cooked garlic cloves and dinner was ready:
Recipe Rating
Below were the results of the recipe after the first try:
| # of Ingredients | Effort | $ / Serving | Try Again? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 |  | |  |
After evaluating the chicken thighs, what I found mostly was the sourness from the vinegar. What I wanted more were the flavors from the soy sauce, garlic, and bay leaves.
Second Try
For the second batch, I wanted to focus on reducing the flavor from the vinegar and increasing it from the other seasonings.
Ingredients to Use
With 3.55 pounds of chicken thighs, I kept the measurements for the rest of the ingredients the same as before, except for decreasing the amount of black peppercorns to 1 tablespoon.
In addition, since I was almost out of the old bottle of vinegar, I added a different type to what was left. The new bottle smelled milder than the original one, so I was anticipating that the new version of the dish would be less tart.
Steps to Prepare
I kept most of the process the same as before, but with a couple of exceptions. First, since I wanted more flavor in the chicken, I decided to marinate the thighs with soy sauce, vinegar, garlic and pepper for almost 20 hours. Also, before browning the thighs, I transferred the pieces directly from the bowl to the pot, instead of patting them dry first.
As a side note, while I tried reducing the sauce again at the end of the process for 10 minutes, I still ended up with two cups of liquid. Maybe I should have boiled it longer?
Time to Eat
With the change in the vinegar and addition of the marinade, I was eager to find out if the chicken tasted any better.
Recipe Rating
Below are the results of the recipe from the second attempt:
| # of Ingredients | Effort | $ / Serving | Try Again? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | | | |
Although the chicken thighs were less sour and all eaten, the changes I made didn’t intensify the flavors from the soy sauce, garlic, or bay leaves. In addition, the meat ended up drier.
Since I’m still looking for a chicken adobo recipe that results in the right balance of flavors, I’ll try the following next:
Continuous Improvement
- Find a different recipe with a higher proportion of soy sauce and/or salt.
Progressing through this chicken adobo recipe surfaced the following lesson that I would share with my younger self:
Lesson for Dumber Self
- There’s always something new to learn. In this case, I need to figure out how to reduce a sauce to the desired amount.
What will you do now?
Next Step for You
- Share your favorite chicken adobo recipe?
- Test out ways to reduce a sauce, e.g., starting with How to Reduce in Cooking from the wikiHow website?
- Read another post on this site? (Go to the menu at the top of the page.)
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