Filipino Chicken Adobo is the national dish of the Philippines and may well become your new favourite Asian chicken dish! Just a few everyday ingredients I can practically guarantee you already have, it’s an effortless recipe that yields juicy, tender chicken coated in a sweet savoury glaze with little pops of heat from peppercorns.
This is a chicken thigh recipe and it MUST be made with thighs – no substituting with chicken breast!
Filipino Chicken Adobo
Filipino Chicken Adobo is one of the first chicken thigh recipes I shared way back in 2015 when I started this website. Back then, I boldly stated that this was my new favourite Asian chicken recipe even it was thoroughly disloyal of me to say that, being of Japanese background and all (Teriyaki, Karaage and Yakitori….to name a few….).
To be honest, I may have embellished a wee bit. Blinded by the excitement of discovering Chicken Adobo, how unbelievably easy it is for a dish that yields such incredible flavour,
Check out how sticky the sauce is! It truly tastes as incredible as it looks. And it’s SO EASY with just a HANDFUL of ingredients!
What you need
Filipino Chicken Adobo is the national dish of the Philippines and like all traditional dishes, there are many variations – including using different proteins like pork and beef.
Fundamentally though, the key is the right balance of soy sauce, vinegar, black peppercorns and sugar that creates an incredibly sticky glaze with a depth of flavour like it’s been slow cooked – but it’s not!
boneless skinless chicken thighs – cannot substitute with breast, need the fat to transform sauce into a glaze;
soy sauce – all purpose or light soy sauce. NOT dark soy sauce (bottle will be labelled as such if it’s dark soy sauce);
white vinegar – just everyday, plain white vinegar. Sub with any clear vinegar, including rice wine, apple cider, sherry vinegar. Vinegars can vary in their acidity, so if using substitutes start with less (see recipe notes);
onion and garlic;
peppercorns – or coarse cracked pepper;
sugar – brown best, white ok;
bay leaves – fresh or dried, not the end of the world if you don’t have; and
green onion – optional garnish
How to make Filipino Chicken Adobo
And here’s how to make it. Basically, you marinate the chicken briefly, sear the chicken, then simmer it in the pan with the marinade for 25 minutes. It will look watery right up until the last few minutes, then all of a sudden, the liquid transforms magically into a syrupy glaze!
What Chicken Adobo tastes like
The glaze of Filipino Chicken Adobo is savoury and sweet with a hint of tang, with a distinct soy flavour. The garlic and onion creates a savoury base along with the bay leaves, and the peppercorns add little subtle pops of heat.
Don’t be afraid of the peppercorns in this! The spiciness is tempered from both the cooking time and the strength of the flavour of the sauce so it becomes a flavour enhancer rather than fiery spiciness.
And finally, the chicken itself. It’s incredibly tender, owing to the cook time. Chicken thighs only take about 6 to 8 minutes to cook on the stove, so simmering them in sauce for 25 minutes yields thighs that are so tender inside, it’s like you’ve slow cooked them for hours.
What to serve with Chicken Adobo
Rice to soak up the sauce is essential! Though if you’re counting calories, I can highly recommend Cauliflower Rice – pictured in the first photo in the post alongside Smashed Cucumbers for a seriously delicious dinner plate clocking in at a grand total of just 415 calories.
You may not use all the sauce this Filipino Chicken Adobo recipe makes. It is quite strong, so have a taste before dousing your entire plate with it.
As you can see in the photos, I do not hold back. 😂 – Nagi x
PS If you do have leftover sauce, don’t throw it out! That stuff is GOLD. I use it to make Filipino Chicken Adobo fried rice – just fry up cooked rice with chopped up pieces of this chicken, some chopped Asian greens and the sauce. The sauce is so flavoursome that you don’t need anything else!
Watch how to make it
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Filipino Chicken Adobo (Flavour Kapow!)
Ingredients
Chicken and Marinade
- 750g / 1.5 lb chicken thigh fillets , boneless and skinless (5 – 6 pieces) (Note 1)
- 3 garlic cloves , minced
- 1/3 cup (85ml) soy sauce , ordinary all purpose or light (not dark soy sauce, Note 2)
- 1/3 cup + 2 tbsp white vinegar , see Note 3
- 4 bay leaves (fresh) or 3 dried
For cooking
- 2 tbsp oil , separated (vegetable, canola or peanut)
- 3 garlic cloves , minced
- 1 small brown onion , diced
- 1 1/2 cups (375 ml) water
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tbsp whole black pepper (sub 2 tsp coarse cracked pepper)
Serving:
- 2 green onions/scallions , sliced (garnish)
Instructions
- Combine Chicken and Marinade ingredients in a bowl. Marinate for at least 20 minutes, or up to overnight.
- Heat 1 tbsp oil in a skillet over high heat. Remove chicken from marinade (reserve marinade) and place in the pan. Sear both sides until browned – about 1 minute on each side. Do not cook the chicken all the way through.
- Remove chicken skillet and set aside.
- Heat the remaining oil in skillet. Add garlic and onion, cook 1 1/2 minutes.
- Add the reserved marinade, water, sugar and black pepper. Bring it to a simmer then turn heat down to medium high. Simmer 5 minutes.
- Add chicken smooth side down. Simmer uncovered for 20 to 25 minutes (no need to stir), turning chicken at around 15 minutes, until the sauce reduces down to a thick jam-like syrup.
- If the sauce isn't thick enough, remove chicken onto a plate and let the sauce simmer by itself – it will thicken much quicker – then return chicken to the skillet to coat in the glaze.
- Coat chicken in glaze then serve over rice. Pictured in post as a healthy dinner plate (415 calories) with cauliflower rice and Ginger Smashed Cucumbers.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Originally published February 2015. Updated January 2019 with brand new photos, step photos, video and most importantly, Life of Dozer section added!!
Life of Dozer
Dozer started 2019 the same way as he finished it – in the POOL!!
Oh my, so much flavour and super easy. I would watch the mixture carefully towards the end as the syrupy stage happens quite suddenly (or at least it did for me). I marinated the chicken for five hours. My thighs must have been a lot smaller than Nagi’s as 759g was about 10-12 thigh fillets. As a result they ended up a little bit dry so would probably add them back into the liquid a bit later. Cracker the pepper with a rolling pin. It was very peppery but in a good way but if you don’t love pepper, maybe cut down to half a TBsp. Used white wine vinegar and worked a treat.
First time making it followed the recipe and it was delicious
Can I use chicken party wings?
We loved this,removed the chicken to thicken the sauce and it took about two minutes then added the chicken back and coated well.Served with tumeric rice and left over mexican corn salad, picco de gallo from yesterdays mexican ‘mini’ fiesta so a bit of table fusion going on but it all went well together.
5***** Nagi.👍👍👍
cheap, healthy and delicious. nagi hits the spot once again! personally if I would do this again I would reduce the water to only half a cup, because for me it just took ages to reduce. thanks!
If using Bone in chicken thighs do I only use 3/4 cup water
(as stated in # 1 Notes) or in addition to 2.25 cups of Water?? In other words how much water total
Delicious. Easy to make and perfectly paired with the smashed cucumber salad. Will definitely bookmark for future meals.
I was a little confused by this as well; how much water to use for bone in thigh… I assumed it’s in addition to the main amount, yet I didn’t add the 3/4 extra to be sure as its currently on the stove cooking, but if it reduces too much I will add the extra water.
Why isn’t Nagi answering the question about water measurements but all the other questions she is?I want to know the same thing, how much water for bone in thighs¿
I’m going to try this with drumsticks tonight. I will use a small skillet and a lid for @15 mins until the legs cook. I will remove the legs and reduce the sauce so all in all I won’t got over 1.5 C water.
Love your recipies! Wondering what a brown onion is. We have red, yellow and white here.
yellow is an aprox for this recipe
Same as yellow onion. They are the most common variety of onion. Here (Australia) they are called brown onions due to their brown skin
Surprisingly healthy and bang for your buck with common ingredients in your pantry and fridge. Nagi does it again!
adobo you can use any meat, including goat, my mother-in-law made this, soft and tender! masarap !
10/10 very delicious. I doubled the recipe but not the liquid/base part. The liquid-glaze timing took about 15 mins longer than written, however it’s
This recipe is a keeper! Thank you.
Can you use coconut aminos instead of soy sauce?
This is a winner, marinated over night the second time omg! Basically what my mum RIP would make.
I did chicken breast and just added olive oil and it did the trick 🙂
Times are pretty much spot on.
Love me some chicken adobo. Going to try this recipe tonight
Followed exactly, except the vinegar, only had white wine vinegar handy, so easy and super flavourful, Hubby loved it, will be making again!!!
I made this and followed the recipe almost exactly. I just did not have onion. It came out sooo tasty! And this was such an easy recipe that didn’t require many ingredients. I will for sure make this many more times in the future. Thank you for sharing this recipe!
Fabulous sauce (I used a combo of rice vinegar and verjuice instead of white vinegar) but don’t believe the timings. It takes A LOT longer to thicken than stated in the recipe. I suspect no allowance is made for the fact that these recipes are cooked in a commercial kitchen with top flight appliances, but, to be fair, it’d be difficult to give a timing that would work for everyone. Start cooking this at least 2 hours before you want to serve in order to guarantee a good result,
OMGosh – followed this recipe to a “T” & it was spectacular! Thanks for sharing yet another winner Nagi!
Ooh, boy! — I liked you admitting you were ‘blinded by excitement’ — over a chicken recipe!! Also, what national and heritage boundaries are fractured by doing adobo with (oh, no) coconut milk for cooking and serve sauce ?
I made this recipe twice and both times it came out very soupy. I followed recipe to a T and simmered few more minutes without chicken. What am I doing wrong?
oh dear! simmering is until it has a jamlike quality, not necessarily for a set time then stop simmering. Even turn the heat up a bit and jiggle the pan to assist with reduction process in a timely manner.
You have to let it simmer longer than the recipe states. I learned this after a couple of times of making this.
Cook sauce longer
I followed the recipe but sauce in mine turned out to too watery and not thick like what I thought it would be. Any idea why this happened?