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!!
I made this recently and used white vinegar. This time I’m going on the advice of my Filipina friends and using coconut vinegar. I’m not a fan of white vinegar, so hopefully the coconut vinegar will change the flavour a bit.
I’m a Filipino and I ALWAYS use this recipe when I make Adobo. This is fantastic!
Another winner! Thank you, Nagi. I’ve made this recipe a few times now and it is always absolute delicious.
So delicious. I’ve made this with the whole peppercorns and with coarse cracked peppercorns. Good both ways but I prefer the cracked. I used my 60 year old rolling pin to do the cracking. This dish is definitely a staple in my house.
Ive made this multiple times and love it! However am wondering if anyone has marinaded overnight and is it better that way?!
Yes i found it to be better with it marinated over night, sauce thicken earlier as well towards the end.
I made this recipe several times. I’ve tried marinating for 3 hours, and marinating overnight. Marinating overnight makes it taste so much more flavourful, and I don’t do it any other way now.
I really loved this, definitely a keeper
Made this today after an an older family friend use to make it 12 years ago. I never forgot it. It was so good andy son, 11, loved it and asked me to make it a lot more.
Hi Nagi, I am a huge fan and absolutely love your cookbook and trying new recipes. I just wanted to check if anyone else has experienced making the Adobo Chicken and had the pan catch fire once the chicken was added to the oil. I’m guessing the oil may have been too hot but I also believe it must have been caused by the amount of vinegar in the marinade??? I was using a stainless steel wok and had to turn off the heat and throw on a lid to put it out. It really shocked me and as I do make a lot of stir fries and cook quite a lot, this was definitely out of the ordinary for me. Just wanted to warn others and see if it has happened to anyone else.
Grind the pepper. Whole peppercorns is awful. Otherwise very tasty
My Filipina cooking instict, usually intimidated in cooking Filipino dishes, was outsmarted one sunday lunch with this authentic recipe with straight forward ingredients usually present in every Filipino kitchen.
Husband-approved. Thank you.
I hope this works well doubled.
Made this for a Friendsgiving and the friend that hosted is Filipino. When he tasted it, he had an Anton Ego moment and said that the adobo tasted just like the adobo he ate a few weeks ago. Nailed it!!
I made this for a second time it’s that good! Followed the recipe using skinless and boneless thighs. This thickened up without a problem with a strong simmer. Very jammy with the onion. Someone mentioned pineapple instead of brown sugar and i may try that next time!
Made this for 5 adults and 8 children. They all loved it – my Filipino daughter in law said it tasted authentic. Winner!
Do you recommend marinating the chicken overnight?
I use all the ingredients, but skip the marinating. Sear chicken, cook onions and garlic; put in the rest of the ingredients + half the water, lid on, and low simmer for 2 hours, turning chicken periodically. the chicken will fall off the bone.
Loved this recipe. What did was add brown sugar to the marinade, I used half the marinade to simmer with the meat, then added corn starch to rest of the marinade. when the meat fully cooked. Took the meat out added the rest of the marinade to the pan let it thicken a little, then I added the meat and let it finish cooking and get nice and sticky.
Massive fan of RTE recipes! This one, delicious BUT omg I had to simmer that sauce for three times as long to get it near anything resembling sticky. No idea why, as followed recipe exactly. Bit disappointed as dinner took way longer than anticipated. Maybe too much liquid? Will readjust and try again.
I doubled the batch (as per recipe quantities), but omitted the addition of water. The lovely legs had high water content. Hence didn’t take overly long to reduce the sauce.
I find a lot of her recipes take longer to reduce than indicated. I think a lot has to do with the water content of the meat.
Do I buy skin on or skin off thighs?
It’s definitely a skin on recipe, preferably with bone, but I’ve made it with skin-off breast and just added some stock powder or concentrate and it turned out fine.
I’d definitely get cane or coconut vinegar if you can find it, it’s a lot milder than white vinegar so it lets the bay leaves and soy stick out more.
How about rice vinegar? Is that as bold as the white vinegar? I haven’t tried it yet but I’m not a fan of vinegary flavor base.
I used boneless skinless and they were delicious.
This was a hit. Definitely making again. After talking to a Fillipino friend I decided to swap the sugar for pineapple. She said they also add boiled eggs when cooking this.
Do you swap it with pineapple juice and is it like for like (2tbsp for 2tbsp)?
Hi Nagi, I have a question about the marinade. It says to set it aside and add it later. Does it not have a risk of cross contamination? is it because you add it before the chicken is fully cooked? thanks – hope to get an answer before making it. I have always loved Adobo but have never made it myself <3
you still simmer the marinade, so it’s totally ok!
Hi there- nothing will get contaminated because you will eventually be boiling sauce, so you are good to go. If you weren’t cooking the sauce then you would be cross contaminating, but not in this preparation.
The marinade will cook for long enough to cook out any raw chicken stuff floating around.