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!!
It tastes good, but I would advise in capital letters specifically to NOT USE OLIVE OIL. I used olive oil and it would not incorporate in to the sauce.
It was a complete mess.
Sorry this is a question not a review – why does the recipe say 1/3 cup + 2tbsp white vinegar, rather than just one whole volume? Or should they be two separate ingredients? Thanks!
I have been making this for many years,–I marinate over night and bake in oven. I do use dark soy–just marinate with equal vinegar, dark soy, garlic, bay Leafs.–I like small drum sticks
This was not bad but also not great. I doubled the recipe because I had a lot of chicken. Used my braiser so the sauce would cook down faster. The flavor is nice but the sauce never thickened. (In the past I’ve made adobo and never really expected a thick sauce, but this one sounded interesting.) After 25 minutes of cooking the sauce was still quite thin so I removed the chicken and cooked it down another 25 minutes. It did emulsify eventually but no thickness to speak of, and it was getting way too concentrated. I ended up adding back nearly a cup of water along with some cornstarch to get a little thickness.
Thank you so much Nagi. This recipe made our Saturday night family meal very special indeed. Everyone absolutely loved it.
I am a Filipino working abroad… Got curious and tried this recipe and my workmates love it. Thank you for sharing your own version..🥰
One of the tricks I’ve seen when cooking adobo is to spoon the sauce onto the meat every so often as its cooking; it helps thicken the sauce, and I think it helps reduce it down.
It didn’t reduce immediately so I removed some chicken and spooned the sauce over. I thought ‘pretty good’ and ate it happily.. Then I let the sauce (without the chicken in it) reduce for about 20 minutes longer until it was a sticky thicker sauce…. and OMG delicious. Do not get so hungry that you eat the sauce watery —- reduced is incredible! Thanks Nagi 🙂
Full transparency. I’ve never had chicken adobo nor tried to make it. But saw it on IG and thought “what the heck”.
Followed the instructions by the letter. Tasting along the way I thought “eeeek. This is bitter. I’m not sure how this is gonna turn out”. Then my sauce didn’t thicken. So I removed the chicken and cranked up the heat. Not gonna lie, started to feel deflated. Then….bam. It thickens. I assemble my plate and man it did not disappoint. The flavors blend together so well. You get the right amount of salt, sweet and bitter. Definitely added to my monthly recipes!
It’s a wonderful recipe, and made me realize that I’ve under-appreciated peppercorns as a source of heat. But I must agree with some of the posters that reducing the sauce to a “jam-like syrup” didn’t seem to work for me — I ended up using a bit of cornstarch.
Very good! Thank you for sharing.
Oh, wow! I’ve just made this for a couple of fussy eaters. It was devoured in minutes! I loved making it and we all loved eating it. I put it with basmati rice and some tenderstem broccoli. I will definitely be making this again. The Google doodle a while back brought me here, but you gave me a super easy, tasty recipe. Thank you so much 😊
Hi, I like all the recipes I’ve tried from your site.
This version of adobo is one of the different ways of cooking it. Can I request you to do the traditional recipe of adobo? I always fail on that one.
Thanks.
Use half the peppercorns! Otherwise, delicious and quick to make on a weeknight.
I know by heart how to make adobo as I made it million times back in Philippines when my mom is not around and she’ll ask me to do it instead. But yesterday was different as my sister in law is here for a weekend and I needed some recipes with measurements just to make sure not to mess up her impression of my cooking skills and this turned out amazing! I followed all measurements and instructions but after 30 mins of not seeing the sauce thickens I lowered the heat to 2-3 for another 15 mins and it is the most delicious adobo I have ever made in my life. 😊
Hi! Did you use regular white vinegar or Datu Puti Vinegar?
I found this recipe randomly and made it last night. To say that this Filipino Chicken Adobo is my family’s new FAVORITE recipe is an understatment. They are now asking, “When are we making the Kapow Chicken again?”
This is definitely being made again.
Just one addition I recommend is a bit of cornstarch slurry to thicken it as it did not thicken for me (even took the chicken out and simmered for quite a while).
Super easy & delish!
I had everything on hand, so this was thrown together quickly while I was on my lunch break.
The sauce thickened perfectly & my family loved this.
I paired it with rice & canned green beans because that’s all I had in the pantry.
Great recipe & instructions!
This may be the strangest review ever! I want to lead with it was delicious!
I have recently been under extreme stress and have noticed that my usual sleep meds are not able to calm my active mind and I have on a few occasions walked/ prepped food in my sleep. The last thing I remember I is reading your recipe before going to bed. The next thing I remember is waking up to a bag of frozen chicken wings thawing in the refrigerator in a sauce with bay leaves and garlic! It smelled so good I decided to take a chance and hope it was your recipe. I don’t know if it was for sure, but it probably was because it was delicious! And we are still alive!
Full transparency, I once woke up to something like tuna fish soup that I had made in my sleep and was not the same happy ending! Obviously not your recipe! Lol
You are so funny, Best review I’ve ever read 10/10 made me laugh so hard
It was delicious, but my sauce never thickened up! Is it because I didn’t measure anything, lol? I will try again and measure!
My sauce was very runny at the end of the cooking time so I removed the chicken and cranked up the heat. After a few minutes it reduced to a lovely sticky glaze.
Chef’s Kiss! This recipe is a handful of humble ingredients and an abundance of flavor. I have made this a couple of times.
DO use crushed black pepper instead of whole corns. It is not pleasant biting into a whole pepper corn. DO remove the chicken thighs from the pan after you sear them.The sauce will take more time than you anticipate to thicken to the syrupry glazey consistency, but it is worth the wait. Add at least 1/2 hour to your cooking time to get the sauce right, or maybe use less water. I achieved a nice glaze for the chicken, with the amount of water in the recipe. If you want more of a “gravy” to serve over rice, try doubling the marinade recipe.
Hello,
This will be my first time making this and after reading all the comments etc I really want to make some extra sauce.I was interested in your comment to increase the marinade ingredients, does that mean I’d also have to increase the cooking ingredients or just the sugar to balance out the increase of the vinegar and soy sauce?
I really want to get this right so any help much appreciated..Tyia
Absolutely delicious! First time trying and making the dish but definitely won’t be my last! Ate with basmati rice and green beans. Superb!