Pork Adobo

4.93 from 26 votes

Recipe video above. Pork Adobo is the pride of the Philippines - one bite and you'll be hooked! Pork braised until meltingly tender in an intense soy-garlic sauce that reduces down to a glaze, served over steaming rice, this is food so good yet so simple to make, you'll be shaking your head in disbelief.

Our adobo sauce has a well rounded flavour, intensely savoury but not overly salty or too sour (some restaurants make it really sour), and not too sweet. The sauce is meant to be thin so a little goes a long way on your rice.

Slow cooker not recommended, sorry, see Note 6.

Prep Time10

Cook Time2

Course: Main

Cuisine: Filipino

Keyword: filipino food, pork adobo

Servings: - 5 people

Calories: 357cal

Author: Nagi

Ingredients

1 kg/ 2 lb pork shoulder (the parts ribboned with fat not lean parts), skinless, cut into 6cm/2.5" cubes - or belly (Note 1)
2 tbsp vegetable oil , or any other neutral flavoured oil
1 large onion , cut in half then 0.8" / 1/3" wedges
8 cloves garlic , finely sliced
3 cups water
1/2 cup light soy sauce , sub regular/all-purpose soy (Note 2)
1 1/2 tsp dark soy sauce (Note 2)
1/4 cup rice vinegar (sub regular white vinegar)
3 tbsp (tightly packed) brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp black peppercorns , can omit (Note 3)
5 bay leaves , preferably fresh, dried ok too

Optional pineapple (Note 4):

6 pineapple rings , each cut into 8 pieces, from canned pineapple in juice not syrup, or 2 cups fresh pineapple pieces
2 tsp vegetable oil , or any other neutral flavoured oil

Garnish/serving:

1 green onion , finely sliced
2 batches jasmine rice , or any other rice of choice (garlic rice would be amazing!)

Cups - Metric

Instructions

ABBREVIATED:

Brown pork, remove, sauté onion and garlic, add everything else. Return pork, bring to boil, slow cook 1 1/2 hours until fall-apart. Caramelise pineapple pieces. Remove pork, reduce sauce to 1 1/2 cups (375 ml), stir in pork and caramelised pineapple until warmed. Serve over rice!

FULL RECIPE:

Sear pork - Heat the oil in a large heavy based pot over high heat. Sear half the pork until golden all over - about 4 minutes - then remove into a bowl. Repeat with remaining pork, add to the bowl.
Sauté - Reduce heat to medium. Add the onion, cook for 2 minutes. Add garlic and cook for another minute until the onion is softened.
Braising liquid - Add water, soy sauces, vinegar, sugar, peppercorns and bay leaves. Stir. Add the pork back in, including any juices accumulated in the bowl.
Slow cook 1 1/2 hours - Bring to a boil, then partially cover with a lid (leave a 2cm / 1" crack) and reduce the heat to low/medium low so the liquid is simmering very, very gently. (Note 4) Simmer for 1 1/2 hours or until the pork is fall-apart tender (keep simmering if not tender).
Caramelise pineapple - While pork is simmering, heat the oil in a non-stick pan over medium heat. Spread the pineapple out in one layer and cook each side until golden, about 4 minutes each side (I use spatula + tongs to turn). Remove onto plate until required.
Reduce sauce - Remove pork with a slotted spoon (onion etc doesn't matter when it's in or out). Increase heat to high and boil to reduce the liquid down to 1 1/2 cups - it will be a very thin syrup (it's not supposed to be thick), about 7 to 10 minutes.
Coat pork - Reduce heat to low. Add the pork and pineapple pieces, plus any juices in the bowl. Stir gently to coat in the sauce and warm the pork through again.
Serve over jasmine rice, garnished with green onion if using.

Notes

1. Pork meat - Pork belly is the most common cut used for pork adobo and can be used, but I personally find it a little too fatty in this dish, I prefer shoulder for the same fall-apart-juicy meat but less fatty. Make sure to use the parts of the shoulder ribboned with fat, not the lean fat-free areas. Shank/knuckle or forequarter chop meat also works really well. Poor neck/scotch is excellent too but reduce simmering time to 1 hour (it doesn't need slow cooking as long).

Other proteins - Other stewing cuts will work great, see FAQ for directions. For chicken, see Chicken Adobo.

2. Soy sauces - Light soy provides the salt and a touch of dark soy makes the sauce a beautiful rich dark brown colour. You can substitute the dark soy with more light soy sauce, but don't sub the light soy with dark soy sauce because it is so intense, it will ruin the dish!

3. The peppercorns are a bit spicy when you bite into them, though the spiciness dials down quite a bit during the slow cooking time. Some people are bothered by them, I love them! You can omit if you want, or sub with 1/4 tsp ground black pepper added towards the end.

4. Pineapple isn't strictly traditional - it's possibly a modern variation - though it is included in Filipino recipes. We LOVE the visual interest, and the refreshing and sweet element it adds to balance the salty/sour flavours and fatty meat, so we included it but it's entirely optional.

5. Simmering strength - The bubbles should be small and gentle, not rapid and large. The more gentle the simmer, the slower the pork cooks, the more tender and juicy it is!

6. Slow cooker not recommended for this recipe unfortunately, it will lack flavour as you won't get any surface caramelisation during slow cooking stage.

Leftovers will keep for 4 days in the fridge, or 3 months in the freezer.

Nutrition per serving assuming 5 servings, excluding rice. Assumes all sauce is consumed.

Nutrition