Easy Chicken Adobo Recipe Filipino Style (2024)

This chicken Adobo recipe is a popular Filipino tangy dish that is amazingly easy to cook and has few ingredients. It is a chicken recipe that is cooked in its own marinade.

The taste is bursting with flavor which is a combination of sweet, salty, and pungent sauce that seeps through the chicken meat. This a uniquely versatile recipe that you can cook either on the stovetop or in an instant pot, and can also be baked in the oven or slow-cooked in a crockpot.

The term Adobo means to marinate with vinegar as the primary ingredient. This is commonly how Pinoys prepare their food to keep the shelf life of food in the Philippines. In fact, Filipino adobo does not end only with chicken meat. You can use pork, beef, seafood, and even vegetables and fruits.

The ingredients for adobo are common in your pantries like chicken, soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, black pepper, and brown sugar with the exception maybe of dried bay leaves.

With these ingredients, expect a well-seasoned chicken adobo recipe. Pair it with steamed rice or garlic rice or your favorite side dishes and you’ll have a super delicious meal.

The chicken part that is best with this chicken adobo recipe are thighs, wings, and drumsticks, especially with skin on and bone in.

Cooking chicken adobo is done in so many ways, but one crucial process is marinating. Be sure to marinate the chicken for at least an hour or so and marinating it overnight in the fridge is best.

Ingredients

Though chicken adobo is the easiest recipe in Filipino cuisine, finding the right balance of sweet, tangy, and salty is important. Put too much vinegar, and it will become sour, or with too much soy sauce, it will be salty. You just need to find the right balance depending on the ingredients you are going to use.

You can find chicken adobo seasoning in Asian stores but they are just full of sodium.

Chicken. The thigh is preferable but you can use any part of the chicken provided that the skin is on and the bone is in.

Vinegar. Any vinegar is fine – cider, cane, white, or coconut vinegar. I prefer apple cider vinegar because of its sweet tang.

Soy Sauce. For this particular recipe, I used Maggi soy sauce. Go to any Asian store and find lots of soy sauce brands. Kikkoman is fine as well, either the regular one or the sodium.

Garlic. Liberal amounts of garlic are ideal. You can also use garlic cloves that are pressed or whole. Put garlic generously if desired.

Pepper. Add ground black pepper or peppercorn for a peppery taste.

Dried Bay Leaves. When I first moved here to the US, I was not able to find any dried bay leaves but finally, grocery outlets carry them. The aroma of the bay leaves is what makes the adobo authentic. But you can do without them.

Brown Sugar. The brown sugar will help you balance the taste. It’ll also add a rich dark brown color to the chicken adobo sauce. Granulated sugar works well too.

Oil. For browning/searing the chicken.

Chili Flakes. I put chili flakes for added punch in the taste, you may also use fresh green chili peppers.

How to Cook Filipino Chicken Adobo

Marinating

A highly recommended step to making adobo is marinating the chicken for at least 1 hour for the chicken to be tasteful. But you can totally skip this step if you don't have enough time.

In a bowl, combine equal parts of vinegar, and soy sauce. Add brown sugar.

You can taste the mixture for balance. This is optional but I do this all the time because each brand of vinegar and soy sauce has different levels of sourness and saltiness, respectively.

With this method, you can adjust the ingredients if necessary that suit your palate. Add minced garlic, bay leaves, and peppercorn. Pour the mixture into the chicken. Refrigerate for an hour or more. Overnight is best.

Frying and Simmering

The next step is frying and simmering. Remove the chicken from the marinade, do not throw the marinade, set it aside. You will use it to simmer the chicken.

Lightly fry all sides of the chicken until brownish using a little oil. Do not put too much oil because the chicken’s skin produces lots of oil.

Pour the marinade mixture into the chicken and let it simmer for 30-40 minutes until it turns glaze-like. Make sure to flip the chicken occasionally.

If you want more sauce in your chicken, do not try to reduce the sauce until thick. You can actually add cornstarch to make the sauce thick.

For simmering the chicken, you can either let it simmer in a pan you used to fry on the stovetop using low-medium fire, baked it in the oven, slow-cooked in a crockpot, or pressure-cooked in an instant pot.

Oven-Baked

If baking in the oven, preheat the oven to 375F. After browning the chicken in a pan, transfer the chicken to a baking dish skin down. Pour the chicken adobo marinade mixture. After 20 minutes, flip the chicken and bake for another 20 minutes.

Instant Pot

For pressure cookers or instant pots, fry the chicken in an instant pot until brown. Pour in the mixture and set to high pressure, cook for 8 minutes. Follow the quick release steps as per your manufacturer. Set to sauté mode for 20 minutes until the sauce becomes syrupy thick.

Slow Cooker

For slow cookers or crockpots, fry in the pan to brown then transfer the chicken and the marinade mixture to the slow cooker. Set to high for 4 hours or 7-8 hours for low and medium cooking.

Garnishes, Sides, and Add-ons

Adobo is a flexible recipe. You can put sides and extenders on it. You may also combine other meat with the chicken like pork and chicken liver.

For beautiful-looking adobo, you can garnish it with scallions, freshly sliced Thai chili pepper or chili flakes, or white sesame seeds.

Some sides and extenders that can go with adobo are fried/roasted potatoes, air-fried Brussels sprouts, caramelized onions, steamed broccoli, pineapple, boiled eggs, and kimchi.

I just recently tried kimchi with my chicken adobo, and it was perfect! So surprisingly good together with steamed rice.

Another add-ons that you may try is by adding ginger. One ingredient I have not tried with my adobo is adding coconut milk. If you tried cooking chicken adobo with coconut milk, let me know in the comments.

Storage: What to do with left-over Adobo?

I tell you, one-day-old adobo is the best tasting of all because the chicken is marinated for a longer period of time.

If you have leftover adobo, you can shred the chicken meat and add it to another dish. What I usually do is shred the chicken and sauté it with garlic until crispy then sprinkle it on top of my rice porridge.

Another delicious way to do with left-over adobo is to make shredded chicken as your meat base for tacos or fried rice!

You might also like my other chicken recipes and low-carb recipes:

• Baked Chicken Wings in BBQ sauce and Honey!

• Creamy Chicken Mushroom with Garlic, Parmesan, and Spinach!