It's a Filipino classic, chicken adobo.
So you start with a big old Dutch oven
and brown up two pieces of chicken, per adult portion.
Okay, so if you're entertaining, six people do 12 pieces.
If you're entertaining four people
or cooking dinner for four, you need eight pieces.
You brown that in some olive oil
in the bottom of your Dutch oven until it's nice
and crispy on both sides.
Now it's gonna get spicy and good.
Now we're going to add just a drizzle more oil,
'cause I barely got any drippings out of that chicken.
The first level of heat
is coarse black pepper, two tablespoons.
Don't be cheap on the black pepper.
It's essential in the dish.
So I'm just eyeballing it as I drop it into the pot.
Coarse black pepper.
We're going to reserve half of the chilies
to put on top of the dish.
And we're going to add half to the pot.
Couple of literally bulbs of crushed garlic.
They're gonna get really sweet and mellow in the sauce.
Lots of fresh bay, fresh bay, or laurel,
has a really floral, lovely aroma to it.
You can use dry, but I always prefer fresh,
especially for this dish because you're using so much of it.
Give that a stir,
and it will clear out your sinuses by the by.
So keep your head back a little bit from the pot
and then a large bunch of scallions
or green onions when they're in season.
And we put the whites in the pot and reserve the tops
or the greens for when the dish is done.
Another reason to keep your head back from the pot.
Now we're gonna add three quarters of a cup of vinegar.
That's about six turns of the pan.
That will also clear your sinuses out so back it up.
And then we're gonna put in about the exact same amount
of soy or I'm using tamari, aged soy sauce.
Okay.
And then we're going to sweeten it up
with about two tablespoons of light brown sugar,
a nice coating over the top.
Oh my God, it smells so good.
And now we're going to drop the heat way down
and let the chicken cook to finish through.
And all of its natural juices will come out
into that tangy spicy sauce.
We're gonna leave this covered and simmering
for about 35 minutes.
Then we're gonna remove our chicken
and thicken our sauce up a bit to glaze the chicken, okay.
So lid on, heat way down.
Garlic rice is a really big deal in Filipino cooking
so we're going to take another whole bulb of garlic,
crush it and throw it into chicken stock.
We're gonna cook our rice and chicken stock
rather than in water so that it has extra flavor.
It's up to a boil.
Now we're gonna reduce to simmer
and I'm going to add coriander seed,
another big flavor and Filipino cooking.
And when the rice is done,
we're gonna fluff it and add toasted sesame seed,
which should give it a really nutty flavor as well.
Lid on, you know the drill here,
reduce the heat and let that cook up about 15 minutes.
Turn it off, let it stand five minutes more.
For our chicken that's just been gently simmering,
we're gonna take it back out
and then we're gonna turn the heat up
because now we have all the juice from the chicken itself.
We're gonna thicken this up.
So it glazes our cooked chicken.
I fished out the five fresh bay leaves from our adobo sauce
for our chicken.
Meanwhile, I cooked rice.
Now I'm gonna finish with a nice fat sprinkle
of toasted sesame, gives it a great extra crunch.
And anything that adds texture and flavor, I say, go for it.
So we've got toasted seed, sesame and coriander,
lots of garlic and pour that sauce down over our chicken.
(audience clapping)
And then we're gonna top the chicken with our jalapenos,
our green onions, a little cilantro or parsley.
I used cilantro
'cause we used the coriander seed in the rice.
Nice.
(people cheering)
What?
(chimes tinkling) (audience clapping)