Muffin Top

chicken adobo
Originally uploaded by c(h)ristine.

This week, I was able to close my freezer door without shoving the weight of my body against it. Yay! Aside from keeping a sealed subzero environment with ease, this now means I am now “allowing” myself to buy fresh meat again. And that I can now eat chicken instead of all that frozen beef!

So what’s on my list? Chicken adobo, of course! Melanie my friend and another writer on this blog gave me her mother’s adobo recipe, and I’ve been dying to try it.

It’s not like I hadn’t eaten adobo before, but having grown up on my Korean mother’s chicken adobo, I was curious as to the authenticity of the adobo of my childhood. In our Korean household, my brother and I referred to my mother’s chicken adobo as “yummy chicken” (moniker is self-explanatory). She herself had discovered “yummy chicken” from her FIlipino nurse coworkers during one of the many shared lunches.

The stuff was sour, it was sweet, it was salty, and it was savory. Everything except bitter (well, unless you bit into a whole peppercorn). It’s a dish that satisfies all the tastebuds on your tongue! My mother’s chicken adobo had onions, potatoes, and carrots in addition to the chicken and other traditional ingredients (vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, garlic, bay leaves, and peppercorns).

And Melanie’s mom’s recipe? It was delicious. I added the carrots, because I can’t help putting my own personal stamp on recipes. With a big pile of rice, it brought me back to my childhood. “Yummy chicken” indeed. And call me a bit weird, but I like cutting up a whole chicken. (it tastes better with a whole chicken, because of the bones).

p.s. Melanie gave her mother’s recipe to a coworker of ours. He made and said, “The soy sauce is so salty.” Don’t drink the sauce, dude. You want to eat it with a big mound of white sticky rice which offsets the rich sauce. But focus on the chicken. It’s the (ahem) shiznit.

Sorry no recipe here–it’s a secret recipe…but google “chicken adobo recipe” and you’ll be rewarded.