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!!
Made this last night . I didn’t add the water. As soon as I added the chicken to sear, I could see there was already a lot of water released from the chicken so the chicken didn’t really sear. The sauce reduced easily enough but I didn’t get a consistant sticky sauce as I would have liked. It was lovely though. The parts of the sauce which was sticky was great. Overall it didn’t quite darken to what Nagi’s looked like. Made with plain rice and smashed cucumbers on the side. Will make again.
Can I use a crock pot for this recipe?
So, this didn’t happen: “If the sauce isn’t thick enough, remove chicken onto a plate and let the sauce simmer by itself – it will thicken much quicker.”
It was still good, but not what I expected. It’s chicken with gravy. I love Nagi’s cooking, but this ain’t it.
Wow. Just wow. My first time making chicken adobo (my former neighbor used to make it for us) and I got it right on the first try. It’s on regular rotation now as the whole family loves it! Thank you so much for sharing!
…no issue here. Kept an eye on the whole process. Kept to the suggested amounts. kicked it little as it was getting to closing time. Delicious. The ginger cucumber salad outofthisworld <3 cheers, another brick in the wall x
Followed this recipe to a T and OMG what a flavor bomb. The chicken was soooo flavorful and reminded me of my friend’s mom adobo chicken. This will definitely be added to my dinner rotation. Nagi, I am 2 for 2 on your recipes. Can’t wait to try the next recipe. Thank you!!!
Followed this recipe to a T and OMG what a flavor bomb. The chicken was soooo flavorful and reminded me of my friend’s mom adobo chicken. This will definitely be added to my dinner rotation. Nagi, I am 2 for 2 on your recipes. Can’t wait to try the next. Thank you!!!
Made this tonight for the fam. Even both toddlers DEVOURED it and that’s saying something!! Thank you Nagi! Just received your cook book in the mail this last week but was searching your site for something with chicken thighs… so glad I did! This is the 1st of MANY recipes for me! Thank you for making this busy moms life simple and DELICIOUS! -:)
I am cooking this right now. Waiting on the sauce to reduce. Tasting so far has been out of this world! Really looking forward to this!
Kapow!
I’m very limited to what I can eat, and this is my go to. Easy and delicious. I’ve been using fillets, but today I’m going to try slivered because that’s all I have. Fingers crossed it will come out just as good.
The adobo was delicious, a friend had cooked it and told me to give it a try and google led me to this site. The recipe instructions were really easy to follow. I do agree with the other comments, the sauce took a little longer to reduce, however after I took the chicken out, it went really quickly!! We cannot wait to have this recipe again.
It was good but I dont understand the absolute hype. 4 stars for being a decent meal and cost effective. Maybe there’s some tweaks to bring it up a notch but other than being a exactly that – decent and cost effective i don’t get the rave.
That being said following the recipe I had no problem getting the sauce to reduce to a jam, but I did use a little less water than said to begin with (i used bone in skin on). As a matter of fact at the end I had to reconstituted with a little bit of water because because it gor too dense. No biggie.
I just made and had this for dinner. It’s been several years since I had Adobo and wanted to try my hand at it. I followed the directions exactly, except for one change and wanted to mention that change for those who made read this later. I’m not sure if it’s a typo or not, but when I originally read the recipe, I thought it said 1 tsp of pepper. So when I saw that it was actually 1 tbsp, I was really surprised. I’ve never cooked a dish that required 1 tbsp of pepper… So I cut it in half to 1/2 tbsp. Even cutting it in half, it was way too much pepper for my taste. Overall the taste was very good, except for the pepper. I will make this again, but will cut it down to either 1 or 1/2 tsp pepper.
Alex, you goose! It’s peppercorns you need, not ground pepper. They’re the bomb. Have another stab xx
asa Filipino, this is my favorite adobo recipe. I combine chicken thighs fillet and pork belly and add fried potatoes and boiled egg. potatoes and boiled egg thicken the sauce over time. Meaning if I cook a lot of adobo, by tomorrow if I reheat it, it will be more flavorful with added potatoes and egg and thcken sauce with sugar. Your recipe for me is classic!
Followed the recipe to the letter. I thought I would have enough for three portions, but it was so tasty that i ended up eating half and freezing the other half.
Made this recipe and changed 2 things 1 purposely one by mistake. First I substituted hot chili oil for the vegetable oil to bring some heat. Then I accidentally cooked the 25 minutes with the top on so sauce didn’t reduce. But… it was delicious. Will definitely make again next time top off 😆. Served with jasmine rice and a side of sauted zuchinni. 😋
Delicious! Sauce took longer to reduce, but worth persevering!
So very tasty. I have made this several times. I have made so many of yr delicious recipes. I thought it was about time i left you a thank you.
Thank you for making me look fabulous. I appreciate and love yr work
Hey Nagi,
MOTH & I just returned from the Philipinnes and we very much enjoyed pork & chicken adobo.
I was speaking to a chef over there and I just had to bring home Banana Ketchup. It’s absolutely delish and can be used to marinade soooo much protein.
I’ve brought back so many cooking ideas, so excited to experiment.
I’m a fan of Nagi’s recipes and return to this site over and over. This was my first time to try a Filipino chicken adobo, I researched several sites and finally landed on Nagi’s version and it was a hit for a big family Birthday dinner. I used the suggested Filipino cane vinegar( Datu Puti) and soy sauce , served it along with Jasmine rice I paired it with a Tiger salad and it was a perfect compliment to the adobo. Thanks Nagi for another great recipe
I’m a fan of Nagi’s recipes and return to this site over and over. This was my first time to try a Filipino chicken adobo, I researched several sites and finally landed on Nagi’s version and it was a hit for a big family Birthday dinner. Along with Jasmine rice I paired it with a Tiger salad and it was a perfect compliment to the adobo. Thanks Nagi for another great recipe