Although it has a name taken from the Spanish, the cooking method is indigenous to the Philippines. When the Spanish conquered the Philippines in the late 16th century and early 17th century, they encountered an indigenous cooking process which involved stewing with vinegar, which they then referred to as adobo, which is the Spanish word for seasoning or marinade. Dishes prepared in this manner eventually came to be known by this name, with the original term for the dish now lost to history.
While the adobo dish and cooking process in Filipino cuisine and the general description adobo in Spanish cuisine share similar characteristics, they refer to different things with different cultural roots. While the Philippine adobo dish can be considered adobo in the Spanish sense—a marinated dish—the Philippine usage is much more specific. Typically, pork or chicken, or a combination of both, is slowly cooked in vinegar, crushed garlic, bay leaf, black peppercorns, and soy sauce then often browned in the oven or pan-fried afterward to get the desirable crisped edges.
Adobo has been called the quintessential Philippine stew, served with rice both at daily meals and at feasts. It is commonly packed for Filipino mountaineers and travelers because it keeps well without refrigeration. Its relatively long shelf-life is due to one of its primary ingredients, vinegar, which inhibits the growth of bacteria.
Outside of the home-cooked dish, the essence of adobo has been developed commercially and adapted to other foods. A number of successful local Philippine snack products usually mark their items "adobo flavored." This assortment includes, but is not limited to nuts, chips, noodle soups, and corn crackers.
Filipino Chicken Adobo
Ingredients
o 1 (3 1/2 lb) whole chickens ( one whole chicken or just legs and thighs )
o 2 cinnamon sticks
o 3 tablespoons peppercorns ( can adjust if desired)
o 6 garlic cloves, crushed ( adjust to taste )
o 2 bay leaves
o 1 cup soy sauce
o 1 cup distilled white vinegar or 1 cup rice vinegar or 1 cup coconut vinegar
o 3/4 cup white sugar
o 2 cups water
Directions
1. Place the liquid ingredients in a pot, starting with about half the amount of sugar. Taste and adjust the seasonings, the vinegar flavor will lessen during cooking, but if it is too sweet or too tart it's easier to adjust the sugar now than trying to adjust the other flavors at the end of the cooking to your preference.
2. Add the cinnamon stick, peppercorns, garlic, bay leaves and chicken. If you don't want the seasonings in the final dish you can wrap them up in cheesecloth, but usually they're all left loose. Pack the chicken fairly tightly in the pot and if the chicken is not covered in liquid add water, often I add about 2 cups of water. The water can also help make the flavor less intense if the vinegar is too strong.
3. Simmer on medium low for about 1 hour, or until the chicken is cooked through. I often leave it until the chicken is pretty much falling off the bones. Add water if you would like to thin out the sauce during cooking. This can also be done in a slow cooker that you start in the morning and leave on low for 6 hours. The meat will fall off the bone, but that just makes it easier to get at it all!
4. Serve over rice with the sauce. One other addition, though not traditional is red pepper flakes (about 1 tsp) to the seasonings.
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