The Happy Home Cook: Amboy Adobo

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Amboy Adobo (Photo by (c) Wyatt Conlon)

The traditional way of making adobo is super fast and super easy. But, as a young cook, I didn’t like how you would quickly sear chicken and end up with a somewhat tough meat. I didn’t want to stray from what’s traditionally in adobo, but I did want to use a different technique. It wasn’t till I began to master sauces in school and play with French basics that I figured out the answer.

I would start by brining my chicken so it would stay tender, then sear it skin-side down until per-fectly brown. I’d throw in whole garlic cloves and let that simmer until the garlic softened. Then, I deglazed the pan with my homemade chicken stock. I added my Datu Puti soy sauce and cane vinegar and tasted it. If something was missing, I’d throw in a bay leaf or a couple peppercorns.

At that point, the sauce was still very watery, so I used beurre manié, a mixture of butter and flour, to thicken it and add a rich velvety-ness and depth of flavor. Then I basted the seared chicken with the adobo sauce to infuse the two together.

The result is a refined version of an adobo. The chicken skin stays intact and crispy because it is seared. It’s moist in the middle and saucy thanks to the thick adobo sauce. When you eat it with rice, that thick sauce almost becomes a gravy. A thin sauce isn’t bad at all, but this amplified version appeals to me more. It has a rich, super-salty, super-umami flavor. Enjoy it with hot rice!

Ingredients

BRINE

2 gallons water

2 cups kosher salt

2 cups loosely packed dark brown sugar

1 cup fresh calamansi juice (see Note, page 68)

4 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (about 3 pounds total)

4 bone-in, skin-on chicken drumsticks

ADOBO SAUCE

¼ cup canola oil

16 garlic cloves, peeled

3 quarts Homemade Chicken Stock (page 44)

¾ cup Datu Puti cane vinegar (see page 137; available at Asian markets and on Amazon)

½ cup Datu Puti or Silver Swan soy sauce (see page 60; available at Asian markets and on Amazon)

2 bay leaves

3 to 6 tablespoons Beurre Manié (recipe follows)

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

4 cups Steamed Jasmine Rice (page 20), for serving 

Procedure

BRINE THE CHICKEN: Combine the water, salt, brown sugar, and calamansi juice in a large stockpot and bring to a boil over high heat, stirring occasionally. Boil for 3 minutes, then remove from the heat. Let the brine cool to room temperature, then refrigerate until very cold, about 2 hours. Add the chicken to the brine and refrigerate for 8 to 12 hours.

Remove the chicken from the brine and pat dry with paper towels. This is vital: The chicken must be completely dried before we start cooking.

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Excerpted from AMBOY: Recipes from the Filipino-American Dream © 2020 by Alvin Cailan. Photography © 2020 by Wyatt Conlon. Reproduced by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved.

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