The Happy Home Cook: Pinatisang Manok (Chicken Stewed in Fish Sauce)

The Happy Home Cook features cherished recipes of Filipino dishes from well-known foodies and contributors. If you have a recipe that you are proud of and would like to share, please send it along with a photo of the dish, your two-sentence bio and your picture to submissions@positivelyfilipino.com.

Pinatisang Manok (Source: Kulinarya: A Guidebook to Philippine Cuisine, Expanded Second Edition. (Anvil Publishing Inc., 2013))

Fish sauce, or patis, is rarely used as a main ingredient, making this recipe unusual. Not only must the fish sauce be of top quality, but the chicken must be young, fat and of native breed. Chicken fillets make for better presentation, but a whole chicken is more dramatic.

Serves 6

Ingredients

600 g chicken breast or thigh fillets

1 hard-boiled egg

120 g fresh ginger

5 stems (120 g) fresh chili (sili) leaves

2 tablespoons (30 ml) cooking oil

2 tablespoons (30 ml) fish sauce (patis)

1 cup (240 ml) chicken broth

Preparation

1. Cut the chicken into large cubes.

2. Mash the yolk of the boiled egg and discard the egg white.

3. Peel and cut the ginger into thin strips.

4. Remove the chili leaves from the stems. Wash.

Cooking

1. In a preheated wok, saute ginger strips in oil. Add the chicken pieces and half the fish sauce. Saute over high heat until the chicken pieces are golden in color.

2. Add the chicken broth and bring to a boil.

3. Immediately lower the heat and simmer chicken until tender, at least 20 minutes.

4. Mix a little of the broth into the mashed egg yolk. Add mixture to pot.

5. Before removing from the heat, add the chili leaves. Add the remaining fish sauce if necessary.

Serve immediately.

Serving Suggestion: Place the chicken pieces in a bowl. Pour the sauce with the chili leaves. Serve hot.

Tips

Premium patis, pure fish sauce, or patis puro is preferred. Like first-press olive oil, these are the prime yield, golden amber in color, flavorful and aromatic.

An egg yolk adds color to this dish and gives body to the sauce.

From Kulinarya: A Guidebook to Philippine Cuisine, Expanded Second Edition. (Anvil Publishing Inc., 2013)

---