Sharing the latest story on why Filipino adobo is cooked in a single pot...
Months after this story came out, New York Times Food Editor Sam Sifton and his team concocted their own version of Adobo Fried Chicken:
"This chicken is simmered in an adobo broth of vinegar, bay leaves, sugar and soy sauce for 15 minutes, giving the meat a strong foundation in the Philippines before it is dunked in buttermilk, then breaded and fried."
The Philippine Daily Inquirer featured the story "Evaluating Sam Sifton's chicken adobo recipe" in the Sunday Edition of the Global Pinoy page dated 28 February 2016.
Cooking a Filipino adobo version, with four common ingredients: soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, pepper. Other ingredients are added according to individual taste.
A valid question, on the previous story about Sam Sifton's NYT chicken adobo recipe, was raised. How many of the adobo recipes in the book contained the five ingredients that I mentioned, namely: soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, pepper, and bay leaf?
I found around 34 recipes that included these five ingredients. However, when I removed the bay leaf component, I was able to find approximately 70 recipes with four basic ingredients of soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, and pepper.
As said earlier, there were other recipes that excluded the use of soy sauce. Sugar is debatable but appears to be a fairly common ingredient.
Amy Besa's chicken adobo recipe included the five ingredients I mentioned. However, the addition of coconut milk and chilies may not be commonly used in Philippine homes, as shown by earlier statistics.
The above number tells me that many Filipino homes use the four basic ingredients. Other ingredients are added to these four elements, tailored to individual tastes.
Thus, a basic adobo recipe, using the four ingredients, may look something like this: 1 kilo chicken thighs 1/2 cup soy sauce 1/2 cup vinegar 1 head garlic, crushed 1/2 tsp peppercorns oil for frying Sugar is optional but it is a fairly common ingredient. Water is sometimes added depending on the taste and color desired. Ingredients can be marinated for a few hours but some cooks skip that procedure. Adobo improves its flavors after cooking. It usually tastes better one or two days after it has been cooked. (The basic adobo ages well, even beyond two days, but requires further kitchen testing in order to ascertain its optimum time in the ref.) Brown the chicken pieces in oil then add crushed garlic. Add the soy sauce then the vinegar. Water can be added to adjust consistency. Braise the chicken for about 30 to 45 minutes until the sauce is reduced. At this point, taste the sauce and decide whether to add sugar. Then boil for another 15 minutes until meat is done and desired sauce consistency is reached. You may improve the chicken color by browning the meat separately from the sauce. However, some cooks don't do that anymore. After cooking, let the chicken meat sit and absorb the sauce. In some homes, the cooked adobo is served one to two days after (food is stored in refrigerator then re-heated on the pan). Note: as mentioned earlier, there is no established universal adobo recipe. However the above basic recipe hopes to capture the typical ingredients in Filipino households. ADDITIONAL INFO: Many years ago, I wrote a news feature "Promoting Filipino cuisine as a top brand" for the Philippine Daily Inquirer and the article was eventually syndicated to other international sites. In the story, I wrote this idea: "Tourism efforts include the promotion of the country's cuisine and Filipino food forms an integral part of the national identity. Thus, there appears a need to develop more objective ways of defining the cuisine, perhaps some kind of standardization or classification that is typical in other countries. It may be worth looking into the possibility of synthesizing all the regional flavors into a collective brand or promoting each region uniquely -- in a manner that visitors or international gourmets can taste, recognise and appreciate as well." Adobo, that is considered a national dish, must define itself in a way that can be recognized by the majority of Filipinos. The recipe should also represent the taste preferences of Filipinos, in general. Before we can even promote the cuisine to other countries, Filipinos must first be able to find a collective identity through this versatile and sometimes controversial dish.  |
| "The Adobo Book" includes 155 adobo recipes from various contributors around the Philippines. |
Evaluating Sam Sifton’s NYT chicken adobo recipe
Given the interest in my recent story about Amy Besa’s chicken adobo recipe that was featured by Sam Sifton in the New York Times, I decided to delve deeper into the question of what constitutes a traditional adobo recipe.
http://joyposadaswrites.blogspot.com/2015/11/amy-besas-chicken-adobo-recipe-in-my.html
Amy Besa’s chicken adobo recipe that called for coconut milk and three whole fiery chilies leaves a big question mark on the minds of traditional Filipino adobo fanatics who are used to a completely different version.
In my own experience having lived in the Philippines most of my life, I would define the traditional adobo as composed of a few basic ingredients, namely, soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, peppercorns, and bay leaf (this is my own definition but a more basic recipe excludes soy sauce). Coconut milk added to adobo is alien to this author, although she is aware it is used in some provinces. The use of red chilies is not the usual fare for the Filipino palate. Local Filipinos tend to be averse to very spicy food and have a sweet palate.
In order to prove this theory, I decided to look into the numerous versions of adobo recipes in the country, with the hope of coming up with a common thread. Fortunately, there is one book titled “The Adobo Book” by Reynaldo Gamboa Alejandro and Nancy Reyes – Lumen (calls herself the Adobo Queen) that already compiled all these versions.
Lumen says, “But, since it is a national endeavor, expect a nation to come up with at least 500 “official” versions of the adobo recipe…If we could come up with a universally accepted adobo recipe then we can entice other cuisines to try it and by that, look us up in the atlas...Till we achieve this, our adobo will remain “almost famous.”
Methodology
Although it may not be possible to come up with a universal recipe, it is probably achievable to get an idea of what is the more traditional or commonly used recipe in the Philippines. This will provide future researchers with a clearer starting point.
Thus, in order to evaluate the recipe provided by Sam Sifton and Amy Besa, I counted all the recipes in the book that were cooked 1) with or without coconut milk and 2) with or without chilies, 3) with or without sugar.
Findings
Out of 155 contributed recipes in “The Adobo Book,” only around 11 recipes asked for coconut milk and only about 6 recipes included chilies. On the other hand, about 33 recipes suggested the use of sugar.
Conclusion
Given the above findings, the recipe provided by the New York Times’ Sam Sifton shouldn’t be considered the most common or traditional recipe to be found in the homes of Filipinos living in the Philippines. Amy Besa’s recipe represents one version but is not the most typical recipe available.
Of course, this report does not include an evaluation of the taste value of Besa’s recipe. It is an aspect that is subjective.
“The Adobo Book” featured a recipe from Enriqueta David-Perez’s “Recipes of the Philippines” cookbook first published in 1953 and went on to its 19th printing by 1973. The recipe called for vinegar (no soy sauce) garlic, pepper, bay leaf. It did not ask for coconut milk or chilies.
It is worth noting, however, that many current versions of adobo already include soy sauce in the mix.
POSTSCRIPT
The earlier chicken adobo experiment using Amy Besa's NYT recipe can be found here:
http://joyposadaswrites.blogspot.com/2015/11/amy-besas-chicken-adobo-recipe-in-my.html
