Adobo
Chicken or pork braised in vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, bay and black pepper until the sauce is dark and glossy.
What makes it adobo
- Vinegar, braised in until the sharpness mellows.
- Plenty of garlic, bay leaves and whole black peppercorns.
- Sauce reduced until it clings; often browned in its own fat at the end.
Where it comes from
Cooking meat in vinegar to keep it in the heat is older than the Spanish in the islands. Adobo is their word — for a marinade — which they gave to the local dish; what it was called before isn't known for sure. Soy sauce came later, from Chinese cooks, and most versions now have it.
It's often called the national dish, though there's no single recipe: every household, and every region, makes its own, and it keeps for days and is said to taste better on the second.
How it varies
- Adobong puti
- White adobo: vinegar and salt, no soy.
- Adobo sa gata
- Finished with coconut milk, as in the south of Luzon.
- Adobong pusit
- Squid, cooked in its own ink.
- Adobong kangkong
- Water spinach, done the same way.
Be the first here
Start your own adoboNo one here has made adobo yet. Start it as v1, and every version after is an experiment the next cook can learn from.
Near it
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MexicanCochinita pibilPork marinated in achiote and bitter orange, wrapped in banana leaves and slow-cooked until it falls apart.No one here has made it yet