Baked Spicy Lemon Adobo and My Journey to Prepare Filipino Food

I learned how to cook after reading The Four Hour Chef by Tim Ferriss, I learned more dishes by reading a book on Greek Cuisine, Watching Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay.

Over time people at work are asking me to bring extra food at the office and offered to pay me for the cost. Today I deliver salad, cookies and cheesecake to people at work. My interest level in cooking had increased that I now considered making money selling food. As you’ve seen my influences are not local so I still don’t know how to make Filipino food and recently my dad encouraged me to try it out.

How to Make Adobo:

Ingredients:

• Chicken Slices
• Pepper
• Vinegar
• Soy Sauce
• Oil
• Garlic

Shorthand: Fry chicken until skin is browned, remove chicken, mix crushed, chopped garlic into the oil when about to turn golden brown mix in equal parts of soy sauce and vinegar simmer covered for 15 minutes or until well done.

Preparation:

1. Crush and chop garlic
2. Fry the chicken until skin is golden brown
3. Remove Chicken

Pick Up:

1. Saute garlic until golden brown.
2. Add equal parts soy sauce and vinegar then add the chicken and black pepper
3. Simmer covered for 15 minutes or until cooked.

It was so easy I couldn’t believe the end result was delicious. I enjoyed every bit of chicken

Variation: Baked Spicy Lemon Adobo Here’s how I think Jamie Oliver or Gordon Ramsey will do the dish.

Ingredients:

• Chicken Slices
• Pepper whole cracked
• Red Chili finely sliced, seeded
• Lemon Juice instead of Vinegar
• Soy Sauce (I used 100ml)
• Grapeseed/Extra Virgin Olive Oil (3-4 tbsp)
• Butter (one knob)
• Garlic (four cloves)

Prep:

1. Crush and slice garlic.
2. Seed your and finely chop your red chili
3. Fry the chicken skin side down until golden brown then remove from pan
4. Preheat the oven to 180c

Pickup:

1. Saute the garlic and chili then add a knob of butter
2. Add soy sauce and lemon juice. In the traditional version we use one is to one for soy sauce and vinegar, I tried this with the lemon and found it a bit strong so I’m using one part lemon two parts soy sauce in the future.
3. Add the chicken skin side up and finish in the oven for 30 minutes.

The difference in this approach is you end up having the beautiful crispy skin on the chicken and the moist meat.

Note: Use a pan that is all metal so you can finish it in the oven.

Enjoy.

Written on March 18th, 2014 by Kevin Olega