Adobong Manok Sa Gata

The best Filipino dishes are the ones that do not have written recipes. It's the type that is drawn from the memory of all those wonderful meals shared together by the family or from watching your mom or your grandmother make that particular dish. My Mom's chicken adobo in coconut milk is a great example of that dish. It is simple but soul satisfying. It nourishes the body and warms the heart. Back in the Philippines, when I was going to university, I would always ask my Mom to make this for me every time I come home for a visit during the semestral breaks or as a parting meal before I return to the city. This recipe brings back a lot of happy memories and has been a great source of comfort whenever I feel homesick now that I am in Canada.

The chicken is normally a free-range native hen or rooster caught a few hours before cooking and the other ingredients are picked right from the backyard. This recipe is as close to the original as possible and so the cooking time is suited to the tough meat of a mature free-range chicken. My mom slow-cooks this on charcoal fired stove for approximately 4 hours, I imagine it will work well on a slow cooker. Most modern Western groceries will be able to provide you with coconut milk, kaffir lime leaves, papaya and lemon grass. Free range chicken can be ordered and bought from the local farmer’s market.

Main Ingredients

1½ lbs free-range chicken, cut in 8 portions
2 stalks of lemongrass, trimmed, pounded and tied in a neat bundle
thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled and julienned
1 medium red onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 kalamansi or kaffir lime leaves
¼ cup of white vinegar
salt and freshly ground black pepper
800 ml thick coconut milk (canned or fresh, see section)
2 lady finger chillies
1 lb green papaya, peeled, seeded, properly cleaned and sliced to bite-sized pieces (proper cleaning of unripe papaya requires lightly squeezing the slices in rock salt to remove the bitterness)

Pressing freshly grated coconut

Grate 2 big mature coconuts, discard the shells. Press the grated white meat first with ½ cup of hot water, strain the coconut milk and reserve. Do not throw the coconut meat yet. Press the white meat again this time with 3 cups of lukewarm water, strain and reserve the liquid and discard the pressed coconut.

In a large pot, saute ginger, garlic and lemongrass in oil.

Add the chicken pieces, season with salt, vinegar, kalamansi or kaffir lime leaves and a generous pinch of freshly cracked black pepper. Cover and cook for 15 minutes or until all the liquid has evaporated and the chicken pieces are browned.

Add 500 ml of coconut milk. Stir constantly to avoid curdling. Cover and cook in low heat. Check occasionally to make sure there is enough liquid to soften the chicken. Let half of the liquid evaporate then add the green papaya and lady finger chillies.

When the papaya is half-cooked, add the remaining 300 ml of coconut milk, again stir in the first 10 minutes to avoid curdling. Simmer for another 20 minutes or until half of the liquid has evaporated and the chicken pieces are falling off the bones.

Serve with lots of steamed rice.