Here's a recipe where I tread carefully. I'm Filipino-Spanish by blood, and for the Filipino culture--a culture whose culinary heritage is as rich and diverse as the people and dialects within its archipelago, cooking Adobo is practically a rite of passage. And depending on which region or which one of the over-7,000 islands that make up the Philippines you're in, the version will vary. Some use coconut milk, some will have the juice of the local lemon (called calamansi), others may shred the meat and fry them up as adobo flakes, while others opt to make the dry, less-saucy version. There's a sort of inside joke that suggests if you can't cook adobo, then maybe you're not truly Filipino. I have never cooked adobo. Never knew how to. My mom makes the best adobo I have ever had--hands down. I don't know why I never did try to learn how to back when I was living with my parents in my younger days. But today, armed with a tentative confidence thanks to my new kitchen toy--the Instant Pot, I attempted (and succeeded!) in accomplishing this rite of passage. All while tens of thousands of miles away from home. *Cue sentimental music and dream sequence.*
While my 7-year old is Filipino-British by blood, thinks and speaks in American English, his all-time favourite food is the adobo (thanks to my mom's cooking). So the litmus test isn't just that my all-American other half likes it, it's that my very frank and straightforward little boy raves about it. Mission: accomplished.
INGREDIENTS:
2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thigh fillets
1/2 cup low-sodium soy sauce (or better yet, use coconut aminos to make it truly keto)
1/3 cup white vinegar
1 white onion, sliced thinly
5 cloves of garlic, minced
3 bay leaves
juice of half a lemon
2 Tbs olive oil (I use Avocado oil)
1/4 tsp cayenne (skip this part if you don't like it spicy)
salt and fresh-ground black pepper
DIRECTIONS:
Make sure your chicken thighs have been seasoned with salt and pepper on both sides.
Select SAUTE mode on your Instant Pot--this will give you medium heat. When the display reads "HOT," add the olive oil to coat the bottom of the pot. Add just enough chicken thighs to fit in the pot and cook for a few minutes on each side until you get some colour. About 2 minutes per side should be good. Transfer the thighs to another plate and repeat the process with the remaining chicken thighs and then turn off the SAUTE mode by pressing "Keep Warm/Cancel."
Add the soy sauce, lemon juice, vinegar, garlic, onions, and cayenne. Stir together well and scrape up the brown bits of chicken that have gotten stuck to the bottom of the pan. Now place all chicken thigh fillets back into the pot, as snugly as possible on top of the onions. Place the bay leaves over the chicken thighs and close the lid of your Instant Pot. Cook at high pressure for 10 minutes (double check the the steam release handle is on the "sealed" setting). When the cooking time is over, do a manual quick release to make sure all the steam and pressure have escaped before you open the lid.
Uncover the pot and turn on SAUTE mode. Boil it for about 12-15 minutes--depending on how much sauce you want left in your adobo. If you like it thick, you can boil it for a little bit longer (say 18 minutes). Boil it for about only 10 minutes if you prefer it more runny and watery. Typically, we don't remove the bay leaves because when you store leftovers in the fridge, adobo continues to soak up flavours of the bay leaves. The longer you keep the adobo, the better it actually tastes.
This is heavenly served with a side of hot, freshly-cooked rice. But because we are on keto, we used our household favourite Better Than Rice substitute for a virtually zero-carb lunch. You can buy Better Than Rice by clicking here.
My neighbour, Joyce, dropped by to give us some crab dip she made and asked what I was cooking because, and in her own words, "whatever it is you're cooking, it smells amazing!" I traded her crab dip with some of my adobo--don't you just love being part of a community? Nothing as neighbourly as swapping recipes and trading goods. Haha! Anyway, she has never had Filipino food before, so I'm really glad she enjoyed it and found it delicious.
370 calories
37g Protein
4g net Carbs (from the onions and side veggies)
21g Fat