How to Make Chicken and Pork Adobo

Now my kids call me to ask for recipes of stuff I used to make when they lived at home. In some way I feel that I have reached some great milestone in life, and I am passing on the torch, or more specifically, a revered family secret.... my recipe for chicken and pork adobo.

Miguel, my oldest son, was the origin of this request. Every so often he fancies himself the family chef. He watches Alton Brown on Food TV and decides that if he approaches cooking from a science and chemistry perspective, it is a manly enough endeavor. One year, he decided to brine the thanksgiving turkey. He went through every pot, pan, bucket, and tub we had in the house mixing solutions and then getting a 20 pound bird to soak in it.

So here, Miguel, is how you make chicken and pork adobo. First of all, you get some chicken. Now I could never deal with cutting up an entire chicken and the pre-cut ones always had these extra "parts" that I was never sure of, not to mention all these little chicken bone chards and chips that come with mass chopped chickens. Thus, I would just buy legs and thighs. They come in nice packages of 6 so its all very balanced.

Now you get the pork. In the Philippines, where this dish originates, pork fat is plentiful and cheap. Over there, the problem is trying to find some meat to go with the fat. In the U. S. we have the opposite problem, trying to find some fat to go with the meat. A safe bet is boneless pork spare ribs. Cut these up into one inch cubes (smaller cooks faster). Try to make sure each cube has some fat in it. This is the joyful part of the pork in the adobo. The grease from the fat has round molecules so they just burst with flavor as they roll around your taste buds.

Find a large enough pot and put the chicken and pork pieces in it. Now add about a half cup of soy sauce and a half cup of apple cider vinegar. Make sure all the meat is in the liquid, add more if you need it. Figure out if you prefer a soy saucy taste or a vinegary taste and add accordingly. Get a jar of minced garlic and add a teaspoon or two of it to the mixture. If you decide to use real garlic, you will need a whole head. This will be very messy and the smell of garlic will stick to your fingers for days. None of the helpful hints to remove the smell will work.

Add a little salt and a lot of black pepper. Once, one of our cooks asked me to get her a list of ingredients at the grocery. I couldn't figure out what she was going to make with black paper.... It is best if you have a grinder and can coarsely grind the pepper. One of my grandmother's cooks would use whole pepper seeds and whole garlic cloves. Eating her adobo, you had to be vigilant or find one of these "bombs" go off in your mouth. Of course there are those who believe this is the only way to eat it. It is up to you.

Okay, now take this whole pot and set in on the stove to cook at a medium heat. The chicken and pork juices should start to cook out and join with the soy sauce and vinegar mixture. When all is pretty well cooked, remove the pot from the fire. Use a big slotted spoon or some tongs to remove the meat from the mixture. Place the meat in a glass pyrex rectangular dish, the size we use to make brownies. Drizzle about a quarter cup of vegetable oil over the meat. Be sure to save the soy sauce/vinegar mixture. If you throw this away...... don't even think of it.

Heat the oven up to 375 degrees and place the meat in the pyrex dish in it uncovered. The meat will start to crisp. Keep checking it. When the entire top is crisped, remove the dish (don't forget to use oven mitts!) and use tongs to turn every piece of meat over so you can return it to the oven and crisp the bottom side. I learned this from your yaya, Maling. The traditional way, which Tita Flory used, was to fry the meat in oil in a saucepan on the stove top..... really messy, there will be oil all over the stove and kitchen. This is why many Filipino houses smell like adobo.

Any way, when the meat is crisped all over, turn off the oven and add the oily crispy meat back to the pot with the soy sauce/vinegar mixture and heat the whole thing up. Serve over white sticky rice. Feel free to play with the portions. I'm sorry that I never learned to cook with a set recipe. Besides, experimenting with the flavors is the fun part. If you try this often enough, you will eventually make a really yummy pot of adobo.