Chicken Tinola Recipe (Chicken Ginger Soup)

It’s rainy season in the Philippines and one of the best comfort food you can prepare is chicken ginger soup (or stew for others). It will definitely give the desired warmth during cool weather.

Although it isn’t raining here in Abu Dhabi but instead it is scorching hot outside as the summer season is as its peak this month of August, I couldn’t be stopped from craving for a soup.

Tinola is mainly associated with chicken cooked in ginger, onion and garlic and some vegetables, but it can also be done using pork. I'm sticking to the classic tinola though or the Chicken Tinola.

Usually the vegetable ingredients used with tinola are a combination of chili pepper leaves or malunggay and green papaya or sayote. Some of those I know are using spinach as an alternative for chili pepper leaves due to the difficulty of finding the latter in the markets here. I was never lucky too in finding chili pepper or malunggay leaves although some friends say its available in some Philippine stores. I wish we are staying in a villa with a backyard where I can grow malunggay!

Anyway, here's the recipe for this tasty chicken soup.

Ingredients:
500 grams chicken (use any of your favorite parts)
500 grams sayote, sliced to bite size
1 small piece ginger, sliced thinly or matchsticks like
3 cloves garlic, chopped or crushed
1 onion, sliced
1 piece chicken stock or bouillon cube
vegetable oil
fish sauce to taste
water

Cooking Instructions:
Heat oil in a cooking pot. Sauté ginger, garlic and onion. Add chicken and sliced sayote and make a quick stir-fry. Add chicken bouillon cube and water. Add fish sauce if desired (the bouillon cube can already give the required saltiness). Let it simmer until chicken is tender.

Preparation and cooking time: 45 minutes
Serving size: 3

Bon appetit!

Chicken Adobo Recipe

Adobo is a famous Filipino dish, which can be done with chicken, pork, fish or vegetables.

There are variations in the ingredients and cooking procedures of chicken adobo, depending on the taste and style of the cook.

The recipe below is my own version. I particularly like this recipe because it doesn't require much time to prepare. I just combine all the ingredients and cook it. That's how easy it is. I used chicken thighs because it's my favorite part of the chicken. Packed and frozen chicken thighs can be easily found in any supermarkets in Abu Dhabi.

Ingredients:

1/2 kilo Chicken Thighs, cleaned (thaw if using frozen chicken)

1 medium onion, sliced

3 gloves garlic, crushed

6 tbsp. soy sauce (adjust amount according to taste)

3 tbsp. cup vinegar (adjust amount according to taste)

black pepper

bay leaf (optional)

chili flakes (optional)

1/2 teaspoon sugar (optional)

water

Cooking Procedure:
Combine all ingredients in a pot. Bring to boil in medium fire until sauce is thick.

Preparation and Cooking Time: 30-40 minutes (not including thawing)
Serving size: good for 3 persons

Healthy Options:
1) Use chicken breast for lesser fat or if you want to use your favorite chicken parts you may want to consider removing the skin.
2) Make a different kind of adobo, like vegetable adobo (see Adobong Sitaw).

Burger and Chicken Salad Brunch

Yesterday was a special day for me and Boq. We planned to eat out for lunch (brunch actually) after hearing Friday Mass. I was craving for burger and fries but a fast food joint wasn’t appropriate for the occasion, so we decided to dine in Fuddruckers at Marina Mall.

After several minutes of checking out the menu, we ordered two dishes that we thought were worth to try – Specialty Burger with beef bacon and cheddar cheese (I was craving for burger & fries, remember? :) ) and Buffalo Chicken Salad.

The salad was served first on a black-colored ceramic plate with crispy chicken mixed with cheese, lettuce, snow and violet-colored cabbage, fine strips of carrots, tossed with ranch dressing and topped with franks buffalo sauce. (Wow, I did remember all the ingredients!) I wasn’t sure at the time we were ordering the salad how the buffalo sauce tastes. Maybe I was ignorant but the sauce sounded strange to me, a skeptic that I am about tastes of strange sounding food I managed to oblige to try the salad with Boq's suggestion. It turned out to be a little salty and sour and nothing strange.