Chicken is considered the most popular and affordable meat all over the world. As such, Filipinos have prepared a number of chicken dishes for this white meat. The 8 most popular are:
Pritong manok/fried chicken
1. Pritong Manok or Fried Chicken - the most popular and favorite chicken dish of the Filipinos, especially the kids. This is also the easiest to prepare. For the poor Filipinos, the chicken pieces are only salted, peppered and fried in hot oil. For the rich, preparing fried chicken is more elaborate. The chicken pieces are marinated with calamansi juice, soy sauce, garlic and Maggi Magic Sarap for about an hour. They are then coated with flavored flour.Afterwards,he chicken are again dipped in beaten eggs, coated with Japanese bread crumbs and deep-fried.
Tinolang manok/Chicken Ginger Stew
2. Tinolang Manok or Chicken Ginger Stew - is a simple chicken dish prepared by Filipinos. To make thedish more delicious, a native o free range chicken is preferred, probably a chicken which is about to lay eggs.
To prepare the dish, choose a poulet of more than one kilo in weight. Slit the neck of thee fowl with a sharp knife holding the it upside down. Let the live blood dips onto a plate with uncooked rice and a pinch of salt spread out on the plate. Set aside the blood. Boil 3 liters of water in a big pot or in medium frying pan or kawali. When the water is about to boil, hold the feet of the chicken and dip the body unto the water until all the parts are covered. Pluck out all the feathers. Run the featherless chicken into a live fire to burn out the down feathers. Clean the chicken. Cut the stomach of the fowl and pull out the insides. Throw them except the liver, heart and gizzard. Cut the feet but don’t throw them. They can be eaten. Just dip them in hot water and peel. Then cut all the toe nails. Cut the gizzard and remove the things inside or kinain. Cut the chicken into small pieces or about 2 inches in length. Clean the chicken. Set aside.
To prepare the dish, choose a poulet of more than one kilo in weight. Slit the neck of thee fowl with a sharp knife holding the it upside down. Let the live blood dips onto a plate with uncooked rice and a pinch of salt spread out on the plate. Set aside the blood. Boil 3 liters of water in a big pot or in medium frying pan or kawali. When the water is about to boil, hold the feet of the chicken and dip the body unto the water until all the parts are covered. Pluck out all the feathers. Run the featherless chicken into a live fire to burn out the down feathers. Clean the chicken. Cut the stomach of the fowl and pull out the insides. Throw them except the liver, heart and gizzard. Cut the feet but don’t throw them. They can be eaten. Just dip them in hot water and peel. Then cut all the toe nails. Cut the gizzard and remove the things inside or kinain. Cut the chicken into small pieces or about 2 inches in length. Clean the chicken. Set aside.
Peel a medium green papaya, sayote of white gourd or upo. Cut them into 2 by 1 inches. Clean and set aside. Peel a 2 by 2 inches ginger and cut it into match sticks size or just cut the whole ginger into about 2mm thick. Slice a medium onion. Crush 2-3 pieces of garlic (optional).
Pour 2 -3 teaspoons of oil in a deep sauce pan or kawali. Saute the ginger, garlic and onion in the hot oil. When the onion changed its color, put the chicken parts, except the liver. Stir occasionally until the chicken changed its color. Put one cup of water, cover and boil for about 5 minutes. Since Philippine native chicken meat is rather tough, repeat this procedure to 2 or 3 times or until the meat is almost done. After that, pour two cups of water and combine the papaya, the liver, the blood and cook for another 5 minutes. You can add a Maggi chicken cube if you wish at this stage. Salt and pepper to taste. Before putting out the flame, put a handful of pepper leaves (dahon ng sili) and cover. You can put half- teaspoon of MSG or vetsin, if you wish.
Adobong Manok/Chicken in Vinegar & Soy Sauce
3. Adobong Manok or Chicken with Vinegar and Soy Sauce – another favorite of the Filipinos. Adobo can be considered the national dish of the Philippines. Meat, fish and vegetables can be cooked into adobo.
My version of chicken adobo: Cut a one-kilo chicken into serving portion about 2 by 2 inches. Clean and squeeze out all the water. Marinate it with ½ cup vinegar and ½ cup soy sauce, 1 teaspoon black pepper and 3 gloves of crushed garlic. Set aside for at least ½ hour.
Slice a medium (or 2 if you wish) onion. Crush another 2-3 gloves of garlic. In a sauce pan or medium pot, saute onion and garlic. Add a pinch of rock salt, 2 pieces dried bay leaf and cracked black pepper. Pour the chicken pieces and the marinade and stir occasionally until half cooked. Pour a cup of water, ½ cup of vinegar and soy sauce. Cover. Do not stir for about 15 minutes. When the vinegar is cooked, salt to taste. Cook until the chicken is done. If you wish, you can add another ½ cup water if you like more sauce. You can also add ½ cup of coconut milk, 5 minutes before you put out the flame. You can garnish the chicken adobo with fried potatoes or plantain banana (saging na saba).
Afritadang Manok/Chicken A Fritada
4. Chicken Afritada – another favorite Filipino chicken dish mostly prepared during important occasions. Before, it is quite hard to prepare this kind of dish but with the introduction of food sauces, chicken afritada becomes easy to cook.
Saute a sliced medium onion and 2 – 3 crushed garlic. Pour a kilo of chicken of serving pieces into the pan. Pour the content of the afritada sauce. Add two cups of hot water. Stir. After 10 minutes, combine 1 medium carrots cut diagonally of about ½ inches and 1 cup of cube potatoes of 1 by 1 inch. Cover and cook for another 10 minutes. Serve with hot rice.
Sinampalukang Manok/Chicken in Tamarind Flower
5. Sinampalukang Manok or Chicken in Tamarind Soup – is another most-sought Filipino chicken dish. A native or free range chicken is preferred over cage or commercial chicken.
Cut the chicken into serving pieces. Saute a sliced medium onion and 2-3 gloves of crushed garlic. Pour the chicken pieces. Stir. When the chicken changed its color, pour 2 cups of water and one cup of tamarind flower or young tamarind ( or ½ satchet of tamarind seasoning mix). Cover and cook for 15 minutes or until the chicken is almost done. Uncover, pour a cup of hot water, a cup of 2 inches cut snake beans or sitaw, a cup of kangkong leaves and 2 pieces of medium eggplant cut into 4 pieces lengthwise. Salt to taste. Cover and cook until the beans are done.
Chicken Inasal
6. Chicken Inasal or Roasted Chicken Bacolod-Style – the most popular roasted chicken dish from central Philippines, notably from Bacolod City. It is done by squeezing most of the liquid from the raw chicken and marinating it with secret ingredients for at least 2 hours or overnight. Roast the quartered chicken over flaming charcoal.
Pinikpikang Manok/Beaten Chicken
7. Pinikpikang Manok or Beaten Chicken – popular chicken dish from northern Philippines. The live chicken is killed by beating it with wooden stick all over its body. The technique is to coagulate the blood inside the chicken. After that, the dead chicken is put over fire to remove the feathers. After removing all the feathers, the chicken is then clean and cut into serving pieces. The chicken can be cooked as tinola or adobong manok.
Pinaupong Manok/Chicken Sitting on Salt
8. Pinaupong Manok or Chicken Sitting on Salt – is literally sitting the dressed chicken on a bed of rock salt. The procedure is quite easy if you have an oven. Just spread a bed on rock salt on a deep oven tray. Insert the whole chicken in a stainless steel skewer and let the chicken sit on the salt inside the oven, making sure it will not fall down. Cook for about 1 ½ hours in a preheat oven of 275 degrees Celsius, or until done. To make the chicken more flavorsome, marinate it with lemon juice, crushed garlic and ginger, ¼ cup soy sauce and cracked black pepper. Put lemon grass and other spices inside the chicken.
If you do not have an oven, the crude or the natural way of cooking is this: Skew the marinated whole chicken in a 1 ½ feet of bamboo stick, about 10cm in diameter. Peg the lower end of the skewer into the ground, making sure it is standing up and will not fall down. Prepare a bed of rock salt in the bottom of the chicken about one inch away. Cover the chicken with a cooking oil can (balde ng mantika). Encircle the can with flaming woods or charcoal. Uncover after 1 hour or until the chicken is golden brown and no traces of blood is oozing out from the inside. To make the chicken more delicious, marinate it with calamansi juice, crushed garlic & ginger, ¼ cup soy sauce and cracked pepper for at least one hour. Put lemon grass and other spices inside the chicken.
