Crock-Pot Chicken Adobo

Erika's cousin Rick made Adobo with chicken while I was at their apartment a few months back. It was so good, I tried to recreate it at home. Needless-to-say, I am still trying to perfect it.

What is Adobo you ask? According to Wikipedia, it is a Filipino cooking process which involves stewing in vinegar but is a term with Spanish origin which means to marinate or season. Typically, pork or chicken, or a combination of both, is slowly cooked in soy sauce, vinegar, crushed garlic, bay leaf, and black peppercorns.

In my first try to recreate it I used pork. I don't think I let it boil long enough for the meat was a tad tough. For try #2 I used chicken. Most recipes I saw online (and what her cousin did) call for using the whole chicken cut up with the skin still in tact. I was trying to make it healthier so I used skinless, boneless chicken breasts. It wasn't bad but still not what I had experienced at Erika's.

Since the meat in previous tries have been a little dry, I decided to try my luck with the crock-pot. I mean seriously, what doesn't cook well in a crock-pot, right? Once again, I used skinless, boneless chicken breasts and added some veggies into the mix.

Crock-Pot Chicken Adobo

• 2 zucchinis
• 1 cup chopped carrots
• 4 large skinless, boneless chicken breasts
• 3/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
• 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp ground mustard
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 4 crushed cloves of garlic

1. I washed and cut up the zucchinis and carrots and placed them on the bottom of the crock-pot. (If you have onion, throw some onion into the mix. I used vegetables I had on hand.)
   
2. Next I cut the chicken breasts into inch sized cubes and placed on top of the vegetables. (Chicken thighs or legs would work beautifully.)
   
3. I mixed all the remaining ingredients and poured it over the chicken. (Some recipes recommended marinating the chicken in the soy sauce/vinegar concoction over night.)
   
4. Cover with the lid. At this point you can set the crock-pot on low (6-8 hours cooking time) or high (4 hours cooking time). I set mine to high as I put it all together in the afternoon and wanted it for dinner.
5. An hour and a half into the cooking time I stirred the contents of the crock-pot as to ensure the chicken didn't cook into one huge mass and to help the liquid incorporate into the chicken.

As side dishes, I cooked some rice and oven roasted some corn on the cob. The corn was quite simple. I poured some olive oil onto husked cobs and sprinkled on some salt, Italian seasoning and garlic powder. You can add whatever seasoning you like. I put it in a 350 degree pre-heated oven for 20 minutes. At this point I rotated the corn and cooked for another 20 minutes.

I am pleased with my third attempt. Greg mentioned the liquid was a little strong for his liking if eaten by itself, but complimented the rice nicely. As for myself, I like vinegary things so the liquid tasted great.

Trying to recall what Rick had done and referencing a basic recipe online, I always try to make recipes my own. This time I did that by adding ginger, mustard and pepper flakes and veggies to the recipe. If you notice, the spices are about half the ingredients needed for a pickling spice mix. Looking at a pickling mix recipe, cloves might make a nice addition for next time to this recipe...

When I finally figure out how to make it in a regular pot, I'll post my success. :-)