Filipino Chicken Adobo

From America's Test Kitchen Season 13: Big, Bold Chicken Braises

Adobo is the national dish of the Philippines, and chicken adobo is among the most popular. The dish consists of chicken simmered in a mixture of vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, bay leaves, and black pepper. The problem with most recipes we found was that they were aggressively tart and salty. Our secret to taming both of these elements was coconut milk. The coconut milk’s richness tempered the bracing acidity of the vinegar and masked the briny soy sauce, bringing the sauce into balance.

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Filipino Adobo is a quick-cooking, pantry-ready braise with bold, tangy flavors and tender meat. To adapt it for the American kitchen, we borrowed a regional ingredient and a French technique.