Recipe: Adobo Chicken

We selected our first meal to try by default. I suspected that the adobo chicken bag was leaking, so we figured it was best to start with it.

I found the chicken adobo recipe on the Stacy Makes Cents website. Her version is fresh, not freezer to Crockpot. That may make a difference. I also lacked the little Lego man. That may also make a difference. I also split the recipe between two bags to make two dinners. That may also make a difference, but I'm not sure how.

Crockpot Adobo Chicken

1 chicken or its equivalent, cut up (or whole if you’re lazy) skinned or not
1 1/3 cups soy sauce
1 1/2 cups white vinegar
2 cups water
1 garlic bulb (yup, the whole thing)
4 bay leaves
cracked pepper

Put the chicken in the Crockpot with or without the skins. Combine the soy sauce, vinegar, and water, and pour them over the sauce.

Peel the garlic and thinly slice the cloves.

Toss in the garlic and bay leaves. Add about 20 turns of cracked pepper.

Set the crock pot on high for 4 hours or low for 6 hours. When done, stir the sauce and taste it.

Serve over white rice.

The Review

I used chicken hind quarters that were on sale for 98 cents a pound or something equally ridiculous. I also threw in some chicken breast I had leftover from another recipe for the heck of it, and I used low-sodium soy sauce. The recipe itself is pretty easy, particularly if you just throw the whole hind quarters in the bag, skins and all. The biggest time sucker: the garlic. That's a lot of peeling. A LOT of peeling.

On Sunday afternoon, I took it the bag out of the freezer and placed it in a bowl, just in case it was leaking. Sunday evening, I dumped the contents in the Crockpot bowl, put the lid on it and stuck the bowl in the fridge. I leave the house by 6:20 am and wanted to just be able to drop the bowl in the warmer before I left. My other easy peasy shortcut—put the dry rice in the rice cooker before leaving in the morning. (Add water and hit the button in the evening!)

When I got home in the evening, I was greeted by the most delicious smells! I threw the water in the rice cooker, some baby carrots in the steamer and called it good. Twenty minutes later, we were in business. I was able to spend all that time I usually spend making dinner with my darling daughter, and we had a delicious-looking, delicious-smelling dinner ready to go. Sweeeeeet.

Note that we added a bunch more sauce after the picture was taken (per the original recipe).

Ratings

Ease of preparation: B
Taste: C
Quantity: Again, we got two good-sized servings out of it and put away quite a bit in the fridge.
Notes: The little bit of boneless, skinless breast I threw in was super dry. We were a little surprised. The legs and thighs were much better, but the texture was a little funny. I don't know if that is because I cooked it longer than 6 hours (who has a 6-hour work day?) or for any of the reasons I mentioned above. . . We liked it, but I am not sure it's a repeat (minus the leftovers and second bag in the freezer).

And that's the way Sue "Cs" it. Oh wait. That's a different show.