Chicken Adobo Tacos

This post was originally published in March 2020 (and probably once more before then). I have since made some minor adjustments to the recipe only for the better.

There is Solace in a Home Cooked Meal

It’s March 22 2020 and there’s a global pandemic going on and cooking (tacos specifically) are just about the only thing keeping me grounded. If you’re like me then you’ve been hit with the shock of having to prepare your own meals more often than not. Takeout and delivery from nearby restaurants are keeping some of us afloat, but for the most part we are all turning to food in one way or another for comfort. We have been “social distancing” for at least a week now – some longer and you’re probably tired. I am. For three days in a row I have been perfectly content with peanut butter and nutella sandwiches with absolutely no shame, but it’s time to dust off your cookbooks and brush up on some of your techniques (even if your best cooking technique is mixing the perfect ratio of cereal and milk) and get to cooking. There is solace in a good, home cooked meal, so if you’re fortunate enough to have a stocked kitchen or well enough to prepare a meal for those around you, I encourage you to do so. After times like this we’ll ask ourselves, what did I do to help? And the answer may be something as simple as keeping the spirits high of those around you with laughter, jokes, smiles, and food.

These chicken adobo tacos are inspired by the Filipino-style adobo with a vinegar and soy sauce base making them the perfect combo of tangy and spicy.

Chicken adobo tacos are the tacos I make when I don’t want to do a ton of work but I need a taco fix which is like admittedly more often than not. You can double or triple the recipe and feed a multitude and all you have to do is throw your ingredients in a pot and wait for the chicken to transform into extra flavorful shredded chicken. Adobo in different cultures refers to myriad of things. It can refer to the method of immersing raw meat into a seasoned stock or sauce, or it can also refer simply to an adobo seasoning or sauce. These tacos are inspired by the Filipino-style adobo making them the. perfect. combo. of tangy and spicy (sweet and sour if you will). Start with a several pounds of boneless chicken thighs. This is one of very times I recommend boneless thighs over bone-in. The chicken is marinated and stewed in a base mixture of vinegar and soy sauce with a hint of sweetness using brown sugar to offset the bitterness. For some extra heat, you can add in a few chipotle chiles in adobo sauce straight out of the can. These are basically just dried peppers that have an intense smoky flavor. But they’re not needed to achieve the flavor, so feel free to omit. An hour to an hour and a half later, you have an incredibly flavorful adobo chicken for tacos (on handmade corn tortillas) or to serve over rice.

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