Herminia's Chicken Adobo

This is another one of those recipes I learned from my friend Shantall's mother. It is chicken cooked in a savory but slightly sweet and tangy sauce made if vinegar, soy sauce, and sugar and it has lots of delicious garlic and potatoes.

I have seen lots of Filipino chicken adobo recipes and I have had Chicken adobo from other Filipino people and places, but I really like Shantall's mom's version of Chicken Adobo.

Serve this with hot jasmine white rice and whatever other side dishes you'd like :)

Main Ingredients:
-1 whole chicken (cleaned, cut into sections, skin on)
-salt to season chicken to taste
-soy sauce a bit to season chicken just to give color a couple light splashes
-pepper to season chicken to taste
-1 onion julienned
-1 head of garlic, cloves peeled left whole
-4 potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
-Olive oil

Ingredients for the sauce
-1 1/2 cups water
-1/2 cup white vinegar more or less to taste (they use cane, or coconut vinegar, white distilled works here to)
-1/2 cup soy sauce more or less to taste
-1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar more or less to taste (I use 1/2- 3/4 sp does Hermi but some people like using less like 2 tablespoons it's to taste)
-6 small bay leaves (or 3 big ones)
-1 teaspoonful of black peppercorns
-salt to taste (if needed)

Directions:
(1)Wash the chicken and clean well, (you could wash it with vinegar and salt and then rinse well again) now put in a bowl cut into medium sized sections, LIGHTLY season with salt, pepper, and soy sauce (big emphasis on lightly remember the sauce has salt to, just enough soy sauce to give color and light on the salt) now set aside.

(2)Mix sauce ingredients EXCEPT black peppercorns and bay leaves. Taste it, if you'd like add more soy sauce or sugar or vinegar this is all to your taste, the proportion of vinegar, soy sauce and sugar is all to taste set aside.


(3)Heat olive oil in a deep-pot on medium high, sautee onions and garlic until browned and onions are a bit translucent, add chicken and stir and let it release some juices and change color a bit.

(4)Add the sauce ingredients and bring to a strong boil on high, add bay leaves and whole peppercorns, cover and simmer on medium low for about 30 minutes.

(5)Add potatoes, taste if it needs more salt, soy sauce, vinegar or sugar and you can add more to taste, but it should be fine I added a little bit more salt to mine didn't wanna over power with soy sauce. Boil for another 10-15 minutes or until potatoes are tender.

(6)Now your done, enjoy!

NOTE:
The chicken skins are for flavor you don't have to eat them when your eating the dish you remove and set them aside as you eat.

I know it seems like a lot of soy sauce and vinegar but it's diluted with water, and she likes to add a lot of potatoes to it so they thicken and soak up the sauce.