Something for Saturday

This recipe is from my friend John who says it is easy to make and very tasty...Now I shall have to find my cauldron..

CHICKEN ADOBO

OK, so this isn’t an authentic Filipino Adobo, but it’s tasty! Once you get all the stuff organized, it goes together pretty

quickly. It makes a LOT, so invite your buddies over. Serve it up with some couscous. That’s ridiculously easy to make.

Ingredients:

• ±5 lbs. chicken thighs, bone in and skin on (The bones and skin add a lot of flavor. Pitch them later if you don’t

want them.) Or use half chicken thighs and half boneless chunks of pork. I used a 6-lb. package of thighs from

Sam’s last time around, and there were 11 nice, meaty thighs in there.

• 1-1/2 cups low-sodium light soy sauce (yes, that’s a lot)

• 1-1/2 cups rice vinegar (ditto)

• Some nice olive oil

• 2 Tablespoons pickling spices (it’s on the rack there in the store with the other spices)

• About 5 Tablespoons finely peeled and chopped fresh ginger (YUM!) Look in the produce section.

• About 1/4 c. Sriracha sauce (That’ll be somewhere near the soy sauce in the store—try a few drops with your eggs)

• 2 Spanish onions (the ones with the brown hide), thinly sliced

• ±8 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped

• 32 oz. chicken stock—one of those cartons of Swanson’s from the store.

• 1 Tablespoon anchovy paste (try adding a little of this to ALL stews, or even to meatloaf. NOT too much, though.)

• 15-20 baby red potatoes, scrubbed and cut in half (leave these out if you want to cut down on starch, or are serving

this with rice—but they DO add some nice flavor, and taste good, too.)

• 1/2-1 lb. sliced fresh mushrooms (I usually use a pound, and buy ’em pre-sliced at the store.)

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OK. So here’s what you do.

1. Find a cauldron. Non-stick is even better. But it has to be a cauldron. At least 12 quarts at the SMALLEST. No puny

little saucepans allowed.

2. Film the bottom of the cauldron with olive oil, and add a little more.

3. Brown the chicken thighs in batches on both sides in the oil over medium-high heat. As they are browned, put them in

a big bowl somewhere nearby.

4. Dump the excess fat from the cauldron. Otherwise everything will be too greasy.

5. Whisk together the soy sauce, rice vinegar, chicken broth, garlic, ginger, pickling spices, anchovy paste, and Sriracha

in a BIG bowl until combined.

6. Return the chicken to the cauldron, dump in any accumulated juices from the bowl, add the onions, and pour the liquid

over the chicken. It should come close to covering the meat. Stir it to mix stuff together.

7. Reduce the heat, and bring the whole mess to a simmer. Just for fun, stir it from time to time.

8. Cover, and simmer for about an hour.

9. Add the shrooms and the spuds. Stir them in.

10. Cover again, and simmer for about another half hour or so. The meat will fall off the bones, and that’s the idea.

11. Serve it up with some nice steamed rice and a salad. Maybe some French bread to sop up the gravy. Or make a mess

of couscous and serve the chicken with the couscous. (that’s my own fave)

12. This makes a LOT, but the leftovers are probably even better than the stuff was the first day.

13. There will be some peppercorns and the like from the spices, but they get all nice and soft, and taste good when you

bite into them.