Here is my entry for #whatscookingchallenge by @jaynie

Let me share with you today which I believe is the most popular Philippine dish. The Philippine Adobo a native dish which has been around since the 17th century during the Spanish era. Using vinegar and salt is one way to keep the food longer in the olden days. Vinegar which is a main ingredient and any type of meat can be used for this dish. You might say, " Oh yes the adobo again" but did you know that there are thousands of variations of the recipe. Every region in the country has it's own recipe and we have more than 7,000 islands.

Annato Chicken Adobo

Our Adobo version today is referred to as Achuete Adobo which is Adobo with Annato. This is an easy dish to prepare and anyone can prepare it as the ingredients are not hard to find. Normally the ingredients are just soy sauce and vinegar but spices added creates it's own identity which adds a twist to every variant. As for our ingredients we will need an onion, some garlic cloves, peppercorns, ginger and bay leaf. We would go thru the other ingredients as we go along. Don't be afraid if you used a little bit more of the spices. When cooking I do not normally count the cloves or the leaves that I use. Just use a reasonable amount to your liking. If you don't like garlic you could lessen them or even not use them if you prefer. The variants for this dish are endless.

Don't forget the Annato seeds.

Annato which are the seeds that we used last time on our previous cooking session. Mixed with water gives which gives out that delightful orange color. A Humble Dish "Bacalao". Just use around half cup of water and put in the seeds. Add a spoonful of oil with the mixture and stir thoroughly to get that orange color to come out. If you are not satisfied with the color you could always add a little more of the seeds. For me I like it deep orange in color. Once done just set em aside for later.

Slice up your onion, ginger and garlic. No specific way to do it as it would not matter. I didn't even bother to remove the skin from the ginger. Something I picked up when I cooked this dish when we went out camping on the beach. I was in a rush to cook as I wanted to go swimming. Anyway you could peel them if you want to.

Now for the meat and we are using chicken. I love adding some chicken liver to the mix as well. As I said earlier you can use any meat seafood, fish, poultry, beef, pork, goat and some even use exotic meat for this dish. Soldiers in our country use anything they could catch in the jungle and the results are always superb.

To marinade the chicken use around half a cup of vinegar for one kilo of meat. In this recipe we used coconut vinegar, again any vinegar would work. Don't worry too much about the type you would use.

Next pour in around 1/4 cup of soy sauce.

Now we will be pouring in the Annato water and be sure to strain out the seed.

I like adding a bit of sweetness to my dishes. If you have that sweetness too add in a spoon or teaspoon of sugar.

Add your peppercorn and bayleaf into the mix.

Take some of the sliced garlic and add to the marinade. Remember don't put them all in we need at least half of it for the sauteing later on.

Here is our marinade and just mix it up a little bit. Cover it up with anything that you could use.

Now this is the hardest part which is the wait. Leave it for around 30 minutes to 1 hour for all the flavor to seep in the chicken. I would just stare at it and have a glass while waiting.

Now let's make a little special treat something traditional that I would love to share with you.

This is the Palayok the traditional clay pot in the Philippines. I cooked rice with it 3 months ago and if you would like to read about it Palayok Cooking the Old Way. Our ancestors used this to cook their food and let's do that today.

Fire up that wood and let's start cooking. We have stocked up firewood from old fruit crates we got from the market. Easy to burn and perfect for cooking.

Get that pot nice and hot. I hope you don't mind the smoke.

Put in some oil in the pot and get ready to saute.

Saute the left over garlic, ginger and the onions. The smell of this combination is very inviting with the smell of wood burning. Gives you the felling that you are in a far off province with farmland, trees and water buffaloes. Ok let's not drift away too much now. On with the cooking.

Mix it up so it won't burn and use a fan to control the heat. Do forgive my captain america shorts as it is hot here in our country.

Throw in the chicken and do not include the marinade as you need to fry it a bit.

Turn up the heat a bit to get and just let it fry a while along with those sauteed ingredients. Just a tip I love throwing in chili in there the variant we have is the bird's eye chili which is hot. I love my food with a little bite of heat but in this dish no chili as the kids are not too fond of it. If you would try it definitely add that chili.

So we got that a bit fried there and natural juices are coming out of the meat.

It's time to add in the marinade also including the liver along with it. Throw in a bit of salt there also if you wish. No too much though as the soy sauce is already a bit salty. Always remember in adobo there are no rules so just enjoy.

Time to leave it for now and we must wait until all the liquid has evaporated. It would be up to you if would want some sauce with it. You could leave it until half of the marinade has evaporated.

Cover you pot and just let it sit there. Checking once in a while until you are satisfied with the left over sauce in the pot.

Wait for it............wait for it................best way is to slow cook it makes the meat more tender. Since it's chicken it should not be a problem still I slow cook it.

Almost ready.................almost there.........my question is. Are you ready for this dish?

Open the lid and here we have it. The marinade has evaporated leaving only natural oil and juices.

Meat sealed in with the flavor of the ingredients and chicken that almost falls off the bones. Every inch flavored with goodness in every bite. Perfect with newly cooked rice and the best way to enjoy it is on a banana leaf and eating with your hands.

Bon appetit! Hope you enjoyed this cooking session with me and do try the humble recipe from our country. You could skip the clay pot but it was fun cooking the old way.

Before I leave you. I could not help taking some photos first before we enjoy our dinner. Throw in some cherry tomatoes that we got from our previous vacation up in the mountains. I say those tomatoes are perfect for this meal.

Hope you enjoyed this time spent with me and hope to hear from you.

Live life, eat, love and keep on Steemin!

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All photos are original and taken with

Lumix GX85 Sigma 50mm 1.4 and 12-32 mm