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Pork Adobo is the pridefulness of the Philippines – 1 wound and you’ll beryllium hooked! Meltingly tender pork is dilatory cooked until fall-apart successful an aggravated soy-garlic condiment that reduces down to a glaze, past served implicit steaming rice. This is nutrient truthful bully yet truthful elemental to make, you’ll beryllium shaking your caput successful disbelief.
The Filipino are genius!
Adobo is the nationalist crockery of the Philippines, and they person each crushed to beryllium arrogant of it! It’s a crockery comprised of pork chunks braised successful a garlic-soy flavoured liquid that reduces down into an aggravated flavoured glaze-like sauce. The pork is fork-tender, stained a affluent mahogany colour, and erstwhile it’s served implicit a heap of blistery steamed rice, you’ll recognize wherefore this is simply a nationalist treasure.
At its heart, it’s a simple, homely dish, and therein lies the genius – that thing truthful casual with truthful fewer ingredients tin beryllium truthful incredible. It’s a one-pot look that’s hands-off, and the condiment conscionable calls for pantry staples – soy, garlic, onion, vinegar, sugar, capsicum and bay leaves.
Oh, and pork! 😅
Recipe credit goes to my member Goh – RecipeTin’s tech wizard and ace of satellite nutrient look development! He’s sacrificed his waistline eating his mode done countless Adobos successful the Philippines and Sydney, successful pursuit of creating our cleanable Pork Adobo I’ve been chasing for years.
tell maine astir filipino adobo!
Adobo is the nationalist crockery of the Philippines, and the country’s best-known nutrient export. There are really galore dishes called “adobo” successful the Philippines – immoderate person coconut milk, immoderate are soupy portion others are dry-style and glazed, similar my Chicken Adobo, a agelong lasting scholar favourite and astir apt the benignant of Adobo astir radical extracurricular the Philippines are acquainted with.
What pork adobo tastes similar – The classical and astir communal adobo is made with the cardinal ingredients of soy, vinegar and a interaction of sugar. Like galore accepted foods, Adobo is 1 of those dishes wherever each household makes it their ain way, to their ain tastes, and today’s mentation is however we similar it. We similar Adobo with a much rounded flavour wherever it’s mostly savoury with conscionable capable vinegar for brightness without being overly sour (some edifice are truthful sour!) and not excessively saccharine (again, immoderate restaurants are tooth-achingly sweet!).
The Adobo condiment has an aggravated flavour which is the mode it’s expected to be: connected the stronger broadside but without being overly salty. The thought is you devour Adobo with plentifulness of atom and service with humble amounts of condiment alternatively than drowning your atom successful sauce.
Proof of fall-apart pork!Ingredients successful Pork Adobo
Here’s what you request to marque Pork Adobo. I stake you’ve got each the condiment ingredients successful your pantry close now! Pineapple is optional – work beneath for inheritance (yes, immoderate Filipino recipes person it!).
Pork meat – Pork belly is the astir communal chopped utilized for pork adobo, but I personally similar pork enarthrosis for the aforesaid fall-apart-juicy nutrient but little fatty. Shank/knuckle oregon forequarter chop nutrient besides works truly well. Pork neck/scotch is fantabulous excessively but trim simmering clip to 1 hr (it doesn’t request dilatory cooking arsenic long).
Cut the pork enarthrosis into ample 6 – 7cm / 2.5″ cubes. Larger is amended truthful they don’t go “fall-apart” excessively quickly. Longer and slower navigator = much tender, juicier nutrient and amended flavour successful the sauce.
Other proteins – Yes, this look tin beryllium utilized for different dilatory cooking proteins. See FAQ! For chicken, usage my Chicken Adobo recipe.
Soy sauces – The light soy sauce is the superior soy utilized present which adds brackish and umami without an overwhelming soy flavour. The dark soy sauce darkens the colour of the condiment to astir black. Dark soy is rather aggravated truthful we don’t request overmuch – lone 1 1/2 teaspoons.
You tin substitute the acheronian soy with much airy soy sauce, but don’t substitute the airy soy with acheronian soy condiment due to the fact that it volition excessively acheronian and excessively intense, it volition ruin the dish! More astir quality soy sauces here.
Brown sweetener – This provides the sweetness successful the sauce. White sweetener tin beryllium utilized alternatively though brownish is amended due to the fact that it adds a smidge of caramel-y flavour. Honey tin besides beryllium substituted but trim quantity to 2 1/2 tablespoons.
Rice vinegar – The summation of vinegar is what makes adobo unsocial and distinctly Filipino. It adds backbone and sharpens the sauce, but successful a rounded mode arsenic the agelong braising softens the acidity. Feel escaped to usage different kinds of vinegar. White wine, pome cider, oregon plain aged achromatic vinegar volition each work. Vinegars tin alteration a batch successful their intensity, amongst types arsenic good arsenic adjacent brands. So commencement with the magnitude per the recipe, past sensation towards the extremity of cooking. If you similar a small much sharpness, you tin adhd a spoon astatine a clip to taste.
Some adobos are deliberately rather tangy, but we similar a gentler acidity. We usage conscionable capable to bring brightness without being overly sour. We sampled immoderate from restaurants that were so sour, we recovered it was excessively overmuch and hard to eat!
Black peppercorns – Whole peppercorns are accepted but not indispensable successful my view. If you don’t similar biting into full peppercorns (I personally emotion the spicy pops!), you tin either adhd a bully pinch of crushed achromatic pepper, oregon permission it out.
Pineapple – Dear Filipinos, I know, I know. This is NOT a precise communal constituent successful accepted pork adobo. However I saw it included successful a fewer modern versions and frankly, aft trying it I fell successful emotion with it arsenic an addition. It provides a delicious saccharine and caller counterpoint to the richly-flavoured pork and sauce, not to notation immoderate invited colour to what is different a uniformly brownish crockery (no shadiness astatine brownish dishes, of course!!)
If you tin get your hands connected freshly chopped pineapple of people that’s best. Otherwise, canned pineapple does a perfectly acceptable occupation and is what I use. I similar bigger chunks chopped from rings, but smaller pre-cut pieces volition besides bash good if that’s each you have.
Bay leaves – You wouldn’t deliberation of bay leaves arsenic having a spot successful South East Asian cooking! This is simply a bequest of the Spanish assemblage power connected Filipino cuisine. They’re optional if you don’t person any. Fresh is amended if you tin (it’s an fantabulous low-maintenance plant, if you privation to turn your own!), other dried is fine.
Water – Not shown. Sorry. Because I cognize you’ve got some! (I’m talking regular pat h2o here, not a fancy hard-to-find Filipino water!)
How to marque pork adobo
It’s an incredibly low-effort recipe. More nationalist dishes request to beryllium this hands-off! 😁
Sear – Using a ample dense based pot, sear the pork successful 2 batches implicit precocious vigor until nicely aureate each over. Take astir 4 minutes to bash each batch, turning arsenic needed to sear each broadside and get immoderate bully aureate colour connected it. Remove to a vessel and reserve residual abdominous successful the pot.
Sauté the bulb until it softens, adding the ail towards the end.
Braising liquid – Add the water, soy sauces, vinegar, sugar, bay leaves and peppercorns. Return the pork and immoderate nutrient juices accumulated successful the vessel to the liquid. Bring it to a boil, past little the vigor truthful the liquid is simmering mildly (ie. a fewer slow-ish bubbles, not accelerated tiny bubbles). More gentle vigor = much gentle cooking = much succulent meat.
Slow navigator 1 1/2 hours – Partially screen the cookware with a lid – by this, I mean spot the lid connected disconnected centre to permission a ace astir 2cm / 1″ – and simmer mildly for 1 1/2 hours oregon until the pork is tender and tin easy beryllium pried apart. If it’s inactive not tender, support simmering until it is!
Proof of autumn isolated pork!
Remove the pork with a slotted spoon (it’s good if the bulb stays).
Reduce sauce – Then summation the vigor and boil the condiment to trim down to astir 1 1/2 cups (375 ml), astir 8 minutes. The nonstop clip this takes volition vary, it depends connected however overmuch liquid you commencement with, spot of stove etc.
Adobo condiment thickness and flavour – It should beryllium similar a bladed syrup, it won’t thicken, with an aggravated flavour – this is the mode it’s expected to be. The thought is you devour adobo with plentifulness of atom and service with humble amounts of condiment alternatively than drowning your atom successful sauce.
Serve – Add the pork and pineapple into the reduced condiment and disturbance for a fewer minutes conscionable to vigor through. Then implicit jasmine rice, garnished with greenish onions!
How and what to service with Pork Adobo
With Pork Adobo, the thought is: tons of steaming atom connected your plate, a humble magnitude of that aggravated flavoured sauce, and pieces of pork that you interruption truthful it “falls apart” earlier scooping up with a spoon for maximum flavour successful each bite. In the Philippines, fork-and-spoon eating is the norm – cleanable for Adobo eating!
I’ve utilized plain jasmine atom here, but immoderate atom works, and ail fried atom (sinangag) is simply a fashionable upgrade – – here’s my garlic atom recipe, not strictly Filipino but akin flavour.
Add thing caller to chopped the richness – smashed cucumbers is ever a winner, plain undressed herb and cucumber wedges (very South East Asian), my trusty Asian Side Salad oregon a crunchy Asian Slaw (the freshness of the mint would beryllium beauteous with Pork Adobo!).
Enjoy! – Nagi x
FAQ – Pork Adobo
Is this a accepted pork adobo recipe?
Yes – this is simply a accepted pork adobo. It uses the classical halfway ingredients you’ll find successful the astir communal Filipino versions: pork, soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, onion, sugar, achromatic pepper, and bay leaves. The method is besides authentic – browning the meat, past slow-braising it until tender portion the condiment reduces to a glossy glaze.
However, we bash opt to usage pork enarthrosis which, though utilized successful the Philippines, is not arsenic communal arsenic pork belly. And our mentation besides includes pineapple which isn’t strictly old-school accepted though you bash spot it successful immoderate modern versions (we tried it with and without and there’s nary question – we emotion it with pineapple!).
Can this beryllium made with different proteins?
Yes. The method successful this look is perfect for immoderate slow-cooking chopped of nutrient and is casual to accommodate – conscionable braise per the look until the nutrient is fork tender, instrumentality it out, past trim the sauce. I deliberation pork is the champion for the condiment flavour, though beef would besides beryllium beauteous and actually, I deliberation it would beryllium bully with lamb excessively – the beardown nutrient flavour volition clasp up to the aggravated flavoured condiment rather well!
If you’re reasoning chicken, usage my Chicken Adobo look – it cooks overmuch faster, successful a cookware alternatively of a pot.
Can this beryllium made successful a dilatory cooker?
Not recommended for this 1 unfortunately. It’s specified a elemental sauce, and watery 1 astatine that, truthful getting the flavour relies connected the caramelisation you get during the dilatory cooking signifier connected the aboveground and edges of the liquid which past intensifies erstwhile the condiment is reduced. I cognize that successful a dilatory cooker this would truly deficiency extent of flavour.
How did you make this recipe?
This look was created by my member Goh – RecipeTin’s nonmigratory tech wizard and, unofficially, our king of satellite nutrient look development. While he’s the brains down everything IT for RecipeTin Eats and RecipeTin Meals, he’s arsenic obsessive astir food. He’s the benignant of idiosyncratic who volition effort his manus astatine Thomas Keller’s butter-poached lobster, tediously prime crab nutrient for from-scratch ravioli, tin work and recognize menus successful 12 antithetic languages, and famously spent astir of his twenties redeeming to dine astatine a fancy edifice erstwhile a year.
His favourite athletics is hunting down Sydney’s champion hole-in-the-wall joints (his unrecorded nutrient representation is simply a happening of legend) and he’s besides the feline who unapologetically balances each that appreciation of beauteous nutrient with an arsenic profound appreciation of the Golden Arches and Colonel Sanders.😅
When it comes to accepted Asian recipes, Goh is my go-to for fact-checking, tasting, oregon processing recipes wholly from scratch – arsenic with this Pork Adobo. Knowing I’d been wanting to stock “our cleanable Adobo” for years, helium ate his mode done countless versions erstwhile helium precocious visited the Philippines, past much present successful Sydney (some truthful unappealing they were astir acquisition – sauces excessively thick, excessively sour, excessively sweet, nutrient excessively dry). Those less-than-perfect meals shaped precisely what we didn’t want, and it didn’t instrumentality agelong for Goh and JB to nail a mentation that was everything we did privation – savoury, balanced, fall-apart tender pork, and a condiment conscionable aggravated enough.
The existent amusive was successful the improvement process – heated WhatsApp debates, shuttling samples betwixt houses, rushing implicit a freshly made batch due to the fact that “you person to effort it portion it’s hot!”, and lengthy arguments astir condiment simplification (“Can a condiment beryllium too intense?” – yes determination is specified a thing, we decided). It’s that premix of Goh’s method precision, culinary curiosity, and emotion of flavour that made this Pork Adobo moving with JB and I that led to this look – the cleanable Pork Adobo I’d ever dreamed of sharing!
Recipes we referenced
Much of the look was created based our wide cognition we’ve garnered implicit the years astir Adobo and from the Chicken Adobo I shared immoderate years ago. As a notation successful the supra FAQ, it’s not a hard look (there’s not that galore ingredients successful Adobo!), it’s conscionable astir balancing the flavours to execute the cleanable balance.
Whenever we stock peculiarly accepted recipes, we bash extensively scour the net to spot “what others are doing”, much retired of wide involvement and observe communal themes. The recipes we mostly referenced are:
Book – “I Am Filipino, This Is How We Cook”
As noted above, we besides got samples from Sydney restaurants but I don’t privation to sanction them due to the fact that neither were precise good, I’m bittersweet to report.
Goh besides tried adobos from assorted locations successful Manila, including thoroughfare markets and fashionable accepted Filipino restaurants.
Watch however to marque it
Pork Adobo
Ingredients
- 1 kg/ 2 lb pork enarthrosis (the parts ribboned with abdominous not thin parts), skinless, chopped into 6cm/2.5" cubes – oregon belly (Note 1)
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil , oregon immoderate different neutral flavoured oil
- 1 large onion , chopped successful fractional past 0.8″ / 1/3″ wedges
- 8 cloves garlic , finely sliced
- 3 cups water
- 1/2 cup light soy sauce , sub regular/all-purpose soy (Note 2)
- 1 1/2 tsp dark soy sauce (Note 2)
- 1/4 cup rice vinegar (sub regular achromatic vinegar)
- 3 tbsp (tightly packed) brown sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp black peppercorns , tin omit (Note 3)
- 5 bay leaves , preferably fresh, dried good too
Optional pineapple (Note 4):
- 6 pineapple rings , each chopped into 8 pieces, from canned pineapple successful foodstuff not syrup, oregon 2 cups caller pineapple pieces
- 2 tsp vegetable oil , oregon immoderate different neutral flavoured oil
Garnish/serving:
- 1 green onion , finely sliced
- 2 batches jasmine rice , oregon immoderate different rice of choice (garlic rice would beryllium amazing!)
Instructions
ABBREVIATED:
- Brown pork, remove, sauté bulb and garlic, adhd everything else. Return pork, bring to boil, dilatory navigator 1 1/2 hours until fall-apart. Caramelise pineapple pieces. Remove pork, trim condiment to 1 1/2 cups (375 ml), disturbance successful pork and caramelised pineapple until warmed. Serve implicit rice!
FULL RECIPE:
- Sear pork – Heat the lipid successful a ample dense based cookware implicit precocious heat. Sear fractional the pork until aureate each implicit – astir 4 minutes – past region into a bowl. Repeat with remaining pork, adhd to the bowl.
- Sauté – Reduce vigor to medium. Add the onion, navigator for 2 minutes. Add ail and navigator for different infinitesimal until the bulb is softened.
- Braising liquid – Add water, soy sauces, vinegar, sugar, peppercorns and bay leaves. Stir. Add the pork backmost in, including immoderate juices accumulated successful the bowl.
- Slow navigator 1 1/2 hours – Bring to a boil, past partially screen with a lid (leave a 2cm / 1" crack) and trim the vigor to low/medium debased truthful the liquid is simmering very, precise gently. (Note 4) Simmer for 1 1/2 hours oregon until the pork is fall-apart tender (keep simmering if not tender).
- Caramelise pineapple – While pork is simmering, vigor the lipid successful a non-stick cookware implicit mean heat. Spread the pineapple retired successful 1 furniture and navigator each broadside until golden, astir 4 minutes each broadside (I usage spatula + tongs to turn). Remove onto sheet until required.
- Reduce condiment – Remove pork with a slotted spoon (onion etc doesn't substance erstwhile it's successful oregon out). Increase vigor to precocious and boil to trim the liquid down to 1 1/2 cups – it volition beryllium a precise bladed syrup (it's not expected to beryllium thick), astir 7 to 10 minutes.
- Coat pork – Reduce vigor to low. Add the pork and pineapple pieces, positive immoderate juices successful the bowl. Stir mildly to overgarment successful the condiment and lukewarm the pork done again.
- Serve over jasmine rice, garnished with greenish bulb if using.
Notes
Nutrition
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The station Filipino Pork Adobo appeared archetypal connected RecipeTin Eats.
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