Slow Cooker Chicken Adobo

Chicken adobo is a braise in vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, bay and pepper. That is nearly the entire recipe. What it produces is far larger than the sum of those parts: sharp, salty, deeply savory chicken with a sauce that is perfect over plain rice. It is also almost unbeatable on cost, because it wants bone-in thighs and drumsticks, the cheapest pieces on the bird and the ones that hold up best to a long cook.

The instruction not to stir at the start looks like superstition and is not. Raw vinegar has a sharp edge that needs to cook off, and stirring it through the pot early distributes that sharpness into everything. Left alone, it reduces and mellows, and by the time the chicken is tender the sauce tastes round rather than acrid.

Five minutes under the broiler at the end changes the dish more than any ingredient in it. Braised chicken skin comes out of a slow cooker soft and pale. Brushed with sauce and set close to the element, it blisters and browns, and the contrast between crisp skin and the sauce underneath is most of what makes adobo worth making at home.

Slow Cooker Filipino Chicken Adobo

The Philippines' national dish is five pantry ingredients, one pot, and no measuring cup of technique — and it may be the cheapest genuinely great dinner you can make.

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 5 hours hrs

Total Time 5 hours hrs 10 minutes mins

Course Main Course

Cuisine Filipino

Servings 6 servings

Equipment

• Slow cooker 6-quart or larger

Ingredients

  

• 3 1/2 pounds bone-in skin-on chicken thighs and drumsticks
• 3/4 cup cane vinegar or white distilled vinegar
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/2 cup water
• 12 cloves garlic smashed
• 5 dried bay leaves
• 1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns lightly crushed
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch mixed with 1 tablespoon cold water, optional
• 3 green onions sliced

Instructions

 

• Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Working in batches, brown the chicken skin-side down for 4-5 minutes until golden. Transfer to the slow cooker.
• Pour off all but about a tablespoon of the fat. Add the smashed garlic to the skillet and cook for 30-45 seconds until fragrant, then scrape it over the chicken.
• Add the vinegar, soy sauce, water, bay leaves, crushed peppercorns, and brown sugar to the slow cooker. Do not stir – adobo is traditionally left alone until the vinegar has cooked off its raw edge.
• Cover and cook on LOW for 5 hours, or HIGH for 2 1/2 to 3 hours, until the chicken is tender and pulling from the bone.
• Transfer the chicken pieces to a foil-lined sheet pan, skin-side up.
• Skim the fat from the sauce. Simmer it in a saucepan for 8-10 minutes to thicken, or stir the cornstarch slurry into the slow cooker and cook on HIGH for 15 minutes.
• Brush the chicken with a few spoonfuls of sauce and broil 6 inches from the element for 4-6 minutes, until the skin blisters and browns. Watch closely – the sugar can burn quickly.
• Serve over rice with plenty of sauce spooned over, topped with green onions, alongside something crunchy and cool.

Notes

Buy a family pack of bone-in thighs and drumsticks rather than boneless breast. It is typically a third of the price per pound, and the bones and skin give the sauce its richness.

Plain white distilled vinegar is the budget choice and works completely. Cane or rice vinegar is milder.

Adobo improves after a night in the fridge – the vinegar mellows and the sauce sets.

For a richer variation common in the southern Philippines, stir 1/2 cup coconut milk into the sauce during the last 30 minutes.

Keyword budget-friendly, chicken adobo, filipino food, slow cooker