Alright, here’s a brief background on the contents of this entry.

I am Filipino-American.  No, I don’t speak Tagalog.  I barely understand most of it.  Because why?  It’s not the dialect I grew up with.  Newsflash, Tagalog is not the only language Filipinos speak.  There are plenty of Filipino dialects, and one of them is Kapampangan.  That is my family’s dialect.  Let me break it down for you:  KUH-PUM-PAHNG-AHN.  You can practice that on your own time and drop some random knowledge on people who don’t know.

Anyway, as you can imagine, the different provinces in the Philippines not only produced different dialects, but also different versions of Filipino dishes.  One that I particularly am fond of is tinola.  I consider it the Filipino version of chicken soup.  This is one of the first types of ulam (OOH-LAHM.  Very loosely translated, it’s like the Filipino word for main entrée, and you eat it with what else?  Rice.) that I learned to cook by myself strictly from memory of watching my mom cook.  She typically includes chayote, but I leave that out simply because I don’t eat chayote.

Now, if any of you are Filipino and are going to criticize this little tutorial I’m about to share, quite frankly, I really don’t care.  I’ve cooked this many times and have had my parents taste it, they approve, that’s all I need.

DISCLAIMER:  In my experience as a Filipino-American, Filipino cooking is not precise, I don’t think any cooking really is, unless of course, it’s baking.  This recipe is how I cook it.  By no means is it the “right” way or the “authentic” way.  I actually did not have an easy time documenting and remembering everything I did while cooking this in order to share it – that should be enough indication of how this recipe is not by the book.  It’s practically mindless for me.

ALSO:  This is not vegetarian, gluten-free (to my knowledge), or…don’t ask me if it’s healthy.  Let’s just say it’s healthier than other ulams because it’s soup/broth (sabo).

AND ALSO:   This dish uses FISH SAUCE.  If you can’t stand that smell, well, I don’t know what to tell you. This is the fish sauce I have.  Compared to the brand my mom buys (don’t remember what it is), this is strong, even for me.  And I grew up on this stuff.  But I power through.

So for anyone who wants to try cooking Filipino food and has never done it, I recommend tinola as a good starter dish.  Here are the ingredients and how I slapped them together.

Ingredients

3-4 tbsp Whatever oil you use to cook with (and I usually add more as I go along, as needed)

1-2 tbsp garlic, minced

1 yellow onion, sliced or chopped

ginger root, peeled and sliced*

6 chicken thighs, skin on, prepped for cooking**

2 tbsp fish sauce

1-2 cups water (sometimes more)

1-2 bunches fresh spinach, washed***

rice (optional)

*If you don’t have ginger root, ginger powder works fine.  I used ginger powder once when I already started cooking this and realized I didn’t have fresh ginger.  I would say maybe 1-2 tablespoons of ginger powder works fine, any more would probably be too much.

**You don’t have to use chicken thighs.  My mom uses thighs and drumsticks, my cousin used only chicken wings.  It’s really whatever chicken you have.  I have not had tinola with chicken breasts as the featured meat, you could probably use that here, however the darker meat with the skin on renders more flavor.  I cut slits through the tops of the thighs to aide in thorough cooking.

***Cabbage, broccoli, or kale work great too if you don’t have spinach.

I’m not sure exactly how long this entire recipe takes.  Between prepping the garlic, onion, ginger, and chicken, plus cooking time, I would say it takes approximately 1 hour.

You’ll need a saucepan or pot large enough to fit all your chicken pieces on the heated surface.

1. Heat oil in saucepan/pot on MEDIUM-MEDIUM HIGH, add onions, garlic, ginger and sauté for a few minutes. Be careful not to burn the garlic (I still do sometimes), but enjoy the aromatics.

2. Create a bed of the onions, garlic, and ginger, and lay the chicken skin side down on top. Leave on MEDIUM-HIGH for about 5 minutes to brown the skin.  Cover saucepan/pot and let the chicken cook for about 5-10 minutes.  Add a little bit more oil around the edge of the saucepan/pot to ensure the chicken doesn’t stick.

 

3. Flip the chicken, then pour fish sauce over chicken and cook, covered, an additional 10 minutes on MEDIUM-HIGH.

 

4. Add water. We’re essentially braising the chicken.  Add enough so that the chicken is halfway submerged, then bring to a boil.  When it reaches boiling, cover and simmer at MEDIUM heat, for about 30-35 minutes.  Keep an eye on your broth levels, and add more water as needed.

 

5. When I feel like having rice with my tinola, this is the time where I cook 2 cups in my rice cooker. If I want to make it healthier, I’ll cook a cup or two of quinoa instead on the stove.  Either way, the amount of time it takes for the rice or quinoa to cook is how long I let the chicken finish cooking, so I use that as my timer.

 

6. When the rice/quinoa is done, or after 30-35 minutes, bring the saucepan/pot to a boil again. Add spinach, cover.  Reduce heat to LOW/WARM/OFF.  The spinach should wilt in about 5 minutes.  My mom tends to separate the vegetables from the pot after everything has been cooked so that it doesn’t get too overcooked, or in the way of fishing out a piece of chicken.  I highly recommend this.

 

7. Time to plate and eat!

And that’s it!  Not so bad right?  Definitely good comfort food, especially on a cold day.

Hope you enjoy!