Chicken Adobo

This week was a great week- mostly because I wrapped up work travel for awhile. That leaves me with free time to start my weekly tradition of trying at least one new recipe. This week’s pick is Chicken Adobo from the January 2011 issue of Cook’s Country. It really is a great magazine filled with great tips and fantastic recipes.

Chicken Adobo is simple, inexpensive, and spicy! The flavor has a lot of layers as a result of the molasses and instant coffee, and the use of chicken thighs instead of white-meat chicken.

Chicken Adobo (4 servings)
1 (14.5) oz. can of diced tomatoes, drained
3 tablespoons, canned chipotle in adobo
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp. dried oregano
1 ½ tsp. instant coffee (or instant espresso powder)
Salt & pepper
6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into 2-inch pieces
1 tablespoons canola oil
1 onion, finely chopped
3 Tbsp. molasses

Start with the prep work with the veggies. I was feeling lazy tonight and used the mini food processor to mince the chipotle in adobo, chop the onions and garlic, and then puree the tomatoes. (Oh, and keep everything separated).

Preheat a skillet (you’ll need one with a lid) over medium high heat. Add 1 tablespoon of oil.

Next, mix up the chipotle paste for the chicken in a medium to large bowl. Combine the chipotle, oregano, instant coffee, salt, and pepper. Dry the chicken with paper towel s and then toss the meat to coat it in the paste.

Brown the chicken in the skillet—it takes about 3 minutes on each side. Then move the chicken to a plate.

At this point, you may need to add another tablespoon of oil to the pan, but there was enough fat leftover from the chicken to sauté the onion and garlic until they had softened and had started to brown, which took about 6 minutes. Don’t forget to season the veggies with a dash of salt.

After the onions are cooked. Add the processed tomatoes, molasses and chicken to the pan. Cover the skillet and simmer the mixture until the sauce thickens and the chicken is completely cooked, which will take about 10 minutes. Season the dish with salt and pepper and serve over rice.

The recipe calls for 3 tablespoons of chipotle in adobe, but next time I think I’ll decrease the amount to 2 or 2 ½ tablespoons since this dish was pretty spicy. I served this with baked brown rice. You could substitute chicken breast, but I think the spicy sauce needs the heartiness of the chicken thighs to stand up to it.