Pork Adobo is the delight of the Philippines – one chew and also you’ll be hooked! Pork is braised till meltingly tender in an intense soy-garlic sauce that reduces right down to nearly a glaze, and served over steaming rice. That is meals so good but so easy to make, you’ll be shaking your head in disbelief.
The Filipino are genius!
Adobo is the nationwide dish of the Philippines, and so they have each cause to be pleased with it! It’s a dish comprised of pork chunks braised in a garlic-soy flavoured liquid that reduces down into an intense flavoured glaze-like sauce. The pork is fork-tender, stained a wealthy mahogany color, and when it’s served over a pile of sizzling steamed rice, you’ll perceive why this can be a nationwide treasure.
At its coronary heart, it’s a easy, homely dish, and therein lies the genius – that one thing really easy with so few substances may be so unbelievable. It’s a one-pot recipe that’s hands-off, and the sauce simply requires pantry staples – soy, garlic, onion, vinegar, sugar, pepper and bay leaves.
Oh, and pork! 😅
Recipe credit score goes to my brother Goh – RecipeTin’s tech wizard and ace of world meals recipe improvement! He’s sacrificed his waistline consuming his manner via numerous Adobos within the Philippines and Sydney, in pursuit of making our excellent Pork Adobo I’ve been chasing for years.
inform me about filipino adobo!
Adobo is the nationwide dish of the Philippines, and the nation’s best-known meals export. There are literally many dishes known as “adobo” within the Philippines – some have coconut milk, some are soupy whereas others are dry-style and glazed, like my Hen Adobo, a protracted standing reader favorite and possibly the kind of Adobo most individuals outdoors the Philippines are accustomed to.
What pork adobo tastes like – The traditional and most typical adobo is made with the important thing substances of soy, vinegar and a contact of sugar. Like many conventional meals, Adobo is a type of dishes the place each family makes it their very own manner, to their very own tastes, and as we speak’s model is how we prefer it. We desire Adobo with a extra rounded flavour the place it’s principally savoury with simply sufficient vinegar for brightness with out being overly bitter (some restaurant are so bitter!) and never too candy (once more, some eating places are tooth-achingly candy!).
The Adobo sauce has an intense flavour which is the best way it’s purported to be: on the stronger aspect however with out being overly salty. The concept is you eat Adobo with loads of rice and serve with modest quantities of sauce moderately than drowning your rice in sauce.
Components in Pork Adobo
Right here’s what it is advisable to make Pork Adobo. I guess you’ve received all of the sauce substances in your pantry proper now!
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Pork meat – Pork stomach is the commonest minimize used for pork adobo, however I personally desire pork shoulder for a similar fall-apart-juicy meat however much less fatty. Shank/knuckle or forequarter chop meat additionally works rather well. Pork neck/scotch is superb too however scale back simmering time to 1 hour (it doesn’t want gradual cooking as lengthy).
Minimize the pork shoulder into giant 6 – 7cm / 2.5″ cubes. Bigger is best so that they don’t turn out to be “fall-apart” too shortly. Longer and slower cook dinner = extra tender, juicier meat and higher flavour within the sauce.
Different proteins – Sure, this recipe can be utilized for different gradual cooking proteins. See FAQ! For hen, use my Hen Adobo recipe.
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Soy sauces – The mild soy sauce is the first soy used right here which provides salt and umami with out an awesome soy flavour. The darkish soy sauce darkens the color of the sauce to nearly black. Darkish soy is kind of intense so we don’t want a lot – just one 1/2 teaspoons.
You may substitute the darkish soy with extra mild soy sauce, however don’t substitute the sunshine soy with darkish soy sauce as a result of it’ll too darkish and too intense, it’ll smash the dish! Extra about distinction soy sauces right here.
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Brown sugar – This offers the sweetness within the sauce. White sugar can be utilized as an alternative although brown is best as a result of it provides a smidge of caramel-y flavour. Honey will also be substituted however scale back amount to 2 1/2 tablespoons.
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Rice vinegar – The addition of vinegar is what makes adobo distinctive and distinctly Filipino. It provides spine and sharpens the sauce, however in a rounded manner because the lengthy braising softens the acidity. Be happy to make use of different kinds of vinegar. White wine, apple cider, or plain outdated white vinegar will all work. Vinegars can fluctuate rather a lot of their depth, amongst sorts in addition to even manufacturers. So begin with the quantity per the recipe, then style in the direction of the tip of cooking. In the event you desire a little bit extra sharpness, you possibly can add a teaspoon at a time to style.
Some adobos are intentionally fairly tangy, however we desire a gentler acidity. We use simply sufficient to deliver brightness with out being overly bitter. We sampled some from eating places that have been so bitter, we discovered it was an excessive amount of and tough to eat!
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Black peppercorns – Complete peppercorns are conventional however not important for my part. In the event you don’t like biting into complete peppercorns (I personally love the spicy pops!), you possibly can both add a superb pinch of floor black pepper, or go away it out.
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Pineapple – Pricey Filipinos, I do know, I do know. That is NOT a quite common ingredient in conventional pork adobo. Nevertheless I noticed it included in just a few fashionable variations and albeit, after attempting it I fell in love with it as an addition. It offers a scrumptious candy and recent counterpoint to the richly-flavoured pork and sauce, to not point out some welcome color to what’s in any other case a uniformly brown dish (no shade at brown dishes, in fact!!)
If you may get your palms on freshly minimize pineapple in fact that’s finest. In any other case, canned pineapple does a wonderfully acceptable job and is what I exploit. I like greater chunks minimize from rings, however smaller pre-cut items will even do fantastic if that’s all you could have.
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Bay leaves – You wouldn’t consider bay leaves as having a spot in South East Asian cooking! This can be a legacy of the Spanish colonial affect on Filipino delicacies. They’re elective when you don’t have any. Recent is best when you can (it’s a superb low-maintenance plant, if you wish to develop your individual!), else dried is okay.
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Water – Not proven. Sorry. As a result of I do know you’ve received some! (I’m speaking common faucet water right here, not a elaborate hard-to-find Filipino water!)
Tips on how to make pork adobo
It’s an extremely low-effort recipe. Extra nationwide dishes must be this hands-off! 😁
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Sear – Utilizing a big heavy primarily based pot, sear the pork in two batches over excessive warmth till properly golden throughout. Take about 4 minutes to do every batch, turning as wanted to sear either side and get some good golden color on it. Take away to a bowl and reserve residual fats within the pot.
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Sauté the onion till it softens, including the garlic in the direction of the tip.
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Braising liquid – Add the water, soy sauces, vinegar, sugar, bay leaves and peppercorns. Return the pork and any meat juices accrued within the bowl to the liquid. Deliver it to a boil, then decrease the warmth so the liquid is simmering gently (ie. just a few slow-ish bubbles, not fast small bubbles). Extra mild warmth = extra mild cooking = extra succulent meat.
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Gradual cook dinner 1 1/2 hours – Partially cowl the pot with a lid – by this, I imply place the lid on off centre to depart a crack about 2cm / 1″ – and simmer gently for 1 1/2 hours or till the pork is tender and may simply be pried aside. If it’s nonetheless not tender, maintain simmering till it’s!
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Proof of crumble pork!
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Take away the pork with a slotted spoon (it’s okay if the onion stays).
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Scale back sauce – Then enhance the warmth and boil the sauce to scale back right down to about 1 1/2 cups (375 ml), about 8 minutes. The precise time this takes will fluctuate, it will depend on how a lot liquid you begin with, energy of range and so on.
Adobo sauce thickness and flavour – It needs to be like a skinny syrup, it received’t thicken, with an intense flavour – that is the best way it’s purported to be. The concept is you eat adobo with loads of rice and serve with modest quantities of sauce moderately than drowning your rice in sauce.
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Serve – Add the pork and pineapple into the diminished sauce and stir for a couple of minutes simply to warmth via. Then over jasmine rice, garnished with inexperienced onions!
How and what to serve with Pork Adobo
With Pork Adobo, the thought is: a number of steaming rice in your plate, a modest quantity of that intense flavoured sauce, and items of pork that you simply break so it “falls aside” earlier than scooping up with a spoon for optimum flavour in each chew. Within the Philippines, fork-and-spoon consuming is the norm – excellent for Adobo consuming!
I’ve used plain jasmine rice right here, however any rice works, and garlic fried rice (sinangag) is a well-liked improve – – right here’s my garlic rice recipe, not strictly Filipino however comparable flavour.
Add one thing recent to chop the richness – smashed cucumbers is at all times a winner, plain undressed tomato and cucumber wedges (very South East Asian), my trusty Asian Facet Salad or a crunchy Asian Slaw (the freshness of the mint can be pretty with Pork Adobo!).
Take pleasure in! – Nagi x
FAQ – Pork Adobo
Sure – this can be a conventional pork adobo. It makes use of the traditional core substances you’ll discover in the commonest Filipino variations: pork, soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, onion, sugar, black pepper, and bay leaves. The tactic can be genuine – browning the meat, then slow-braising it till tender whereas the sauce reduces to a shiny glaze.
Nevertheless, we do decide to make use of pork shoulder which, although used within the Philippines, is just not as widespread as pork stomach. And our model additionally consists of pineapple which isn’t strictly old-school conventional although you do see it in some fashionable variations (we tried it with and with out and there’s no query – we adore it with pineapple!).
Sure. The tactic on this recipe is right for any slow-cooking minimize of meat and is straightforward to adapt – simply braise per the recipe till the meat is fork tender, take it out, then scale back the sauce. I feel pork is the perfect for the sauce flavour, although beef would even be pretty and truly, I feel it could be good with lamb too – the sturdy meat flavour will maintain as much as the extraordinary flavoured sauce fairly properly!
In the event you’re pondering hen, use my Hen Adobo recipe – it cooks a lot sooner, in a pan as an alternative of a pot.
This recipe was created by my brother Goh – RecipeTin’s resident tech wizard and, unofficially, our king of world meals recipe improvement. Whereas he’s the brains behind every thing IT for RecipeTin Eats and RecipeTin Meals, he’s equally obsessive about meals. He’s the sort of one that will strive his hand at Thomas Keller’s butter-poached lobster, tediously choose crab meat for from-scratch ravioli, can learn and perceive menus in 12 totally different languages, and famously spent most of his twenties saving to dine at a elaborate restaurant yearly. His favorite sport is searching down Sydney’s finest hole-in-the-wall joints (his reside meals map is a factor of legend).
He’s additionally the man who unapologetically balances all that appreciation of gorgeous meals with an equally profound appreciation of the Golden Arches and Colonel Sanders.😅
In terms of conventional Asian recipes, Goh is my go-to for fact-checking, tasting, or growing recipes solely from scratch – as with this Pork Adobo. Understanding I’d been eager to share “our excellent Adobo” for years, he ate his manner via numerous variations within the Philippines, then extra right here in Sydney (some so unappealing they have been nearly academic – sauces too thick, too bitter, too candy, meat too dry). These less-than-perfect meals formed precisely what we didn’t need, and it didn’t take lengthy for Goh and JB to nail a model that was every thing we did need – savoury, balanced, fall-apart tender pork, and a sauce simply intense sufficient.
The actual enjoyable was within the improvement course of – heated WhatsApp debates, shuttling samples between homes, dashing over a freshly made batch as a result of “it’s a must to strive it whereas it’s sizzling!”, and prolonged arguments about sauce discount (“Can a sauce be too intense?” – sure there may be such a factor, we determined). It’s that blend of Goh’s technical precision, culinary curiosity, and love of flavour that made this Pork Adobo working with JB and I that led to this recipe – the right Pork Adobo I’d at all times dreamed of sharing!
A lot of the recipe was created primarily based our common information we’ve garnered over time about Adobo and from the Hen Adobo I shared some years in the past. As a point out within the above FAQ, it’s not a tough recipe (there’s not that many substances in Adobo!), it’s nearly balancing the flavours to attain the right stability.
Every time we share significantly conventional recipes, we do extensively scour the web to see “what others are doing”, extra out of common curiosity and observe widespread themes. The recipes we principally referenced are:
As famous above, we additionally received samples from Sydney eating places however I don’t need to title them as a result of neither have been superb, I’m unhappy to report.
Goh additionally tried adobos from numerous places in Manila, together with avenue markets and in style conventional Filipino eating places.
Watch how one can make it
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Pork Adobo
Most important
Filipino
Servings4 – 5 individuals
Faucet or hover to scale
Components
Optionally available pineapple (Observe 4):
Stop display from sleeping
Directions
ABBREVIATED:
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Brown pork, take away, sauté onion and garlic, add every thing else. Return pork, deliver to boil, gradual cook dinner 1 1/2 hours till fall-apart. Caramelise pineapple items. Take away pork, scale back sauce to 1 1/2 cups (375 ml), stir in pork and caramelised pineapple till warmed. Serve over rice!
FULL RECIPE:
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Sear pork – Warmth the oil in a big heavy primarily based pot over excessive warmth. Sear half the pork till golden throughout – about 4 minutes – then take away right into a bowl. Repeat with remaining pork, add to the bowl.
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Sauté – Scale back warmth to medium. Add the onion, cook dinner for two minutes. Add garlic and cook dinner for an additional minute till the onion is softened.
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Braising liquid – Add water, soy sauces, vinegar, sugar, peppercorns and bay leaves. Stir. Add the pork again in, together with any juices accrued within the bowl.
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Gradual cook dinner 1 1/2 hours – Deliver to a boil, then partially cowl with a lid (go away a 2cm / 1″ crack) and scale back the warmth to low/medium low so the liquid is simmering very, very gently. (Observe 4) Simmer for 1 1/2 hours or till the pork is fall-apart tender (maintain simmering if not tender).
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Caramelise pineapple – Whereas pork is simmering, warmth the oil in a non-stick pan over medium warmth. Unfold the pineapple out in a single layer and cook dinner either side till golden, about 4 minutes either side (I exploit spatula + tongs to show). Take away onto plate till required.
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Scale back sauce – Take away pork with a slotted spoon (onion and so on would not matter when it is in or out). Improve warmth to excessive and boil to scale back the liquid right down to 1 1/2 cups – it will likely be a really skinny syrup (it isn’t purported to be thick), about 7 to 10 minutes.
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Coat pork – Scale back warmth to low. Add the pork and pineapple items, plus any juices within the bowl. Stir gently to coat within the sauce and heat the pork via once more.
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Serve over jasmine rice, garnished with inexperienced onion if utilizing.
Recipe Notes:
2. Soy sauces – You may substitute the darkish soy with extra mild soy sauce, however don’t sub the sunshine soy with darkish soy sauce as a result of it’s so intense, it’ll smash the dish!
3. The peppercorns are a bit spicy once you chew into them, although the spiciness dials down fairly a bit in the course of the gradual cooking time. Some persons are bothered by them, I like them! You may omit if you’d like, or sub with 1/4 tsp floor black pepper added in the direction of the tip.
4. Pineapple isn’t strictly conventional – it’s presumably a contemporary variation – although it’s included in Filipino recipes. We LOVE the visible curiosity, and the refreshing and candy component it provides to stability the salty/bitter flavours and fatty meat, so we included it nevertheless it’s solely elective.
5. Simmering energy – The bubbles needs to be small and delicate, not fast and enormous. The extra mild the simmer, the slower the pork cooks, the extra tender and juicy it’s!
Leftovers will maintain for 4 days within the fridge, or 3 months within the freezer.
Diet per serving assuming 5 servings, excluding rice. Assumes all sauce is consumed.
Diet Data:
Energy: 357cal (18%)Carbohydrates: 25g (8%)Protein: 28g (56%)Fats: 16g (25%)Saturated Fats: 4g (25%)Polyunsaturated Fats: 3gMonounsaturated Fats: 9gTrans Fats: 0.03gLdl cholesterol: 82mg (27%)Sodium: 1502mg (65%)Potassium: 642mg (18%)Fiber: 2g (8%)Sugar: 20g (22%)Vitamin A: 80IU (2%)Vitamin C: 11mg (13%)Calcium: 68mg (7%)Iron: 3mg (17%)
Lifetime of Dozer
Ah. So that is what it feels wish to be dethroned by your individual darn canine.😅 Row, Row, Row (with Monsters) that includes Dozer takes over my very own cookbooks within the charts – go Dozer, go!
For many who missed the thrilling announcement on Friday, Dozer is starring in a kids’s ebook written by Adam Simpson known as Row, Row, Row your Board (With Monsters). Pre-orders have been introduced final Friday, the ebook lands in shops (or in your doorstep!) on 11 November 2025, and the writer is donating all his royalties to a meals charity. 🥰 You perceive now why it was a simple YES! when the writer requested if I’d wish to be concerned!
