Pork Adobo is the delight of the Philippines – one chew and also you’ll be hooked! Meltingly tender pork is gradual cooked till fall-apart in an intense soy-garlic sauce that reduces right down to a glaze, then 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 components could 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 means via numerous Adobos within the Philippines and Sydney, in pursuit of making our good 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 doubtless the kind of Adobo most individuals exterior the Philippines are acquainted with.
What pork adobo tastes like – The traditional and commonest adobo is made with the important thing components 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 means, to their very own tastes, and immediately’s model is how we prefer it. We want 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 way in which it’s purported to be: on the stronger facet however with out being overly salty. The thought is you eat Adobo with loads of rice and serve with modest quantities of sauce slightly than drowning your rice in sauce.
Substances in Pork Adobo
Right here’s what it is advisable make Pork Adobo. I wager you’ve acquired all of the sauce components in your pantry proper now!
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Pork meat – Pork stomach is the commonest lower used for pork adobo, however I personally want pork shoulder for a similar fall-apart-juicy meat however much less fatty. Shank/knuckle or forequarter chop meat additionally works very well. Pork neck/scotch is superb too however cut back simmering time to 1 hour (it doesn’t want gradual cooking as lengthy).
Reduce the pork shoulder into giant 6 – 7cm / 2.5″ cubes. Bigger is best in order that they don’t develop into “fall-apart” too shortly. Longer and slower prepare 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 gentle soy sauce is the first soy used right here which provides salt and umami with out an amazing soy flavour. The darkish soy sauce darkens the color of the sauce to virtually black. Darkish soy is kind of intense so we don’t want a lot – only one 1/2 teaspoons.
You’ll be able to substitute the darkish soy with extra gentle soy sauce, however don’t substitute the sunshine soy with darkish soy sauce as a result of it’s going to too darkish and too intense, it’s going to break the dish! Extra about distinction soy sauces right here.
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Brown sugar – This gives 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 cut 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 means because the lengthy braising softens the acidity. Be at liberty to make use of different kinds of vinegar. White wine, apple cider, or plain outdated white vinegar will all work. Vinegars can differ quite a bit 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. When you want a little bit extra sharpness, you’ll be able to add a teaspoon at a time to style.
Some adobos are intentionally fairly tangy, however we want a gentler acidity. We use simply sufficient to convey 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 troublesome to eat!
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Black peppercorns – Complete peppercorns are conventional however not important in my opinion. When you don’t like biting into complete peppercorns (I personally love the spicy pops!), you’ll be able to both add a great pinch of floor black pepper, or depart 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 trendy variations and albeit, after making an attempt it I fell in love with it as an addition. It gives 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, after all!!)
If you may get your fingers on freshly lower pineapple after all that’s greatest. In any other case, canned pineapple does a superbly acceptable job and is what I take advantage of. I like greater chunks lower from rings, however smaller pre-cut items may also do high-quality if that’s all you’ve.
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Bay leaves – You wouldn’t consider bay leaves as having a spot in South East Asian cooking! It is a legacy of the Spanish colonial affect on Filipino delicacies. They’re non-compulsory in case you don’t have any. Recent is best in case 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 acquired some! (I’m speaking common faucet water right here, not a flowery hard-to-find Filipino water!)
The right way to make pork adobo
It’s an extremely low-effort recipe. Extra nationwide dishes have to be this hands-off! 😁
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Sear – Utilizing a big heavy based mostly 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 both sides 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 amassed within the bowl to the liquid. Convey it to a boil, then decrease the warmth so the liquid is simmering gently (ie. just a few slow-ish bubbles, not speedy small bubbles). Extra mild warmth = extra mild cooking = extra succulent meat.
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Gradual prepare dinner 1 1/2 hours – Partially cowl the pot with a lid – by this, I imply place the lid on off centre to go away a crack about 2cm / 1″ – and simmer gently for 1 1/2 hours or till the pork is tender and might simply be pried aside. If it’s nonetheless not tender, maintain simmering till it’s!
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Proof of disintegrate 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 improve 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 differ, it is determined by how a lot liquid you begin with, power of range and so on.
Adobo sauce thickness and flavour – It ought to be like a skinny syrup, it gained’t thicken, with an intense flavour – that is the way in which it’s purported to be. The thought is you eat adobo with loads of rice and serve with modest quantities of sauce slightly than drowning your rice in sauce.
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Serve – Add the pork and pineapple into the lowered 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 – good 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 related flavour.
Add one thing recent to chop the richness – smashed cucumbers is all the time 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 beautiful 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 components you’ll discover in the commonest Filipino variations: pork, soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, onion, sugar, black pepper, and bay leaves. The tactic can also 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, isn’t as frequent as pork stomach. And our model additionally consists of pineapple which isn’t strictly old-school conventional although you do see it in some trendy variations (we tried it with and with out and there’s no query – we find it irresistible with pineapple!).
Sure. The tactic on this recipe is right for any slow-cooking lower of meat and is simple to adapt – simply braise per the recipe till the meat is fork tender, take it out, then cut back the sauce. I feel pork is the most effective for the sauce flavour, although beef would even be beautiful and truly, I feel it might be good with lamb too – the robust meat flavour will maintain as much as the extraordinary flavoured sauce fairly effectively!
When you’re considering hen, use my Hen Adobo recipe – it cooks a lot quicker, in a pan as an alternative of a pot.
Not advisable for this one sadly. It’s such a easy sauce, and watery one at that, so getting the flavour depends on the caramelisation you get throughout the gradual cooking stage on the floor and edges of the liquid which then intensifies when the sauce is lowered. I do know that in a gradual cooker this may actually lack depth of flavour.
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 all the things IT for RecipeTin Eats and RecipeTin Meals, he’s equally obsessive about meals. He’s the type of one that will attempt 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 flowery restaurant every year.
His favorite sport is searching down Sydney’s greatest hole-in-the-wall joints (his stay meals map is a factor of legend) and he’s additionally the man who unapologetically balances all that appreciation of lovely meals with an equally profound appreciation of the Golden Arches and Colonel Sanders.😅
In relation to conventional Asian recipes, Goh is my go-to for fact-checking, tasting, or creating recipes totally from scratch – as with this Pork Adobo. Figuring out I’d been desirous to share “our good Adobo” for years, he ate his means via numerous variations when he lately visited the Philippines, then extra right here in Sydney (some so unappealing they have been virtually 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 all the things we did need – savoury, balanced, fall-apart tender pork, and a sauce simply intense sufficient.
The true 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 important to attempt 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 proper Pork Adobo I’d all the time dreamed of sharing!
A lot of the recipe was created based mostly our basic data 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 components in Adobo!), it’s nearly balancing the flavours to realize the proper stability.
Each time we share significantly conventional recipes, we do extensively scour the web to see “what others are doing”, extra out of basic curiosity and observe frequent themes. The recipes we principally referenced are:
As famous above, we additionally acquired samples from Sydney eating places however I don’t wish to title them as a result of neither have been excellent, I’m unhappy to report.
Goh additionally tried adobos from varied areas 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
Prep: 10 minutes
Prepare dinner: 2 hours
Major
Filipino
Servings4 – 5 folks
Faucet or hover to scale
Substances
Elective pineapple (Be aware 4):
Stop display from sleeping
Directions
ABBREVIATED:
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Brown pork, take away, sauté onion and garlic, add all the things else. Return pork, convey to boil, gradual prepare dinner 1 1/2 hours till fall-apart. Caramelise pineapple items. Take away pork, cut 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 based mostly 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, prepare dinner for two minutes. Add garlic and prepare 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 amassed within the bowl.
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Gradual prepare dinner 1 1/2 hours – Convey to a boil, then partially cowl with a lid (depart a 2cm / 1″ crack) and cut back the warmth to low/medium low so the liquid is simmering very, very gently. (Be aware 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 prepare dinner both sides till golden, about 4 minutes both sides (I take advantage of 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 – will probably be a really skinny syrup (it is not 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:
Different proteins – Different stewing cuts will work nice, see FAQ for instructions. For hen, see Hen Adobo.
2. Soy sauces – You’ll be able to substitute the darkish soy with extra gentle soy sauce, however don’t sub the sunshine soy with darkish soy sauce as a result of it’s so intense, it’s going to break the dish!
3. The peppercorns are a bit spicy while you chew into them, although the spiciness dials down fairly a bit throughout the gradual cooking time. Some individuals are bothered by them, I really like them! You’ll be able to 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 factor it provides to stability the salty/bitter flavours and fatty meat, so we included it however it’s totally non-compulsory.
5. Simmering power – The bubbles ought to be small and delicate, not speedy and enormous. The extra mild the simmer, the slower the pork cooks, the extra tender and juicy it’s!
6. Gradual cooker not advisable for this recipe sadly, it’s going to lack flavour as you gained’t get any floor caramelisation throughout gradual cooking stage.
Leftovers will maintain for 4 days within the fridge, or 3 months within the freezer.
Vitamin per serving assuming 5 servings, excluding rice. Assumes all sauce is consumed.
Vitamin 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 individuals who missed the thrilling announcement on Friday, Dozer is starring in a kids’s e book written by Adam Simpson known as Row, Row, Row your Board (With Monsters). Pre-orders have been introduced final Friday, the e book 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 straightforward YES! when the writer requested if I’d wish to be concerned!
