Recipe video above. One of the most amazing Asian chicken thigh recipes I have ever come across. Intense in flavour, but so fast and easy to prepare! Chicken is so tender, it's like it's been slow cooked.
Recipe by Nagi | RecipeTin Eats on January 6, 2020
Combine Chicken and Marinade ingredients in a bowl. Marinate for at least 20 minutes, or up to overnight.
Heat 1 tbsp oil in a skillet over high heat. Remove chicken from marinade (reserve marinade) and place in the pan. Sear both sides until browned – about 1 minute on each side. Do not cook the chicken all the way through.
Remove chicken skillet and set aside.
Heat the remaining oil in skillet. Add garlic and onion, cook 1 1/2 minutes.
Add the reserved marinade, water, sugar and black pepper. Bring it to a simmer then turn heat down to medium high. Simmer 5 minutes.
Add chicken smooth side down. Simmer uncovered for 20 to 25 minutes (no need to stir), turning chicken at around 15 minutes, until the sauce reduces down to a thick jam-like syrup.
If the sauce isn't thick enough, remove chicken onto a plate and let the sauce simmer by itself - it will thicken much quicker - then return chicken to the skillet to coat in the glaze.
Coat chicken in glaze then serve over rice. Pictured in post as a healthy dinner plate (415 calories) with cauliflower rice and Ginger Smashed Cucumbers.
Nutitrion
Serving Size: 407 g
Calories: 350 kcal
Carbohydrates: 13 g
Protein: 39 g
Fat: 15 g
Saturated Fat: 3 g
Cholesterol: 178 mg
Sodium: 1458 mg
Sugar: 7 g
Reviews
I have a weird name on 2025-07-20 (2 stars): So, this didn't happen: "If the sauce isn't thick enough, remove chicken onto a plate and let the sauce simmer by itself – it will thicken much quicker."
It was still good, but not what I expected. It's chicken with gravy. I love Nagi's cooking, but this ain't it.
RiceBowl on 2025-07-11 (5 stars): Wow. Just wow. My first time making chicken adobo (my former neighbor used to make it for us) and I got it right on the first try. It's on regular rotation now as the whole family loves it! Thank you so much for sharing!
mark on 2025-07-10 (5 stars): ...no issue here. Kept an eye on the whole process. Kept to the suggested amounts. kicked it little as it was getting to closing time. Delicious. The ginger cucumber salad outofthisworld <3 cheers, another brick in the wall x
Tiffy on 2025-07-03 (5 stars): Followed this recipe to a T and OMG what a flavor bomb. The chicken was soooo flavorful and reminded me of my friend’s mom adobo chicken. This will definitely be added to my dinner rotation. Nagi, I am 2 for 2 on your recipes. Can’t wait to try the next recipe. Thank you!!!
Tiffy on 2025-07-03 (5 stars): Followed this recipe to a T and OMG what a flavor bomb. The chicken was soooo flavorful and reminded me of my friend’s mom adobo chicken. This will definitely be added to my dinner rotation. Nagi, I am 2 for 2 on your recipes. Can’t wait to try the next. Thank you!!!
Morgan in Oregon on 2025-06-21 (5 stars): Made this tonight for the fam. Even both toddlers DEVOURED it and that's saying something!! Thank you Nagi! Just received your cook book in the mail this last week but was searching your site for something with chicken thighs... so glad I did! This is the 1st of MANY recipes for me! Thank you for making this busy moms life simple and DELICIOUS! -:)
HG Torman on 2025-06-19 (5 stars): I am cooking this right now. Waiting on the sauce to reduce. Tasting so far has been out of this world! Really looking forward to this!
Nora Steele on 2025-06-08 (5 stars): Kapow!
I'm very limited to what I can eat, and this is my go to. Easy and delicious. I've been using fillets, but today I'm going to try slivered because that's all I have. Fingers crossed it will come out just as good.
Toni on 2025-05-25 (5 stars): The adobo was delicious, a friend had cooked it and told me to give it a try and google led me to this site. The recipe instructions were really easy to follow. I do agree with the other comments, the sauce took a little longer to reduce, however after I took the chicken out, it went really quickly!! We cannot wait to have this recipe again.
Lena on 2025-05-21 (4 stars): It was good but I dont understand the absolute hype. 4 stars for being a decent meal and cost effective. Maybe there's some tweaks to bring it up a notch but other than being a exactly that - decent and cost effective i don't get the rave.
That being said following the recipe I had no problem getting the sauce to reduce to a jam, but I did use a little less water than said to begin with (i used bone in skin on). As a matter of fact at the end I had to reconstituted with a little bit of water because because it gor too dense. No biggie.
Alex Saas on 2025-05-13 (4 stars): I just made and had this for dinner. It's been several years since I had Adobo and wanted to try my hand at it. I followed the directions exactly, except for one change and wanted to mention that change for those who made read this later. I'm not sure if it's a typo or not, but when I originally read the recipe, I thought it said 1 tsp of pepper. So when I saw that it was actually 1 tbsp, I was really surprised. I've never cooked a dish that required 1 tbsp of pepper... So I cut it in half to 1/2 tbsp. Even cutting it in half, it was way too much pepper for my taste. Overall the taste was very good, except for the pepper. I will make this again, but will cut it down to either 1 or 1/2 tsp pepper.
Tanya on 2025-04-10 (5 stars): Made this recipe and changed 2 things 1 purposely one by mistake. First I substituted hot chili oil for the vegetable oil to bring some heat. Then I accidentally cooked the 25 minutes with the top on so sauce didn't reduce. But... it was delicious. Will definitely make again next time top off 😆. Served with jasmine rice and a side of sauted zuchinni. 😋
Janine on 2025-03-31 (5 stars): Delicious! Sauce took longer to reduce, but worth persevering!
Barb on 2025-03-31 (5 stars): Hey Nagi,
MOTH & I just returned from the Philipinnes and we very much enjoyed pork & chicken adobo.
I was speaking to a chef over there and I just had to bring home Banana Ketchup. It's absolutely delish and can be used to marinade soooo much protein.
I've brought back so many cooking ideas, so excited to experiment.
