Chicken Adobo Family Recipe

Chicken adobo is a mouth-watering dish served with hot steamed rice with a vegetable side dish. For color contrast and presentation, you may use for vegetables green beans, asparagus spears, or swiss chard sautee.

Chicken adobo may be categorized thus: (1) wet and (2) dry. Adobo can also be further categorized into a recipe using onions and a recipe that doesn't use onions. Onions do not belong to real adobo as it imparts a taste and aroma that defeats and overwhelms the garlic, the star clove, and the peppercorn aroma.

And another thing. Do not ever use chicken white meat for adobo. It dries up and becomes nonpalatable. Use only the dark meat. In fact, if you are adventurous, you may include the giblets (liver, gizzard, neck). Use only chicken thighs, drum sticks and the back ribs.

It is also best to use a wok, teflon coated or otherwise, to cook adobo because as the water is displaced and the pieces begin to be braised in its own chicken oil, you must carefully turn the pieces over until golden brown.

With that introduction, here's the Dry Chicken Adobo recipe that has been with the family for as long as I can remember.

Ingredients

• Four thighs and four drumsticks with the livers, gizzards and necks
• 4 Star cloves (available at most Asian food stores)
• 1 fresh garlic bulb, crushed, peeled, and chopped
• 1 tsp of oregano
• 1 tbsp of whole peppercorns, coarsely crushed
• 2 bay leaves (crushed or whole)
  
• 1/3 cup of Tamari Soy Sauce
• 1/4 cup of 5% acidity Apple Cider vinegar
• 3 packets of Splenda, Equal, or Sweet and Low Sugar
• Dash of red pepper (the same you use on your pizza)
• Cold water to cover the chicken pieces in the wok
  

Procedure

1. Wash the pieces of chicken, place in colander and allow the pieces to drip excess water.
2. In the wok, pour the soy sauce, vinegar, and the sugar. Using a whisk or a ladle, mix the sauce. Dip your finger; taste the sauce. Adjust the tartness, sweetness, saltiness to your taste. Be careful not to overdo this because you can come up with too much soy sauce, and/or too much vinegar, or too much sugar.
   
3. Add the garlic, oregano, bay leaves, red pepper. Mix thoroughly.
4. Lay the chicken pieces in the wok, lining the wok bottom with the thighs and the drumsticks next and finally the giblets on the topmost layer.
5. Scatter the crushed black peppercorns over the chicken pieces.
6. Pour the cold water over the chicken pieces until the pieces are covered. Place the wok lid to seal the wok.
7. Turn on the heat to high. If using an electric wok, turn the heat to high. The wok will begin to boil. Let it boil for about 15 minutes. Turn the heat to medium. The wok will go into simmer while continuing to cook and to get rid of the water turned to steam.
   
8. Stay with the dish so that you will be there on hand as soon as all the water evaporates and the chicken pieces begin to drip their own oil. If for some reason you have to leave the wok at this point, you can listen for the sizzling sound of fat dripping - as this will let you know that the dish critical time has arrived. You must turn the heat to low at this time to prevent burning the pieces and the sauce.
9. Turn over the chicken pieces gently, trying to not tear the flesh off of the bone. By turning the chicken pieces over you help the pieces to get browned and to get exposed to the spices. Make sure that all the pieces get bathed in the oil and with the spices.
10. Keep cooking the dish and gently turning the pieces until it gets as "dry" as you desire it. In the end you will only have some oil and the spices in the bottom of the wok.

Serving

Ladle the chicken into a platter, using the thighs to line the bottom level followed by the drumsticks and the giblets. Use the star cloves to accent the chicken pieces. Garnish with a sprig of parsely or fresh cilantro. Serve with steamed rice and the green vegetable.

Trying to cope in my little corner of the world

America is a big country. Americans are a diverse people. There are pockets of good folks as there are pockets of not-so-good folks. It follows that in every barrel of apples there will be those that are rotten.

But how do the clean and not yet rotted apples cope when the rottenness is broadcast not only through close proximity of the rotten apple but also by the press and the media?

We no longer have a free press to champion the truth. We no longer have the media functioning as the all-seeing eye to keep things in check. Instead we have a press that is totally owned by the White House. We have media that are disciples of the Left. I have yet to read a truthful account of some newsworthy event printed. I have yet to hear an unbiased news and investigative commentary of how this administration is so rapidly eroding our economic system of free enterprise turning it into a bankrupt, penniless and profligate house.

What is totally damning is the oblivious population that remains blind and deaf to all these things happening around them. What kind of event will wake up fellow Americans from their sugar-induced slumber? Another terrorist attack? Pestilence? Famine? Confiscation of their firearms? The silencing of conservative Talk Radio? They would just as soon watch all the television over-coverage of the death of Michael Jackson rather than call their representatives to let them know that the Cap and Trade bill is bad legislation. I made my phone call to my representative. He assured me he would vote NO.

In my little corner of the world, I feel only comfort and peace amid all the national turbulence of legislative bartering of votes to pass a destructive bill, such as, the Cap and Trade. The common citizen however, goes on with his or her life as usual - no voltage surges and spikes to rock his home PC systems, she can still watch Oprah on TV, and the kids can still play video games. Whatever is happening in Washington, DC is of no concern to the people. Never mind that the administration and the majority Democratic Congress are always trying to raise taxes in an effort to fuel their own over-spending binges.

With the passing of each B. Hussein Obama day, it is getting harder and harder to cope. There is so much stealth going on at the hands of this president it is incredible. Congress is a rubber stamp. The Republicans have been rendered impotent by Nancy Pelosi. There is hardly any resistance from anybody anymore. Still this president signs Executive Orders bypassing his rubber stamp Congress to pass his programs, like the $20 billion for the Hamas terrorists to be repatriated to the US. For another thing, I think Hussein Obama doesn't want to wind up owing so much goodwill from Nancy Pelosi that is why he is bypassing Congress. Clever!

CrAP & TRADE

I heard Nancy Pelosi scream victoriously at the passing of this "Sh*t bill" according to Congressman Boehner. What does this mean to me? From what I have been able to glean from reading news bits and pieces, this bill is a tax on energy use based on the false assumption that global warming is indeed happening as caused by humans. Simply stated, we consumers are going to be taxed when we emit CO2, when we use electricity, when we run our cars, when we breath in and out. Farmers will pay taxes when their cows emit flatulence, when they use their mechanized farm implements, and when they grow certain crops. Utility companies will be taxed heavily for using coal. Manufacturing firms will have to lessen their use of energy so that they don't emit so much CO2.

Good Lord! In this case, what will happen to America, the most industrialized country in the world? Are we going to turn into a land of languishing factories, farms allowed to lay fallow, a land of bicycle riders and street walkers? Will utility companies be able to survive such Draconian tax increases for them to operate? How will consumers afford to pay for their utility bills? How will this legislation affect the jobless rate? How will this legislation of more taxes help revive the economy?

And back to the most fundamental root cause for this tax bill - global warming - isn't this the biggest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people? Clearly this administration thinks that today's American people are the dumbest they have ever seen. Why should the administration think otherwise when the general public remains silent even as they are being sodomized by the administration and Congress? Where is the outrage people?

Hurry, Hurry, Hurry

To watch the Democrats rush through Congress their favorite bills is dizzying. It gives me the impression that the Democrats know something about what's going to happen tomorrow and it ain't necessarily pretty. For why would they be rushing things through? Where is the fire? Where is the emergency? Ah yes. The government is broke and they need to raise taxes and/or to print more money. That is why they are rushing this CAP & TRADE hu-ha put together by Mr. Wax-in the Nostril-man himself.

Mr. and Mrs. America, let us say, "Wait! Hold it. Not so fast. Let us read and scrutinize the contents of your voluminous work." Remember what happened to the Porkulos Bill that nobody read but signed? Are we looking like a nation of idiots and sheep or what?

I don't get it. The economy is tanking and all the Democrats do is to raise taxes. Here's Obama who is using ABC as his infomercial network. I remember the Ross Perot infomercials; they were far more interesting than this Obama "read the teleprompter" hogging of the limelight. Did I watch the Messiah's cajoling of the public? NO... and hell no! I have had it with this charlatan. I have never seen anybody who is so in love with his own voice and likeness on screen that he literally has to make pronouncements every damn day - not to mention television appearances. And now that he has his own network in the White House - lookout!

I say give this guy his own reality show on TV. Give him a contract. "How to Lie to the Public," or "How to Do as I say but not as I do!" How long will America endure this Simple Simon?