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Slow Cooker Chicken Adobo Recipe

Slow Cooker Chicken Adobo
Difficulty: Easy | Total Time: | Makes: 4 to 6 servings

The ingredients that go into a Filipino adobo, and their proportions, depend on where you’re from or how your mother or grandmother made it—it’s a source of heated debate—but at the dish’s core, it’s really meat or seafood that’s braised in a vinegary sauce. This easy, mild version cooks onions, chicken, soy sauce, and vinegar in a slow cooker, and takes advantage of bone-in chicken thighs’ extra flavor from the bones. The onions absorb the savory sauce, and all that’s needed to complete the meal is a pile of steamed rice to soak everything up.

Game plan: This recipe gets better as it sits, and can be made up to 1 day in advance.

This dish was featured as part of our Cozy Chicken recipe gallery.

INGREDIENTS
  • 4 medium yellow onions, halved and thinly sliced
  • 4 medium garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
  • 1 (5-inch) piece fresh ginger, cut into 1-inch pieces
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 3 pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
  • 3/4 cup soy sauce
  • 1/4 cup rice vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • Steamed rice, for serving
INSTRUCTIONS
  1. Place the onions, garlic, ginger, and bay leaf in an even layer in the slow cooker.
  2. Remove and discard the skin from the chicken. Arrange the chicken in an even layer on top of the onion mixture.
  3. Whisk the soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, and pepper together in a medium bowl and pour it over the chicken.
  4. Cover and cook until the chicken is cooked through and falling off the bone, about 4 to 5 hours on high or low. Remove and discard the ginger pieces and bay leaf. Serve with steamed rice.
    Write a review | 20 Reviews
  • Slow Cooker Chicken Adobo Recipe
    5

    I will make this again. I cooked on low for 5 hours. Before I added the minced ginger and garlic, I lightly sautéed them (I find raw garlic in the crock too strong) So, we did not remove the ginger (We love ginger) I also added a small green pepper, coarsely chopped. I didn't use the sugar, at first. At the fourth hour, I tasted the sauce. It definitely needed the sugar and it made a world of difference. This is a very inexpensive meal and utterly delicious. (Moist and oh so flavorful!)

  • Slow Cooker Chicken Adobo Recipe
    5

    I seriously do not understand- does Serious Cook's lawyer make you put in that silly statement about "can be made one day ahead"? With all the(preservative/acid) vinegar in this dish (it should definitely have more or equal vinegar to soy sauce)this recipe easily has a refrigerated shelf life of MANY more days than one. Said after 30 yrs of making and eating this dish, and living to tell the tale!

  • Slow Cooker Chicken Adobo Recipe
    5

    I add annatto seed liquid from adding boiling water to annatto seeds then adding just the liquid in .I also use Datu Puti coconut vinegar & soy sauce .

  • Slow Cooker Chicken Adobo Recipe
    5

    Make cracklin's out of the removed skin and serve with the dish.

  • Slow Cooker Chicken Adobo Recipe
    5

    I bought a crock pot so I could make this recipe. Turned out delicious. Very easy to make. My house smells great.

  • Slow Cooker Chicken Adobo Recipe
    5

    I was taught to make adobe with like 30 large garlic cloves...equal amounts of vinegar and soy sauce and a bit of water. A pinch of pickling spice a bay leaf salt pepper and just keep it on a low heat for hours. We prefer pork adobo so I cube up whatever pork I have on hand and add it all together.Sometimes I carmelize the pork first in a skillet usually not. I also add big chunks of red bell pepper and yellow onion to my pork adobo near the end of cooking so they (veg) is crisp when I serve it with pearl rice. I also love chicken adobo and have all the ingredients to make this tomorrow. I LOVE the look of the carmelized onions.

  • Slow Cooker Chicken Adobo Recipe
    5

    Looks good, love adobo flavors, can I use something other than 4 onions, my husband does not like a lot of onions. Let say one onion and ???

  • Slow Cooker Chicken Adobo Recipe
    5

    I'm making this recipe now, so we'll see. I agree - I've never seen skinless, bone-in thighs. Also, not sure I'll add sugar, but I might try a little brown sugar for a deeper flavor, or even a little coconut milk at the end of cooking. Another option: Cook's Illustrated recently published their version of Filipino chicken adobo, and they pan-sear the thighs first, skin down and in a cold pan, which helps to render out some of the fat before putting them into the slow cooker.

  • Slow Cooker Chicken Adobo Recipe
    5

    I substituted 3# boneless pork shoulder cut into 2-inch pieces for the chicken and it worked out great. I cooked it on low for 8 hours, then skimmed off the fat from the surface before serving. The leftovers froze well too!

  • Slow Cooker Chicken Adobo Recipe
    5

    You definitely want the bone on for the flavor it imparts in cooking. Which is why you buy skin on chicken thighs and remove the skin (the only skinless I've seen at the market have also been boneless...). This was a fabulous recipe. Because I was running short on time, I cooked it on high for 4.5 hours. It was perfect. I would go a bit longer (6 hours) if on low.

  • Slow Cooker Chicken Adobo Recipe
    5

    Sugar is optional in our family's recipe. So is soy sauce. Earliest forms of adobo had no soy at all. That's the beauty of adobo - you can personalize it to your taste. My Chinese husband adds sugar. I sautée my onions and garlic prior to simmer. Mom once added a bit of balsamic and it was amazing. This is a great platform recipe from which you can alter to suit you and your family.

  • Slow Cooker Chicken Adobo Recipe
    5

    Why would I buy "bone in, skin on" chicken thighs and then remove the skin when I can buy skinless chicken thighs

  • Slow Cooker Chicken Adobo Recipe
    5

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  • Slow Cooker Chicken Adobo Recipe
    5

    Please confirm the heat on this recipe. How can both low or high be used. And I agree that sugar and Adobo do not go together.

  • Slow Cooker Chicken Adobo Recipe
    5

    Sugar in my adobo? I don't think so!

  • Slow Cooker Chicken Adobo Recipe
    5

    Just use Pork! Its better. Cut in 1/2 inch chucks and cook all together. Remove 1/2 or most of the fat. Need just a little for favor.Coat all the meat in garlic and toss it on high heat till 1/2 done then turn down heat to med low and add the rest of food. 1Hr later get down on white rice. I was rasied on adobo.

  • Slow Cooker Chicken Adobo Recipe
    5

    Skin on insulates the meat from the direct heat and traps in moisture. (in other words the outer layers of meat would be bone dry from the contact with the cooker/pan..) Once the meat is done to the desired temp, you dont need to keep the skin on and since its slowcooked and flabby, not very desirable

  • Slow Cooker Chicken Adobo Recipe
    5

    If you want to keep the skin on, just don't cook the chicken in the slow cooker for the whole cooking time. For the last 30 minutes place the chicken in an oven safe dish and bake the chicken at 350 so the skin can crisp and get some color, yum :)

  • Slow Cooker Chicken Adobo Recipe
    5

    Good question craigcep, though I think most of the skinless thighs I've seen were also boneless as well. So maybe that's why? I love chicken skin. I'm making this recipe tonight and I know it will make me a bit depressed to take it off, but I guess flabby skin and the fat don't work for this dish.

  • Slow Cooker Chicken Adobo Recipe
    5

    Why call for skin-on chicken thighs if the second step is to remove the skin?

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