Making Chicken Sinigang

I don’t hate pork, but I do love chicken. I can tolerate pork in sinigang but I will only eat the veggies. So when I learned to cook (this was after I learned how to bake) I decided to take my chicken and make it into sinigang.

Purists may cringe but the easiest way to make this is still with a sinigang broth mix, I use the classic Knorr sinigang broth cube, the other varieties (like the one with miso) tastes very artificial to me so for now I will stick with Knorr. By the way, the rep for Knorr informed me that their broth cubes do not contain any artificial flavoring and no trans-fat. She couldn't answer me though when I asked about the msg... oh well.

If you are going through my sinigang recipe now and wondering about the ingredients I can assure you that from where my mom is from it is common to add ginger and onions to sinigang and to saute the chicken in some oil together with the ginger and onions. It makes a world of difference and adds a dimension of flavor to your sinigang that is addictive, tasty and just plain delicious.

Chicken Sinigang

1 fat chicken, cleaned well and cut into serving pieces
2 tablespoons olive oil
½” piece of ginger, peeled and cut into thin slices
1 medium red onion, peeled and sliced
1 chicken broth cube cut into two
1 sinigang broth cube
2 small whole gabi (taro), peeled and cut into four pieces

Enough water to cover chicken in chosen stew pan

2-3 green chilies, cleaned and pierced with a fork several times
1 large radish, peeled and sliced diagonally
1 bunch kang kong or spinach, cleaned well and cut into ¾” long pieces

In a large saucepan, heat olive oil. Sauté ginger and onion. Add the chicken pieces and cook, stirring often just until the chicken pieces are whitish in color. Add ½ of the chicken cube and all of the sinigang broth cube. Mix well and then add the taro pieces.

Add enough water to cover the chicken. If you like spicy sinigang, add the chilies now, if not wait until the chicken is cooked before adding. Bring the water to a boil, stirring occasionally (remove any scum that rises to the surface). Cover tightly and bring down the heat to the lowest setting. Let the mixture simmer for about one hour, checking now and then to make sure the water hasn’t evaporated fully. Occasionally top off with more warm water to the original level. Before covering tightly make sure the mixture returns to simmer.

Taste the broth, add the remaining half of the chicken cube, more warm water if needed and 2 whole sinigang broth cubes. Mix, taste and adjust seasoning as necessary. Usually I don’t add any salt, just freshly milled black pepper. Let the mixture come to a boil again. Turn down the heat and add the radish slices. Cook fully covered until almost done (pierce with fork). Add the kang kong or spinach and mix in. After about a minute or two the green veggies should almost be cooked. Turn off heat and cover tightly until ready to eat.

Serve very hot with freshly steamed white rice.