My maternity leave ended this week and I’m feeling all the feels. How quickly 6 months went by! I am beyond grateful for the time I had, but it never quite seems like enough. And I’m missing having my baby girl at my side all day. It’s moments like these when I crave Filipino food because it brings me all the comfort. I’ve been wanting to share more Filipino-inspired cuisine with you too so this seems like a great time to start.
When I think of my favorite Filipino dishes, the word humble comes to mind. The dishes incorporate simple ingredients, are not at all fussy, and are best complimented with plain steamed rice. Growing up, I ate these dishes Kamayan style (by hand). It sure is messy, but there’s an honest-to-goodness comfort in feeling the food in your fingers.
One of my favorite Filipino dishes is Chicken Tinola, also known as a chicken & green papaya soup. If you’ve never had green papaya, it looks like this. It’s the same fruit as the orange papaya you may know, but it’s picked and served before it has fully ripened. At the green stage, the flesh is white in color, firm, and has a mild crisp taste akin to a cucumber. I love it’s firm flesh for soups because it keeps its texture instead of becoming mushy. When using in soups or stews, you can use the same way you would use squash (such as zucchini).
The broth for Chicken Tinola is light and lovely, flavored with onion, garlic, and lots of ginger. Traditionally, this dish uses a whole bone-in chicken, cut into pieces. But this time, I tried with boneless-skinless chicken thighs only and it turned out great.
I also added bok choy and lots of scallions since that’s the way my mom makes it.
Whenever I eat a Filipino dish, I always have a dipping sauce. It’s probably why I generally love condiments so much. I always grew up eating food with several dipping sauces and pickled vegetables on the table. The most common dipping sauces were soy sauce with cane vinegar, soy sauce with Calamansi juice, chili with cane vinegar, sautéed bagaoong (shrimp paste), or banana ketchup. For me, Chicken Tinola is paired best with soy sauce and a squeeze of calamansi juice. Calamansi is the cross between a kumquat and a mandarin. Its very tart juice combined with the soy are a just so good…a healthy balance of salty and acidic notes.
The simplicity and mildness of this dish make it an ideal comfort food for the cold season and all this rainy weather we’re having. And all the green feels perfect for this transition to Spring.
If you’ve never had Filipino cuisine, this is a great dish to start with. Another good starter dish is Chicken Adobo which you can find here.
Hope you enjoy friends and thanks for reading!
Valerie
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon of minced garlic
- 2 1-inch pieces of ginger, peeled
- 1.5 lbs. boneless-skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1 inch pieces
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 green papaya
- 6 cups chicken broth
- 2 teaspoons of fish sauce
- 1 bunch of Bok Choy, chopped into 1 inch pieces
- ¼ cup chopped scallions
- Steamed white rice
- Peel the green papaya, remove seeds, and cut into 1 inch chunks. Set aside.
- In a large pot or Dutch oven, heat vegetable oil over medium heat. Add onion and sauté until translucent (about 3-4 minutes).
- Add minced garlic, pieces of ginger, and chicken and sauté to cook the chicken through for about 8 minutes. You're not browning the chicken in this step, just want to cook mostly through before adding the broth.
- Add bay leaf, green papaya, chicken broth, and fish sauce. Bring the soup to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer on low for 10 minutes.
- Add the bok choy and simmer for another 10 minutes.
- Add chopped scallions.
- Serve hot in bowls alongside steamed rice.
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