06/09/2025
Pork Adobo is a beloved traditional dish, one we refer to as our "unofficial national dish", and is known for its rich, tangy, and savory flavors.
The term “adobo” comes from the Spanish word for "marinade" or "seasoning," but Filipino adobo is unique and has evolved separately from Spanish influence. A classic Filipino Adobo will usually involve a technique of cooking meat in some sort of acid (usually vinegar), with aromatics (usually garlic and peppercorns), and an array of seasonings.
Each home, family, region, town, province will usually have their own version of adobo or even an heirloom recipe, each with its own distinct characteristics, and will usually be influenced by a variety of factors such as geographical location, culture and tradition, availability of ingredients and, of course, personal preferences, among others.
This dish features pork simmered in a marinade of vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, and pepper, among others, resulting in tender, flavorful meat with a deliciously reduced sauce. It’s commonly served over white rice, allowing the bold flavors to shine through in each bite.
And while there are so many ways, variations and styles of cooking pork adobo, this recipe that we will be featuring today will be a very simple, but one that will feature quality ingredients and specific techniques that will make your adobo taste even better.
Techniques for making better Adobo
Even with the simplest ingredients, there are plenty of tips and techniques that you can make use in order to make a better-tasting pork adobo.
Here are some tips and techniques:
Pork
We start with a good quality pork cut, with the top 3 choices being kasim (shoulder), liempo (belly), and spareribs. Each of these cuts feature varying balance of meat, fat, and collagen (from connective tissues and bone), and it's up to you which one suits your personal preference.
Marinate or not to marinate?
Personally, I don't feel the need to marinate the pork in soy sauce and/or vinegar since we will be slow-cooking it in low flame. This process of slow cooking gives the meat, seasonings, and aromatics sufficient time to have their flavors extracted and be incorporated into the meat and the resulting sauce (if any).
In addition, I always include the "aging" process as part of the actual recipe, since the true flavor of dishes like adobo only comes to light the day after it has been cooked, once all the extracted flavors has had the chance to settle down and combine into one beautiful symphony of flavor.
To sear or not to seark.
For this version of adobo, we are going to use a "reverse sear" method. This means that we will allow the meat to be pre-cooked in liquid first before having it seared. This style allows the meat and the flavors it has acquired to be concentrated and caramelized. Searing the pork will help to develop and deepen the flavor of the adobo, primarily because of the "Maillard Reaction" or the caramelization of the meat surface.
A pork adobo that has undergone searing and caramelization of flavors generally will have a more pronounced and bolder flavor.
A dry meat surface is very important to achieving a proper sear. Therefore, it is a good idea to place the pork cuts in a colander for at least a good 30 minutes to allow any excess liquid to drip off. You can even place it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to an hour to help it further dry out.
Keep in mind that you cannot achieve a proper sear/browning/Maillard reaction when water or moisture is part of the equation - you have to take it out.
Deglazing
After getting the meat through the searing process, including the aromatics, and seasonings, there will be caramelized bits stuck in the bottom and sides of the pan, and deglazing the pan (with water/stock) will help loosen and lift these concentrated nuggets of flavor and incorporate them into the resulting sauce and the meat.
Vinegar
When it comes to vinegar, the best-tasting adobos will make use of an all-natural vinegar (the native types) and not the mass-produced ones that usually have some sort of chemicals and stuff that's hard to read/pronounce. For this recipe, I make use of sukang "irok" or kaong palm vinegar, which we usually buy in big 5-liter bottles from Indang, Cavite.
To mix or not to mix the vinegar
Our lolas and nanays always tell us that we never ever should do any mixing once we add the vinegar and I'm pretty sure that most of us still follow this procedure. And for good reason as well.
Despite this, there seems to be no scientific explanation for the "no mixing" part upon adding the vinegar. Or is there? However, an important process has to happen once we add the vinegar, and that is to allow and give it time to "cook", so to speak.
What "cooking the vinegar" means is not to remove it sour flavor, but to reduce the acidity, the raw or sharp taste that the vinegar has.
Based on my experience, there seems to be no problem with stirring the dish after adding the vinegar, BUT it has to be given time to "cook" and mellow down in acidity, which is what I think happens during the slow cooking process. It also helps to keep the pan uncovered upon adding the vinegar (for about 5 to 10 minutes) as this helps the evaporation process of its acidity.
The vinegar's acidic flavor, seems to mellows down the longer it cooks. This means that the vinegar's acidity in your adobo won't be the same during, say, the first 30 minutes of incorporating the it in your dish versus its flavor after 1 to 2 hours after slow simmering.
Soy Sauce
If you're going to incorporate soy sauce into your adobo, the best ones you can use, just like with vinegar, are the naturally fermented ones, or those that underwent the natural and time-consuming process of soy sauce-making and not the ones made through "shortcuts" and ingredients that are hard to read/pronounce.
These naturally fermented, local soy sauce will provide a more complex flavor profile and umami versus using the cheaper varieties in the supermarket.
Salt
So what about salt? Aren't all salt the same? Unfortunately this is not the case. For the most part, the salt that are readily available and accessible are often times the type of salt that are imported, mass produced, and chemically manufactured.
These cheaper varieties of salt will just provide you with one flavor dimension - salty, and that's all there is to it and nothing else. On the other hand, there are naturally-made salt like the locally-produced ones that come from seawater salt beds and undergo a laborious, painstaking, and time-consuming process to produce an all-natural sea salt that provides more than just saltiness but also a more complex flavor profile and various levels of trace minerals that can be distinctly discerned by our taste buds. This makes it not only a more delicious choice for cooking, but also a healthier option too.
Slow Cooking
I have always been an advocate of slow cooking - it's my primary choice and personal preference when it comes to braises and stews, in which adobo falls into. And while I have nothing against fast and hard cooking or pressure cooking, I've always looked at slow cooking as more efficient in extracting the flavors and breaking down connective tissues in meat, resulting in a deeper, bolder, more complex flavors into dishes, especially those with rich and savory sauces like adobo.
In addition, slow cooking also is efficient in the usage of fuel since you are only using a very low flame to maintain a slow, steady simmer to tenderize and fully cook your dish.
Aging
As with any braised or stewed dishes, adobo tastes so much better 24 hours after it has been cooked, versus when it has just finished cooking.
Ideally, you want this aging process to be part of the procedure for your pork adobo, as this allows all extracted flavors from all the ingredients to settle down and meld together properly.
Recipe Proper
Slow-Cooked Pork Adobo
Ingredients:
-1 kg pork (kasim, pork belly, or spareribs), cut into cubed chunks or adobo cut, and seasoned with salt and pepper in advance.
-2 heads garlic, minced
-1/8 to 1/4 cup naturally fermented soy sauce
-1/4 to 1/2 cup naturally fermented vinegar
-1 tbsp brown/washed sugar
-salt and pepper, to taste
-whole peppercorns
-bay leaf (optional)
-green finger chili (optional)
-labuyo chili (optional)
-water/stock, as needed
Procedure:
1.) In a pot, add pork cuts and arrange them accordingly.
2.) Add the garlic, vinegar, soy sauce, salt, pepper, and patis alamang. Add a little water. Add bay leaf, if using.
3.) Turn on flame. Bring the liquid to a boil. Once boiling, switch to a low flame setting for simmering. Give it about 5 minutes or so, then cover the pan.
4.) Simmer the pork for about 30 minutes.
5.) Set aside the pork cuts, place in a colander to drain properly. Meanwhile, continue simmering the adobo liquid.
4.) Once pork is sufficiently dry, pan fry the pork cuts in a pan with hot oil, ideally in batches. Towards the end of searing, when both sides have been browned, sprinkle some of the adobo sauce/liquid onto the pork cuts, mix well, then allow to reduce and coat the pork cuts sufficiently.
5.) Place back all seared pork cuts into the simmering adobo sauce/liquid, then continue simmering until you reach your preferred doneness of the pork, as well as the consistency of the sauce.
6.) Towards the end of cooking, taste the adobo, season as needed with salt, pepper, sugar, and patis, depending on your preference. Add the chilis at this point too, if using.
7.) Once adobo is done cooking, give it at least overnight, or 24 hours for best results to allow all flavors to meld together properly.
8.) Serve with piping hot steamed rice!
