MAKES: 6 servings · PREP TIME: 20 minutes, plus 2 hours to marinate · COOK TIME: 1 hour 10 minutes
This recipe takes me back a couple of decades. My first serious boyfriend was Filipino, and he lived with his father and grandmother. His grandmother spent all day in the kitchen cooking the traditional dishes of the Philippines. There was not a single time of the day when you wouldn’t find pans of food on the stove, rice in the rice cooker, and a fridge full of all the dishes she had made in the days prior. Her grown sons still stopped in to eat every day. It was then that I fell in love with dishes like chicken adobo, lumpia, and longaniza. There were so many other dishes I loved that I can’t recall the names of. In fact, most of the time I had no idea what I was eating; I simply knew that it was delicious.
INGREDIENTS
•3 pounds chicken drumsticks
•1 cup unseasoned rice wine vinegar
•⅔ cup gluten-free soy sauce or coconut aminos
•1 medium onion, quartered and sliced
•6 cloves garlic, smashed with the side of a knife
•1 tablespoon black peppercorns
•3 bay leaves
•2 tablespoons avocado oil
DIRECTIONS
1. Combine the chicken drumsticks, vinegar, soy sauce, onion, garlic, peppercorns, and bay leaves in a large shallow bowl or resealable plastic bag. Place in the refrigerator to marinate for 2 hours or up to overnight.
2. When ready to cook the chicken, heat the avocado oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Take the drumsticks out of the marinade and put them in the pan; reserve the marinade. Cook until the drumsticks are browned on all sides, about 5 minutes. Transfer the chicken to a plate and set aside.
3. Pour the reserved marinade into the skillet and bring to a simmer. Use a rubber spatula to scrape up and mix in any browned bits from the bottom of the pan.
4. Reduce the heat to medium-low, maintaining a gentle simmer. Return the drumsticks to the pan, cover, and cook until the chicken is very tender, about 1 hour.
5. Transfer the chicken to a plate and cover loosely with foil. Bring the remaining liquid in the pan to a boil and cook, stirring frequently, until it is reduced by about one-third and has thickened, about 4 minutes.
6. Pour the sauce over the chicken before serving.
tips: This recipe can also be made with a whole chicken, broken down, or half drumsticks and half thighs. I like to serve it with some sliced green onions and fried cauliflower rice.
If you are using coconut aminos in place of gluten-free soy sauce in this recipe, it may be necessary to add salt to the marinade because coconut aminos has far less sodium than soy sauce.
PER SERVING:
CALORIES: 437
FAT: 25.6g
PROTEIN: 44.7g
TOTAL CARBS: 4.5g
FIBER: 0.6g
NET CARBS: 3.9g
