Thursday 13 October 2016

Chicken Tinola


I managed to catch a rerun of an episode of Hemsley+Hemsley : Healthy and Delicious the other day. In that episode the girls cooked a Filipino soup, Chicken Tinola, with their mum.

This soup looks familiar, it's similar to what I have cooked before except that it had ginger. Also the ginger was sauteed together with onions and garlic. I don't usually saute my onions when I make soup.


So I decided to give it a go for my weekday dinner. I made a big batch of soup, good for four days serving.


And hey, it was good. Sauteing the ginger, onions and garlic brought lots of aroma and flavor to the soup. The soup is seasoned with light soya sauce upon serving and I really loved that. That's because I love light soya sauce.

And like the girls, I used chicken thighs. I seem to favor chicken thighs these days. Ah, influence!


My version is much simplified as I used chicken stock cubes and I did not bother to shred the chicken meat.

Chicken Tinola
Recipe source : Adapted from Hemsley+Hemsley

Ingredients : 
- 6 chicken thighs
-  2 carrots, cut into chunks
- 1 zuchinni, cut into cubes
- 1/2 cabbage, sliced
- 1 big onion, diced
- 5 cloved garlic chopped
- 1 thumb sized ginger, sliced
- 2 chicken stock cubes
- 1.2 litre water
- soya sauce for serving

Method :
1. Heat oil in a pot and saute the onion, garlic and ginger until aromatic and onion is soft and translucent.
2. Add carrots and saute briefly.
3. Add water, chicken thighs, zuchinni and cabbage.
4. Bring to a boil and lower heat to simmer for about 40 minutes or until chicken is cooked and vegetables are soft.
5. Season with light soya sauce when serving.

36 comments:

  1. Looks good and also not difficult to prepare...

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  2. It's always a surprise to find out food from other countries actually have some similarities with ours. Like this one that's very close to our own cabbage soup except with the addition of zucchini and sauteeing the onions, garlic and ginger. I'd be happy with your good bowl of soup. P/S: I couldn't help but notice the Japanese-looking spoon you have at the side that looks very similar to my Japanese-type plates and bowls....but I have no spoons! :'(

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    1. I was surprised too when I did some research on Pinoy food and found out that they also use soya sauce and fish sauce. They also have fried meehoon. I suppose these regional influences are to be expected.

      Oh, you have the collection of plates and bowls. I was eyeing those but no, I have too many already so I just settled on the spoons hah..hah..

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  3. Very much like the kind of soup that I love. Just this soup dish is enough for me.

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  4. Hello Phong Hong
    Healthy one pot chicken vege soup... really dont even need other dish to go with yr rice

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    1. Hi Mel! Yes, this is a good one dish meal.

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  5. Looks like abc soup except it does not have potatoes in it. Chicken thigh with skins on? If so the soup would be extra flavourful with natural chicken oil.

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    1. I always have my chicken with skin on. Don't like those naked ones LOL!

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  6. "I don't usually saute my onions when I make soup"... I don't think the Filipinos do it too. Sauteing stuff before adding water to make soup, I think is an angmoh thing. I only see that in white people recipes when making soup. We usually boil the soup longer to boil the flavors out of the ingredients.

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    1. Ya kah? I find that sauteing makes a difference. But of course, just dumping it all into the pot is so much easier.

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  7. I love clear soup, must be sweet with the cabbage and the carrots and all.

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  8. What a delicious Chicken Tinola soup and I love this one just like our ABC soup. I guess that without the usual potatoes and used zuchinni instead would make this soup taste different.

    In China, I saw them add corns, dried scallops, dried oysters, red berries and lain lain lagi. I think their mainland ABC recipe has spread across Asia over the centuries.

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  9. Replies
    1. It tastes very good. Highly recommended.

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  10. That was a nice, easy soup.

    Sauté of aromatics (in your case, garlic,ginger and onion) helps to bring out the flavour. Roasted bones would also add a depth to the soup.

    On the other hand, Mirepoix (French)/ soffritto (Italian), the sweating of vegetables
    is the foundation on which many Italian sauces and other dishes are built.

    Talking about aromatics, a blogger was asked how many prawn heads she used to make the stock for her Hokkian Mee. Her reply was a year's supply of two bowls. Not sure if she took a leaf from a certain Tigress. Miaow! ☺️

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    1. hah..hah...That Tigress is quite a character :D

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  11. I love soup! Actually any type of one-pot cooking is usually a hit with me. I especially like the convenience of being able to make up a big batch and freeze smaller portions for easy meals for another day.

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    1. I love this sort of meals too because it's so convenient to make extra for later.

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  12. Last time my indonesian maid loves to put garlic and ginger into the soup, I did not object nor did I like them, for as long as they are good nutrients, I let them be. But my own version is onions and nowadays I add in lemongrass to enhance the taste.. no cubes whatsoever.. :)

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    1. Hmmm...lemongrass...like tom yum. Which reminds me I have a bottle of tom yum paste that I haven't opened...

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  13. This looked simple and healthy. Somehow reminded me of ABC soup.

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  14. Sounds hearty and comforting! :) and not too difficult to make either, nice.

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  15. ooo, i know a fair number of filipino recipes (due to research and also having had a work stint in manila), but i've not encountered chicken tinola before. looks like a good soup - and yes to thigh meat! if only chickens had three thighs and no breast :D

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    1. hah..hah..it would be even better if they had four thighs!

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  16. I can smell the soup now, I like it with a lot of onions, slurps.

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    1. This soup smells lovely - onions, garlic and ginger always smell good together.

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  17. Vegetables soup with chicken :)

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