Monday 27 March 2017

Boh Ho Chiak!


In Hokkien, "boh ho chiak" means "not nice to eat" (tak sedap). I was confronted with that statement at dinner time when my partner scrunched up his face after tasting the main dish I cooked. 

Not only that, he also said that the dish tasted "kwai kwai" (weird). So what was that offending dish? It was Pork Adobo

I saw Kimmy's Chicken Adobo the other day and I thought it looked very tasty. Given my partner's attitude towards chicken (even more so, now that the bird flu is back), I decided to make the oink oink version for him (sorry, no photos).


After marinating the meat for about 2 hours, I put the whole lot into the slow cooker and let it braise for a few hours. Once it was done, I tasted for seasoning and I thought the adobo sauce was awesome.

Yeah, right. Awesome to me, awful to him. But still, he ate his fair share and no, I was not hurt or offended. After all, we have different tastebuds.

Since I loved the adobo so much, I decided to cook up a batch using chicken (all for me obviously). I marinated the chicken pieces overnight and the next day I tossed  the marinated chicken, sauce and all, into a hot wok, stir fried and the let it braise away.


And yes, I thought the end result was just as awesome as the one I cooked the day before. It's amazing how soya sauce, apple cider vinegar, garlic, sugar, black pepper and bay leaves can produce such deliciousness. It was so much better than an earlier version I cooked. 

Chicken Adobo
Recipe source : Adapted from Cooking Pleasure

Ingredients :

- 800g chicken pieces
- 4 tbsp light soya sauce
- 1 tbsp thick soya sauce
- 3 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1.5 tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 3 dried bay leaves
- 4 cloves garlic, crushed

To thicken gravy :
-  1 tsp tapioca starch + 3 tbsp water

Method :
1. Marinate the chicken with all the ingredients overnight (or a few hours).
2. Heat oil in a wok and add marinated chicken and juices into the wok.
3. Stir fry over high heat and then let simmer covered until chicken is cooked.
4. Bring to a boil and thicken gravy with tapioca starch mixture.



46 comments:

  1. What?! Adobo boh ho chiak?? no lah! I'm on your side on this...in fact I wish I could have some now. It's probably the vinegary taste that makes it kwai kwai but again, I think that's what makes this dish delicious:) I never tried thickening the adobo sauce with starch before...I will try that next time!

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    1. Thanks for your support hah..hah... You are right, I think he does not like the vinegar and bay leaf taste. So next time I won't cook this for him hee..hee...

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  2. Cooked this adobo before but no one enjoyed it other than me. So I never cook since then. Lol.

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  3. Boh ho chiak, si mey? Only 3 tablespoons of vinegar!! Would it make such a difference?

    I am with Annie (as above) on this. It looks good.

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    1. It was really good to me. I think my partner is not accustomed to vinegar and also bay leaf.

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  4. Aiyorrrrr!!! If boh ho chiak, I would just eat, can't be all that bad. At least, got somebody else to cook for me to eat, that's consolation enough. I would not complain, later cook go on strike, mati saya...boh mik kia ciak liao!!!

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    1. What to do? hah.hah.. He is more used to simple straight forward food with little addition of ingredients other than light soya sauce, garlic and salt.

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  5. Hi :)
    A little tip if the vinegar taste is too heavy when making adobo. I usually use sinigang powder. It's a tamarind base soup powder. It's sour and does not give out a weird vinegary after taste. Hope this helps :)

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    1. Thanks, Lynn! I will try to find sinigang powder.

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  6. Doesn't look Boh Ho Chiak, instead it looks Jin Ho Chiak, LOL

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  7. Which taste that he did not like? The apple cider vinegar or dried bay leaves taste? Couldn't be the black pepper taste I guess.

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    1. I reckon both the cider vinegar and bay leaves hee..hee..

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  8. hehehe, i know quite a few people who also don't love filipino food ... but it's worth trying to expand the horizons of our taste buds. your version of adobo actually looks quite lip-smacking ... maybe you can try one of the filipino chicken recipes with a coconut milk base next (that might be more pleasing to the malaysian palate) :)

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    1. I actually want to taste authentic Filipino cooking. From what I gather from recipes I found, there are some similarities to our local cooking.

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  9. Ha ha.. that's the silver lining - you get more for you!

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  10. Queen of cooking chicken! I love marinating chickens overnight, so I am all for cooking this chicken in the near future!

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    1. I love the taste of this dish and hope you do too.

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  11. It sure looks good.

    My hubby is like you, even if its taste weird, he'll eat it because I've cooked it. :P

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    1. Thanks :) Well, luckily I did not merajuk LOL!

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  12. Cannot imagine how it taste like...cos got apple cider vinegar, bay leaves... hmmm... have to check out what they are... but ho or bo ho, I sure chiak one!! :)

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    1. LOL! Don't know if you will like the taste.

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  13. Same as you, Phong Hong. sometime my husband told me not to cook 'funny dish' hahaa... but I really like your Adobo. Definitely want to try this dish!

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    1. LOL! Ann, we have the same problem :D

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  14. I've never eaten chicken adobo (come to think of it, I've not eaten Filipino food before). So I wouldn't know if it's ho chiak or bo ho chiak to me. But, from the ingredients list, it sounds a bit like vinegared pork (minus the ginger) that you cooked. I love vinegar, so I'll probably like it but I know quite a lot of men don't like the taste of vinegar (my husband included). So, they're lucky in a sense that they aren't the ones who need to go through confinement....wakakakaka! :D

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    1. I do notice that men are not fond of sour taste, it's we ladies that love the sour stuff. I reckon you will like the adobo. It is a bit like soya sauce chicken but with sourish and sweetish undertones.

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  15. Macam masak kicap ye LL kalau tengok dpd bahan dia tu. Cuma of courselah masak kicap tak de daun bay hihi....

    Tak pernah beli daun bay tu. Nanti gi AEON nak test bau dialah

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    1. Hainom, ni kira ayam masak kicap style Filipino. Boleh tahan sedap. LL suka :)

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  16. Hehe I think I will love your adobo.. looks good!

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    1. I bet you would because it is very tasty!

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  17. Hi Phong Hong, I am not trying to be offending but your partner's comment is quite common when it comes from a Penang 'Ta Por'. Most have very high expectation of food because maybe their moms are great cooks. My hubby sometimes will make such comment but still eat his share. Don't worry, we enjoy ourselves. Thumbs up to your Adobo. I'll cook this again when I have finished my 'Cheng Beng' duties.

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    1. Hi Kimmy! hee..hee.. Oh, I see, Penang men are like that, huh? Well, their mom's cooking will always be the best but it's OK lah. Mine different style. Yes, we will enjoy our own cooking and be adventurous to try different recipes :)

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    2. When my hubby says his mom's cooking better, my answer is always very simple 'please go back to her'.

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    3. Wah, so fierce one hee..hee...

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  18. I saw quite a fair amount of apple cider is added, does it tastes sour like hmm..... pork trotter vinegar?

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  19. I think it is very ho chiak! I cooked once and same thing, hubby didn't like it, so I gave up, no more cooking this dish. The dish looks so delicious!

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  20. Same lar... my hubby also will have the same weird feeling - "har mi lai eh"... kwai kwai one. Muahaha...
    For me it looks tasty.

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    Replies
    1. wahahahahaha!! I thought just me having this problem :D

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  21. Filipino dish is strange to me. However your adobo chicken looks nice to me.

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    1. It has a peculiar but nice taste. To me lah.

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