How good? Let’s just say that the old recipe has been one of the most visited pages in my blog. It seems to be especially popular among readers from California.
What’s different between this recipe and the old one? Not much, really, expect for better photos. I made sure to take photos of every step of the cooking procedure to make it easier for chicken sinigang lovers to visualize the entire process.
Cooking chicken sinigang starts with a spice base. Shallots, garlic and tomatoes (finger chilies can go in too) are sauteed until a bit softened before bone-in chicken pieces are added.
Fish sauce is poured in. The chicken, shallots, tomatoes and garlic cook in the little liquid until the mixture is almost dry and the vegetables are quite mushy.
Water is poured in and the chicken simmers until tender. Makre sure to taste the broth once or twice during this stage. As the chicken soaks up the saltiness of the fish sauce, you will need to add more in stages to make sure that the broth does not get bland.
The vegetables are added in stages and more fish sauce is drizzled in after every addition. The vegetables that take longest to cook go in first. We begin with the radish slices and sitaw (yard-long beans). After about five minutes, the kangkong stalks are stirred in.
Another five minutes or so and the eggplants are added. Stir, cover the pan, and continue simmering before adding the kangkong leaves.
When the kangkong leaves have wilted, the tamarind extract is poured in. Once the soup comes to a simmer, the broth is given a final taste, more fish sauce is added, if needed, and the chicken sinigang is ready to serve.
Full recipe below
Chicken sinigang
Ingredients
Spice base
- 2 tablespoons cooking oil
- 2 shallots - peeled and thinly sliced
- 4 cloves garlic - peeled and pounded
- 2 to 3 tomatoes - diced
Chicken
- 1 kilogram chicken - bone-in, whole or portions, cut into serving size pieces
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce
Vegetables
- 1 bunch sitaw (yard-long beans) - trimmed and cut into two-inch lengths
- 1 radish - peeled and cut into rings
- 1 bunch kangkong (water / swamp spinach) - cut into two-inch lengths
- 2 eggplants - cut into rings
Seasonings
- 1 cup tamarind extract - the exact amount you need depends on how condensed or diluted it is
- fish sauce
Instructions
- Heat the cooking oil in a thick pan or pot.
- Saute the shallots, garlic and tomatoes just until softened.
- Add the chicken and pour in the fish sauce.
- Cook, stirring often, until the chicken has lost its raw appearance and the liquids have almost dried up.
- Pour in water (or chicken broth), four to six cups, making sure that the chicken pieces are submerged in liquid.
- Bring to the boil, lower the heat, cover and simmer until the chicken is tender.
- Taste the broth and add more fish sauce, if needed.
- Take the yard-long beans and radish and stir into the soup. Cover and simmer for about five minutes.
- Taste the broth and add more fish sauce, as needed.
- Add the kangkong stalks (the leaves go in last), stir and simmer for another five minutes.
- Taste the broth, add more fish sauce if needed, then stir in the eggplants. Cover and simmer for five to seven minutes.
- Check the broth again if more fish sauce is needed before stirring in the kangkong leaves. Simmer for another five minutes.
- Pour in the tamarind extract, stir well and bring the soup to a simmer.
- Give the broth a final taste, add fish sauce to balance the sourness of the tamarind broth, if needed, before serving your chicken sinigang.
