Chicken Sopas Recipe

Students in public schools already started the SY 2009-2010 with a rainy week. My 2 kids who are separately studying in 2 different private schools have a week interval in their first day at school. My girl who is an incoming Grade 3 (St. Matthew College) will starts on June 8 while my boy (Virgen del Pilar School - Kinder Level) will starts on June 15.

Maybe this recipe will help parents out there to have it for their kids on rainy season. What’s good in this recipe is that you can have it as a dish already or snack plus you can play on with the ingredients. Meaning you can add other ingredients you want to make it more tasteful.

Ingredients:

• ¼ kilo of chicken (meaty part)
• ¼ kilo chicken feet
• ½ kilo of pasta (elbow macaroni or shell pasta)
• 2 pieces plain hotdog cut diagonally (thin)
• 3 cloves of garlic, pounded
• 1 big onion, sliced
• 1 small carrot, cut in julienne strips
• ¼ part of whole cabbage, sliced
• 1 can evaporated milk
• Water
• Fish sauce
• Pepper

Cooking Procedures:

In a casserole, bring chicken meat and feet into boil. Lift first the chicken meat after 15-20 minutes. Add water if necessary. When the chicken feet are tender enough that you can detach the meat from its bone, put in a bowl then remove the little bones. Set aside the broth. After that, bring the pasta to boil until it cooks al dente. Remove the water and set aside the cooked pasta.

Sauté the garlic and onion in a quite deep casserole. Add the chicken meat and feet plus the hotdog with some fish sauce and pepper for about 5 minutes. Add the chicken broth and evaporated milk proportionately followed by the cooked pasta, cabbage and carrots and let it boil for about another 5 minutes. Add fish sauce and pepper to taste. Serve hot.

Food bite: Chicken Inasal Recipe

Want to know a different way to cook chicken aside from frying and turbo chicken? Bacolod, the City of Smiles, has this popular chicken dish called “chicken inasal.” What makes it different and unique with other barbecue or grilled chicken is the way they marinate the chicken with different ingredients before grilling time.

Ingredients:

• 1 whole chicken cut into 6 parts (legs, wings, breasts)
• 1 head garlic, macerated
• 2 tbsps. chopped ginger
• 1 tbsp. brown sugar
• 1/3 cup sinamak, (native coconut vinegar)
• 10 pieces calamansi, extract the juice
• 3 stalks tanglad (lemon grass), julienne
• salt and coarsely ground pepper

Basting sauce:

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/4 cup atsuete (annatto seeds) oil
• salt and pepper
• large bamboo skewers
• charcoal for grilling

Marinating & cooking procedures:

In a mixing bowl, mix garlic, ginger, vinegar, a small amount of sugar, tanglad, calamansi juice, salt, and pepper then add the chicken meat. Lightly rub the marinade on the meat. Place chicken in the chiller and let sit for 30 minutes and then turn the meat and let it sit for another 30 minutes. Not advisable to marinate the meat overnight because the vinegar will break down the enzymes of the meat.

Then in a saucepan, over low fire, put margarine and annatto seeds for few minutes with continue stirring until the margarine melts and the annatto seeds are well infused and have developed a deep orange color. Turn off heat then add a small amount of salt and pepper to taste.

After marinating the chicken, put several slits on the part near the bone to help with cooking the meat fully. Skewer the meat and cook over hot charcoal grill, skin side down, basting it once in a while. As much as possible do not turn the meat more than twice since the result will be drier meat.

Serve while hot together with garlic rice and soy sauce with calamansi and siling labuyo (red chili peppers).