Recipe: Pinoy Chicken Afritada

Every day, mommies will usually as out loud "ano ang ulam natin?" (what's our main dish?) 

I definitely am one! As a re-starting homecook, I'm now focusing on learning how to prepare and cook easy, nutritious, and yummy Filipino dishes. These are the everyday ulam fare that should have been so basic, but for some reason, it (the cooking process) just never clicked when I was still single nor when I was newly married. Hahaha...I just felt that the secret to cooking such dishes were better left to my dad and grandma who are masters of the kitchen :) 

I always remember Daddy A's advice to "make the recipe my own". Guess this is one way of doing that! I tweak recipes to our family's needs and liking. Such as: I add more water if the kids want it 'na masabaw' (more sauce-y)  or I lessen the oil and salt for health purposes. Sometimes when I want to give the dish an extra ooomppph, I try (hard hahaha) to recreate how herbs are used in gourmet dishes and adapt it to our own. So I try to make it more economical and more 'my own' by using ingredients that are in season or are already in our pantry. 

So here you have a Chicken Afritada that has lots of sabaw, has carrots, chickpeas and other herbs/spices to mix things up!

This is not a sponsored post but still I'd like to thank Clara Ole for the tomato sauce I used here. I got it as part of a gift bag from Mega Prime's #PrimePinasarapMoments mom event I attended last year :)

Nutrition Fun Fact: Chickpeas, as part of the legume family, is touted to be packed with PHYTATES, another class of cancer-fighting compound. (Source: How Not To Die)

Ingredients:

1 kg Chicken, cut into serving pieces                       --- I used just 800 g of chicken at PHP 137.00
1 Tbsp oil                                                                  --- we use Grapeseed oil because it's available
1 Tbsp garlic, minced                                               --- I love garlic so I use around 3-5 cloves
1 onion, sliced                                                           --- add more if you want thicker sarsa
2 tsp patis / fish sauce, or to taste                              --- I ended up adding 4 tsp because I increased   
                                                                                       the water
1/2 cup to 1 cup tomato sauce                                    --- I used Clara Ole brand for this dish
1 and 1/2 cups water, or as needed                             --- I made mine 2 cups of water because the kids 
                                                                                         love sauce on their rice
2 potatoes or sweet potatoes, peeled and quartered     --- 2 potates total PHP 28.00
salt and pepper, to taste
1 green bell pepper                                                      --- I used red because of availability PHP 9.00

Optional:
1 carrot, peeled and cubed                                           --- PHP 33.00
1 medium can chickpeas / garbanzos, drained of liquid  -- was in pantry so I don't remember the price
1/2 tsp dried Rosemary, or to taste                               --- pantry staple
1/2 tsp dried Tarragon, or to taste                                 --- pantry staple

Procedure:

**Defrost chicken overnight by transferring it from the freezer to the fridge. Make sure to keep it in a well-enclosed container to prevent cross-contamination with other fresh ingredients in the fridge**

1. Pre-heat pan, add oil. Saute garlic & onions. 

2. Add patis/fish sauce and chicken. Cook for 5-8 minutes. 

Note that the time will totally depend whether you are using a fire stove and the level of heat, an induction cooker and the settings you use. Generally, I like to see most of the chicken blood cooked out, especially since this is a tomato dish.

3. Then, add tomato sauce, potatoes, carrots and water. 

I used up the entire Clara Ole tomato sauce packet because sayang if we will just put the remaining in the ref, without a next tomato-based dish in the line-up hahaha :) However, if you or any in the family don't like the maasim/ sour taste, try to measure it out first like 1/4 -1/2 cup tomato sauce first. Then just add gradually until you reach the desired taste.

4. Cover, let boil, then simmer until chicken, potatoes and carrots are cooked. 

5. Season with salt and pepper. Add in the optional dried tarragon and rosemary spices. You can add the garbanzos and let it simmer on low heat / low fire until the chicken is well cooked. 

6. Add bell pepper 1 minute before removing from fire.

Serve over steaming hot rice & enjoy!