Kinulob na Manok
If the Koreans have their Samgyetang or Ginseng Chicken, we have Kinulob na Manok. Kinulob in this context means forced cooking and covered tightly. This is our very own version of pressurized cooking in the olden times.
This Kinulob na Manok recipe is an easy chicken recipe, more popularly cooked in the provinces, especially in the Southern Tagalog Region. In Batangas, they have a fiesta dedicated for this chicken recipe which is called the Kinulob Festival.
Originally, it is cooked in a “palayok” or clay pot. The claypot is covered with banana leaves then tied up so steam won’t come out. You can cook it in a regular pot but don’t forget the banana leaves covering. I think this is also part of the recipe and the smell is incorporated in the stewed chicken.
The whole stewed chicken is then cooked slowly in medium fire for about an hour or less -depending on the size of your chicken.
According to Chef Jessie, who shared this recipe in the Culinary Elite Series Cooking Class at the Maya Kitchen for her Filipino Christmas Recipes, the original recipe is by Patis Tesoro. The original recipe had Chorizo and Bacon.
The taste is a bit sweetish, maybe because of the chorizo and tomatoes. I liked it as a soup. Although this chicken dish came from my region, I had not had a chance to taste it before – we always had either Adobong Manok or Tinola if it’s soup.
It’s a very festive chicken dish, which is probably why Chef Jessie included it in her Filipino Christmas Table – the chorizo and tomatoes bringing the color to the dish.
Ingredients
- 1 whole chicken,
- Rock salt
- 2 pc chorizo de bilbao or Chinese sausage, slice diagonally
- 4 slices salami or smoked ham or bacon
- 1 pc white onion peeled, cut into quarters
- 2 pc medium-sized whole potatoes, peeled, cut into quarters
- 2 pc medium-sized whole tomatoes
- Juice of 3 calamansi
- 3 long strands of onion leeks (green and white part)
- 1/4 c soy sauce
- 1/4 c olive oil
- 1 tbsp whole peppercorns
- 4-5 c water
- salt to taste
- banana leaves
- barbecue sticks
- string, for tying (optional)
- clay pot
Instructions
- Rub chicken in and out with salt. Rinse well. Pat dry with paper towel.
- Stuff chicken cavity with 1 piece chorizo, 2 slices of either salami, ham or bacon, half of the onion, potato, tomato and 1 stalk of leeks.
- Close the cavity by using barbecue stick.
- Lay the chicken, breast up in a clay pot.
- Arrange the rest of the ingredients in the pot, around and on top of the chicken.
- Season to taste.
- Pour enough water until the chicken is submerged.
- Cover pot with banana leaf tied tightly with a butcher string.
- Boil, then simmer for about 45 minutes to 1 hour until chicken is cooked.