Chicken Adobo and Quinoa Pilaf

One of my friend's was talking about Adobo all last week so I decided I had to make some this weekend. Before moving to Alaska I had never even heard of Adobo, much less made it. One of my boyfriend's best friends told me what he uses in his and it tastes pretty darn good. If you cook it long enough it completely falls apart.


Chicken Adobo
*3 lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs (many people use legs, some use whole chickens cut up, I prefer to not mess with bones or skin)
*water
*3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
*3/4 cup soy sauce (I use reduced sodium)
*pickling spice

Trim the fat off the thighs and put them in a big pot. Cover the chicken with water then stir in the vinegar and soy sauce. Then add about a cupped hand worth of pickling spice.
I was a little anxious today so I decided to put it together and then let it marinate in the fridge for a couple hours. I then brought it to a boil on the stove and turned it down to keep a soft boil and put the lid on. I let it go like that for about an hour then turned the pot down to low and left the lid on it for another hour and a half. By the time we ate it the thighs had completely fallen apart...tender goodness!

Sides tonight were quinoa pilaf and broccoli salad. If you've never cooked quiona, you should try it. It is a much healthier alternative to rice and is pretty tasty. Boil 2 cups of water and then stir in 1 cup of quinoa. Turn down the heat, add a lid and let it cook )just like you would rice) for about 20 minutes. While it was cooking I chopped up some vegetables to saute. I usually use spinach as well but I was out. So tonight's "pilaf" consisted of carrots, onions, celery and red and yellow peppers. Once quinoa was done cooking I stirred it into the cooked veggies.

The broccoli salad I make is always a hit and is pretty easy to make. Because I don't measure it might be hard for you to duplicate my recipe. The dressing is vinegar, oil, salt, pepper, lemon juice, garlic and maggi. Once I mix that up I add cut up broccoli, tomatoes, red onion and olives. I always make this in a bowl with a lid so I can shake it up. Stirring doesn't work very well for coating the broccoli. It is best if you make it ahead of time so the broccoli can soak up the dressing for at least an hour.
Sorry this post is kind of quick. If you want more details, please let me know and I'll be sure to share them...back to my homework for now! Weigh in tomorrow morning for the Lose to Win contest, we'll see how it goes!