recipe site and pininyahang manok

i discovered this really wonderful website which contains lots and lots of recipes! it's called The Radical Chef: A Filipino Mom's Food, Cooking, and Recipes Journal. the website is maintained by connie veneracion, the recipes there are very simple and yet look so appetizing. so last night, while deciding what to cook for dinner (i wasn't able to make a menu for this week), i decided to browse this website. since i already started thawing chicken, i just clicked on the link to "poultry" and scanned the recipes for a relatively easy-to-cook one. i decided on Pininyahang Manok not because i like it (in fact, i've never cooked it before) but because we have canned pineapple tidbits we got for free as part of the christmas package included with the fridge we bought early this month.

this is the original recipe from the website. i will put in parentheses my comments and the little changes I made.

ingredients:

1 kilo stewing chicken ("stewing chicken", according to the radical chef, is the native chicken. mas masarap nga naman kasi talaga ang native chicken, mas malasa kasi. but since i only have magnolia chicken, syempre pwede na rin yun. also, since i was just cooking for the two of us, i cooked like 1/3 of a kilo lang. tip: when you come home from the palengke or the grocery, store the meat in the freezer na good for one meal per pack. that way, when you need to thaw, isang pack lang ang ilalabas and that's good for just one meal. also, i have learned that a good size chicken can be cut into at least 12 pieces so i get to divide one whole chicken into three meals [4 to 5 cuts per meal].)

1 whole garlic, peeled and crushed (of course, for this and teh rest of the ingredients, i used just a third of what the recipe calls for)
2 white onions, halved and sliced thinly
2 tomatoes, chopped coarsly

500 g. of fresh pineapple chunks, canned may be used but should be unsweetened (i was already simmering the chicken when i realized that the canned pineapple tidbits that we had was in heavy syrup. rather than go down [we live in the third floor] and look for unsweetened canned pineapple, i used what was available. it turned out to be good kasi tamang-tama yung tamis)

1 tbsp cooking oil
water
salt and pepper



procedure:

heat the cooking oil in a casserole. when smoking, put in the chicken until the outside starts to brown (i used slow to medium fire and really waited until the juices and fats of the chicken oozed out). add the garlic and the onions and cook until limp (by now, ang dami nang mantika nung manok). add the tomatoes and continue cooking until they start to liquefy (i was kinda in a hurry by this time but since i know cooking needs patience, i had to tell myself to wait until the madurog talaga yung tomatoes para maging malasa talaga). pour enough water to cover and bring to a boil (i put in the salt and pepper before pouring the water). cover and simmer for one hour. the liquid would be reduced to half by such time (since jojie arrived by this time and he was sort of hungry na, i just simmered the chicken for 20 minutes then put it in medium to high fire. in no time, the liquid was indeed reduced to half [remember though that i was only cooking a third of the recipe]). add the pineapple chunks. add the juice if using canned (by this time, i have realized that i only have sweetened pineapple. at first i just put in half of the juice coz i was afraid the syrup would ruin the dish. but i poured everything after a few minutes when i realized that i wanted the sweetness to come out). cover and simmer for another hour (again, i just simmered for 10 minutes and put it in high fire for another 10).

the result was delicious. jojie liked it so much! happy cooking!