Pinatisang manok 2 (chicken soup with fish sauce)

Almost everyone I know cooks pinatisang manok with sili leaves. I did, too, but my kids are not fans of sili leaves. Cooking sili leaves can be tricky — overcook it a minute longer than necessary and the bitterness will become very pronounced. That’s why sili leaves are never boiled; they are added to a dish after it is cooked. With tinola, for instance, the sili leaves are added to the cooked dish while still in the cooking pot. The cooking pot is covered and the heat from the broth, plus the steam, cooks the sili leaves.

So, my kids have had some bad experience with sili leaves. Not from overcooking but with reheating. Reheat leftover tinola or pinatisang manok and the broth turns bitter. But despite the dislike for sili leaves, my kids love the basic pinatisang manok. I experimented with substitutes for the unpopular sili leaves and came up with a winner.

A few tips for a flavorful chicken soup. First, use parts of the chicken that has lots of bones. The flavor, and the body of the broth, come from the bones. That’s why it is never a good idea to use fillets when making soup. I must admit that there were times when I did that but that was more out of desperation than anything else as when there’s nothing else on hand.

My personal choice is the thigh and back. When you buy cut up chicken, those labeled as soup packs usually contain only the backs of the chicken. While they are perfect for the broth, they have too little meat. In Filipino cooking, a lot of soup dishes are actually main dishes. And if all you have in your main soup dish are backs of chickens, well, you won’t get much meat. So, try to look for the pack of choice cuts that say “thighs and backs”. This doesn’t mean that there are thigh pieces and back pieces, respectively, in the pack. It means that the chicken pieces are so chopped so that each piece actually contains a whole thigh and a part of the back. You get the bones from the backs; you get the meat from the thighs. In the alternative, you can always chop up one whole chicken.

Now, how does the broth acquire that golden color? Two things. One is the patis. But unless you drown your broth with patis which will make your soup dish inedible, the broth wll still look a little pale even after adding patis. So, what’s the secret? The secret is unpeeled onions. Not only are whole onions great for flavoring your broth; the golden color of the skin of white onions will help the broth to acquire a deep golden color.

Ingredients :

1 kilo of chicken thighs and backs (or 1 whole chicken, chopped into serving pieces)
1 whole head of garlic
2 large white onions
patis
3/4 kilo of cooking potatoes
1 large bunch of onion leaves

Cooking procedure :

Place the chicken pieces in a large cooking pot. Cover with water. Bring to a boil, skimming off scum as it rises. Add the whole garlic and onions. Season with patis. Cover and simmer for about 30 minutes.

While the chicken cooks, peel the potatoes and cut into wedges. Soak in water to avoid discoloration. What I do is to syncronize the time so that by the time the potatoes are peeled and cut, they can go directly into the cooking pot. That way, nothing is lost to the soaking water. Add the potatoes to the chicken and continue simmering.

Meanwhile, prepare the onion leaves. Wash in running water to remove any soil that clings near the roots. Cut about an inch off the tops. Cut off the roots. You want to retain as much of the white and light green portions near the roots because those are the most flavorful parts. Cut the trimmed onion leaves into 2-inch lengths.

After about 10 minutes, by which time the potatoes would be partially cooked, taste the broth. You will probably need to add more patis unless you overdid it when you started simmering the chicken. Potatoes are like sponges when it comes to salt — they will absorb much of the saltiness from the broth. That’s why nine chances out of ten, you will need to adjust your seasonings. After adjusting the seasonings, continue simmering until the potatoes are almost done (another 5 to 7 minutes should do it unless you cut your potatoes into huge pieces). Add the onion leaves and simmer for another 3-4 minutes.

Serve hot.