To cook sinampalukang manok, a traditional Filipino soup, bone-in chicken pieces are simmered with sauteed aromatics and tender tamarind leaves stripped from their stalks. The tamarind leaves make a sour broth balanced by the saltiness of patis (fish sauce).
My mother has a cousin who cooked delicious sinampalukang manok. She would make a huge pot each time and it always amazed me how she could strip the leaves from the tiny branches so fast.
I cooked a pot of sinampalukang manok a few days ago and I found out that stripping the leaves from the branches is a combination of practice and patience.
See, my little tamarind tree isn’t so little anymore.
It has grown sufficiently to allow me to pick some newly sprouted leaves for Thursday’s night’s sinampalukang manok. Similar in taste to sinigang, this soup dish is simpler as it has one vegetable ingredient only aside from those used for sautéing.
The tiny leaves are stripped from the stems and the stems are discarded. How? Hold the upper tip of a branch between the thumb and forefinger of one hand. Then slide the forefinger and thumb of the other hand down the branch and the leaves fall off. Sounds easy enough but I didn’t get quite the hang of it until I was halfway through the pile of leaves I took from the tree in the garden.
The leaves are then rinsed (if you wash them prior to stripping, they’ll be more difficult to handle) and, as an added step, I like to bruise them a little using a mortar and pestle to help them release their sour notes better.
Sinampalukang manok (sour soup with chicken and tamarind leaves)
Ingredients
- 2 shallots
- 2 tomatoes
- 4 cloves garlic
- 2 tablespoons cooking oil
- 4 to 5 cups chicken bone broth
- 750 grams bone-in chicken cut into serving size pieces
- 1 and 1/2 cups tamarind leaves
- patis (fish sauce) to taste
Instructions
- Peel and thinly slice the shallots.
- Dice the tomatoes.
- Peel and mince the garlic.
- Heat the cooking oil in a thick-bottomed pot.
- Saute the shallot, garlic and tomatoes.
- Pour in four to five cups of chicken broth. Yes, it is quite alright to simply use water IF you're using bone-in chicken. If you're substituting fillets because they are more convenient to serve and easier to eat, water just won't coax enough flavor from them to make a tasty broth.
- Add the tamarind leaves.
- Bring to the boil (watch the tamarind leaves change color). Simmer for 15 minutes.
- Add the chicken to the broth, bring to the boil once more, season with patis (fish sauce) and simmer for about 40 minutes.
- Serve the sinampalukang manok hot.
If you cooked this dish (or made this drink) and you want to share your masterpiece, please use your own photos and write the cooking steps in your own words.
Hello and welcome! I'm a retired lawyer and columnist, wife for 28 years, mom of two, and a passionate cook. What is this blog about? Recipes for dishes 
10-minute beef, asparagus and corn stir fry
WOW…never seen tamarind leaves for a long,long time…quite exciting..to quote you
“minsan super babaw din ako”
It’s cold and raining here and sinampalukang manok is a perfect dish at this moment.aayyy
My favorite! Thank you for posting this Miss Connie, I always request this from my father. I asked him several times to teach me how to cook, lagi niyang sagot, “Tantiya-tantiya lang yan.” Stripping the leaves is hard ‘no? My father is impatient with things like that so he would try stripping the bigger branches but when it’s too hard to strip the smaller ones, he’d include it in the soup. Dagdag asim din daw at kami-kami lang naman daw ang kakain, hehe! I’m not sure if it makes a difference in taste but Papa also include the flowers in the soup. The result is always the perfect sourness for us, no need to add tamarind paste/juice.
The only problem with using the more mature leaves is that they take longer to become tender. Other than that, no reason why they can’t be used.
Hi Ms. Connie, my Mom includes some chicken liver in her version of sinampalukang manok. After the sinampalukan is cooked, the chicken liver are taken out of the pot and served on a separate bowl. Then we mash it and mix with patis. Sarap na sawsawan ng sinampalukan, nakakagana sa rice!
Hi Julie. I do the mashed liver-patis sauce with my tinola but never tried it with sinampalukan. Thanks for the idea.
Great timing! this is part of our Christmas lunch. But I’ll be using the bottled young tamarind leaves. I’m still thinking if I should put in the water it is in plus I don’t think I’ll be able to remove it from the stem so the stem will have to go in too. Thanks for posting this!
Tita Connie, this is one of my favorite dishes back home. Now in another country, I was able to buy frozen sampalok leaves. Is there going to be a difference as to preparation and taste? Or do I treat the leaves as if they were plucked from the tree, after they thaw? Ps-i think I remember that my mom used to put luya in the soup too. Is that a variation?
I’ve never used frozen sampalok leaves so I really can’t say if the preparation will be the same. I don’t know of any version with luya either. Perhaps, it’s your mom’s personal touch?
Thanks for the response..I will try preparing it with your recipe and I’ll let you know how it goes!
Hello! I stumbled upon your website trying to find some help in recreating a fave dish I often asked my Mom to cook when I still lived back home. Unfortunately, I am unable to get all of the necessary ingredients (mainly the greens) however, I was lucky enough to stumble upon an actual tamarind based powder from an Asian store! So can I still use this recipe in leau of the tamarind leaves? And btw! The ginger is a common ingredient for a more Tagalog style sinampalukan, my Mom never prepares this dish without it! Gives the broth a certain kick you simply can’t resist! :)
If you use a tamarind based mix without the tamarind leaves, then you’ll be making sinigang, not sinampalukan.