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Filipino

Chicken in Pineapple Sauce

Pineapple is the main ingredient in this saucy Filipino dish and makes the chicken sweet, tender and tasty.

Meatballs and Noodle Soup

Almondigas is a hearty Filipino soup consisting of meatballs and thin, salted Chinese noodles made from wheat flour that cook quickly.

Stir-Fried Rice Noodles with Shrimp and Adobo

Pansit has come to symbolize long life and health in Filipino culture, and is commonly served at birthdays, baptisms, and New Year’s celebrations.

Seafood Sinigang

Sinigang is adobo’s close contender for the title of National Dish of the Philippines. Like many Filipino dishes, this soup is bold in taste: sour, salty, slightly sweet, spicy, and umami.

Spaghetti Sauce Chicken Afritada

Afritada, a traditional chicken and vegetable stew, is a gateway dish to Filipino cuisine. Spaghetti sauce, instead of fresh tomatoes or tomato sauce, is used in this recipe for convenience and taste.

Spicy Sizzling Squid

If you travel to the Philippines, though, you’ll discover that you can “sisig” pretty much anything. There’s chicken sisig, tuna sisig, goat sisig, and even vegetarian sisig. This squid iteration incorporates salmon caviar and crushed prawn crackers.

Arroz Caldo

In this Filipino chicken rice porridge, a combination of medium-grain and sticky rice cooks in freshly made chicken stock until it becomes thick and creamy.

Ube (Purple Yam) Candies

Traditionally made with ube (Filipino sweet potato), this recipe will work with any purple or orange sweet potato or yam.

Roast Pork Belly with Chile Vinegar

his roasting method simplifies and mimics the effects of traditionally boiled and deep-fried lechon kawali, the celebratory Philippine pork dish with crackling skin and succulent meat.

Filipino-Style Meatloaf (Embutido)

Don’t waste any of the paprika-tinted delicious juices remaining in the pan—sop them up with rice instead.

Filipino-Style Beef Steak with Onion

This is not the bland, boring steak and onions you might have seen before—instead, bay leaves, lemon juice, and soy sauce lend fragrant, bright, umami-rich flavor to a succulent rib-eye.

Kare-Kare with Beans, Baby Bok Choy, and Eggplant

If the ingredient list didn’t tip you off, the seven-hour cooking time makes it official: This recipe is a project that you make for people you love. They’ll be thankful.

Pork, Vegetable, and Tamarind Stew

Tamarind gives this hearty stew a pleasant sweet-sour pucker.

Coconut-Vegetable Slaw

An craveable slaw with sweetness from the fresh coconut and sneaky, creeping heat from the chiles. This recipe is from Bad Saint, one of Bon Appétit's Hot 10, America's Best New Restaurants 2016.

Shredded Sweet Potato and Carrot Fritters (Ukoy)

Frying ukoy the Bad Saint way is a very active process­—the fritter will blow apart in the oil before you tease it back together. Use a tall pot with plenty of extra room since the oil will bubble vigorously when the mix hits it.

Filipino-Style Chicken Adobo

While sugarcane vinegar is more often used in the Philippines, apple cider vinegar makes a good substitute if you can't find it.

Shrimp in Achiote Oil

In this Filipino dish, achiote oil bathes the shrimp in an amber hue, and citrus lends a bright, tart note.

Filipino Adobo-Q Chicken

Adobo is a Filipino obsession like barbecue is in America. The key is slow cooking in a mix of Filipino sugarcane vinegar and soy sauce. We think it has a sour-salty vibe similar to American vinegar barbecue sauces. Filipino sugarcane vinegar is soft and mild, more like Asian rice vinegar than cider vinegar. We stumbled on it at the international market along with Filipino soy sauce. If it’s in Nashville, it’s probably available in most cities in the United States. Not to be confused with Mexican canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, this Filipino adobo is a simmering pot of chicken in a tart, salty bath of what probably looks like too much vinegar and soy sauce. You can crisp the chicken on the grill or under the broiler after cooking. Sometimes we use the slow cooker for a pile of soft pulled adobo chicken. Leave out the water and cook the chicken on high for three to four hours. You can also cook beef short ribs or pork butt in the same mix. Whatever the meat or the method, serve it with plenty of white rice.

Salabat

It’s long been believed that ginger is a digestive aid, but this drink would be popular in any case. If you like ginger ale or candied ginger, you owe it to yourself to try this.

Chicken Adobo

The Philippines is not renowned for its cuisine, but chicken adobo is the well-known exception. The basic idea is this: You poach chicken in a mixture of diluted soy sauce, vinegar, and spices until it’s just about done, and then you grill or broil it. Before serving, the poaching liquid is boiled until reduced (thus eliminating any fears of bacterial contamination) and used as a sauce; it’s delicious over rice. If you know you are going to make the dish a day or two before eating it, you can poach the chicken in advance and refrigerate it, in or out of its liquid, until you’re ready, then proceed with the recipe. But because the grilling or broiling time will be a little longer than if you proceed without stopping—the cold chicken must heat through—you should use slightly lower heat to avoid burning. Serve this with plain white rice.