Recipe: Chicken Annatto Adobo Flakes Fried Rice

That long title basically explains the entire recipe. When I got home from Bacolod I brought with me a box of inasal, with it the addictive chicken oil, a recipe I can tell you as a side note. Another Ilonggo food item I brought with me is adobo flakes cooked with atsuete...it's also known as adobong pula. It's actually my favorite kind of adobo as it's one of my mom's specialty and it has a lighter flavor compared to the one made of soy sauce and vinegar.

*To make adobo flakes, simply simmer the adobo until it's so soft that the meat breaks apart when you flatten it with a fork. So you just shred the adobo until it looks like fibers, then there's two ways to make it...deep fry it or dry fry it on a non stick pan until it turns into a crisp brown substance resembling the floss-of-the-floss-bread-topping-part of Breadtalk.

**As for the chicken oil, you can either ask your local inasal place (like I did) to pack it on your take-out order or make one from scratch. There's the authentic version where you use the oil from the insol or chicken butt and infuse it with annatto, or my quick version of using vegetable oil and frying in the annatto and garlic then adding chicken bouillon until everything infuses then straining it in a glass container.

This fried rice recipe came together after I needed to consume the adobo flakes I made but got bored with it after eating it over white for three meals. The recipe is also great with kimchi on the side.


Ingredients:

Cold Rice (Newly cooked rice will make the fried rice all mushy, so a-couple-of-hours-old rice is better to use because it'll be more loose and fry better.)
Adobo Flakes* (You can also use the soy-vinegar version.)
Chicken Oil**
Minced Garlic (I actually used ready made fried garlic, so I only added it at the end of the process, right before I turn off the stove.)
Salt


Procedure:

1. Loosen the rice...you know...until it's not all sticky.
2. Heat the chicken oil in a large frying pan.
3. Saute the garlic in the oil just until before you see it turn golden brown...or you can turn it golden brown, but then you'd have to remove it from the oil else it continues to cook and turn charcoal garlic by the end of the whole fried rice thing. In my case I used fried garlic, so I only added it in the end.
4. Add the rice and stir until it's evenly coated and colored orange.
5. Stir in the crispy adobo flakes and mix until it's speckled in brown.
6. Throw in a pinch of salt to taste.
7. Top with sunny side up.
8. Show friends what you're about to eat to make them jealous.
9. Eat with kimchi on the side.