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Chicken Tinola

Recipe by Connie Veneracion
Chicken tinola was a huge favorite with my family when my brother and I were growing up. My father taught me how to make a special dipping sauce to make the tinola experience even more satisfying — a mixture of mashed chicken liver with fish sauce. If you're not scared of chicken liver, I really recommend that you try it.
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes
Course Main Course, Soup
Cuisine Filipino
Servings 4 people
Tinolang manok

Ingredients
  

  • 1 whole chicken including gizzard and liver, about 1 ½ kilos in weight
  • 4 cloves garlic
  • 2 shallots
  • 2 thumb-size pieces ginger
  • 2 tablespoons cooking oil
  • 8 cups chicken bone broth
  • fish sauce to taste
  • 2 small green papayas or one large
  • 1 large handful chili leaves

Instructions
 

  • Cut the chicken into 12 to 16 pieces.
  • Crush, peel and mince the garlic.
  • Peel and finely slice the shallots and ginger.
  • Heat the cooking oil in a pot.
  • Saute the garlic and ginger until they start to brown.
  • Add the shallots and cook for a few minutes or until the shallots start to turn soft.
  • Add the chicken pieces, excluding the liver, and a tablespoon of fish sauce, and cook until the the chicken pieces brown along the edges.
  • Pour in the chicken bone broth.
  • Season with fish sauce. Bring to the boil, lower the heat, cover and simmer for about 20 minutes.
  • Meanwhile, cut the green papayas in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds with a spoon.
  • Cut off and discard the skin.
  • Cut the pale green flesh into wedges.
  • Pick the chili leaves and discard the stalks.
  • When the chicken has simmered for about 20 minutes, add the green papaya, bring to boil once more, then lower the heat, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.
  • Add the chicken liver and continue cooking for another 10 minutes until both the papaya and the chicken liver are done. Do not overcook the papaya.
  • Turn off the heat. Taste the broth. Season with more fish sauce if necessary.
  • Scoop out the chicken liver and set aside.
  • Drop the chili leaves, cover and leave for about 10 minutes (don’t boil the chili leaves because they will turn bitter).
  • Mash the chicken liver and stir in enough fish sauce to make a chunky paste.
    Mashed chicken liver with fish sauce: a dipping sauce for tinola
  • Serve your chicken tinola with the liver-fish-sauce on the side for dipping.
Keyword Chicken Soup