Tito Greg + Chicken Adobo

Chicken Adobo
prepared by Greg and Melinda Tolentino

This adobo recipe comes from Dr. Greg Tolentino, a radiation oncologist, whose family hails from the Quezon province in southern Luzon.

When Greg was president of his pre-med class, one of his fellow students fainted during a chemistry class. Responsible for the welfare of his fellow classmates, he dutifully went to the hospital to visit that student, Melinda. Ten years later, they were married and completing their residencies with a baby on the way. On a whim, Greg applied to intern at a hospital in Milwaukee. He surprised his wife with the news that he had been accepted. Three days after they arrived in the US, their first daughter was born. They later moved to Chicago, where Greg completed his residency and where they raised their three daughters.

Growing up, Greg learned to cook by observing his mom, who prepared an array of Tagalog dishes for him and his eight siblings. He often accompanied her to market, where she instructed him in the finer points of choosing the freshest ingredients. When his father cooked, it was a special occasion. Chicken dinuguan was Greg’s dad’s specialty, and Greg has fond memories of assisting him in its preparation. His job was to collect the blood from the chicken and coagulate it using vinegar while his father finished dressing the bird for cooking. While Greg has cooked a majority of the recipes he learned from his parents, chicken dinuguan is the one dish that he has not had the opportunity to make in America. He speaks with admiration of his parents’ cooking, especially the innovation behind it and the myriad ways in which simple ingredients could be prepared. He compares this to the style of cooking that relies on cookbooks. He admits that while written recipes allow for consistency and are valuable in the passing down of knowledge, they do take some of the fun and creativity out of the experience.

When Greg cooked for his children when they were young, his mainstay recipes were unwritten, prepared by taste and intuition. Now when he cooks for his grandchildren, he is very careful to follow recipes that he knows they will like. This recipe, ‘Greg’s adobo,’ has a page in the family cookbook and was developed with his grandkids’ tastes in mind. While this dish once contained a combination of pork and a whole chicken, it is now made with boneless, skinless chicken thighs. White vinegar has been replaced with apple cider vinegar, and eye-balled quantities of sugar and soy sauce have been replaced with a meticulously portioned amount of sweetened soy sauce. Much to the delight of Greg’s grandchildren, the recipe is consistent and deliciously dependable.