Chicken with Pork and Beans (Filipino Style)
Chicken thighs browned and simmered with a can of pork and beans, soy sauce, and tomato sauce until the sauce thickens around them. Pantry ingredients, one pot, about 40 minutes, and it goes over rice. My mom's version, which is the one I still make.
Servings: 5
Calories: 422kcal
Equipment
- 1 medium pot
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon garlic, crushed
- ½ cup medium onion, chopped
- 1½ pounds boneless chicken thighs
- 11 ounces Canned Pork and Beans
- 2 tablespoon soy sauce
- ¾ cup tomato sauce
- 1 tablespoon sugar or honey
- 2 pcs dry bay leaves optional
- ½ teaspoon salt optional
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- 2 potatoes cubed
Instructions
- Fry the potatoes, if using. Cube them small, around half an inch. Heat oil in the pot over medium-high and fry them for 5 to 6 minutes, turning once or twice, until the outsides are golden and set. Take them out and put them aside. Frying first seals the outside so they hold their shape through the simmer instead of falling apart into the sauce.2 potatoes
- Sauté the aromatics. Heat oil in a pot over medium. Add the garlic and onion and cook for 3 to 4 minutes, until the onion turns soft and translucent and the garlic smells sweet rather than sharp. Do not let the garlic brown past golden or it turns bitter and you will taste it in the finished sauce.3 tablespoons olive oil, 1 tablespoon garlic, crushed, ½ cup medium onion, chopped
- Brown the chicken. Add the thighs and cook for 5-7 minutes per side, until the outside is golden. This is not about sealing juices in, which searing does not do. It is about the browned bits that stick to the bottom of the pot, because the sauce lifts them later and that is where a lot of the flavor comes from.1½ pounds boneless chicken thighs
- Add the sauces. Pour in the can of pork and beans, then the soy sauce and tomato sauce. Add sugar only if your can needs it, and drop in the bay leaves. Scrape the bottom of the pot as the liquid goes in so nothing browned is left stuck down there.11 ounces Canned Pork and Beans, 2 tablespoon soy sauce, ¾ cup tomato sauce, 1 tablespoon sugar or honey, 2 pcs dry bay leaves, ½ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon pepper
- Simmer. Cover and cook gently for 20-25 minutes, until the chicken is tender and reaches 165°F at the thickest part. Stir once or twice, gently, since the beans break apart if you work them too hard. The sauce is ready when it coats the back of a spoon and no longer runs thin off the chicken.
- Finish and serve. Pull the bay leaves. Taste and add salt and pepper now, not earlier, since the soy sauce and the canned beans have already brought most of it. Let it sit off the heat for a few minutes, then serve over rice
Notes
- The whole can goes in, sauce and all. Do not drain it. That sauce is what thickens the dish as it simmers.
- Taste before adding sugar. Filipino brands of pork and beans run sweeter than American ones. Depending on your can, you may not need any sugar at all.
- Season at the end. Between the soy sauce and the canned beans, there is already a lot of salt in the pot before you add any.
- Stir gently once the beans are in. They come out of the can fully cooked and soft, so working them hard breaks them into the sauce.
- Pull it off the heat slightly loose. The sauce keeps thickening as it sits and again in the fridge. What looks right in the pot will be too tight at the table.
- Potatoes: cube them small and add with the sauces so they cook through in the same simmer. Skip freezing that batch, since potatoes go grainy after thawing.
Nutrition
Calories: 422kcal | Carbohydrates: 75.2g | Protein: 25.8g | Fat: 4.1g | Saturated Fat: 0.7g | Cholesterol: 27mg | Sodium: 3114mg | Potassium: 367mg | Fiber: 16.6g | Sugar: 28.2g | Calcium: 84mg | Iron: 19mg
