Afritada

By: Marlon Isidro

Chicken Afritada or afritadang manok is a type of Filipino chicken stew with tomato based sauced. It is a simple dish that can be cooked on regular days. It is perfect for lunch and is better when eaten with warm white rice.

The basic version includes carrots and potato. This recipe is an improved version. I added green peas and hotdogs. It helped make the dish more appetizing visually. I recommend this recipe to everyone because the procedure is simple and straightforward.

I enjoy eating chicken afritada the same way with menudo. These are two dishes that I consider comfort food.

Ingredients

• 1 ½ lbs. Chicken cut into serving pieces
• 2 piece potato cubed
• 1 piece carrot sliced
• 8 oz. tomato sauce
• 3 pieces hotdog sliced
• ½ cup green peas
• 3 pieces bay leaves
• 1 piece red onion chopped
• 2 teaspoons garlic minced
• 3 cups chicken broth
• ½ teaspoon sugar
• 3 tablespoons cooking oil
• Salt and ground black pepper to taste

How to Cook Chicken Afritada

Start by sautéing garlic and onion. Do this by heating oil in a cooking pot. Add onion and garlic until the onion softens. It is ideal to use a pot with cover.

Add the sliced chicken afterwards. Bone-in chicken was used for this recipe. Boneless chicken breast or thighs can also be used. Cook each side of the chicken for around 30 seconds and then pour tomato sauce and water. We’ll need to tenderize the chicken at this point. This is when the pot cover gets handy. Add the bay leaves and then cover the pot and continue to cook until the chicken gets tender. This takes around 30 minutes. Remember to add more broth or water if needed.

At this point, we just need to add the remaining ingredients and continue to cook for 10 more minutes. I usually add the ingredients in this order: hot dogs, carrot, potato, green peas, seasoning. Fish sauce or patis can be used as an alternative ingredient to salt.