Menudo
Stewed Chicken in Tomato Sauce
Nope! This is not about Ricky Martin or his boy band, this is a delicious chicken stew with a Spanish name seen at many Filipino gatherings. I know what you’re thinking, why do we have this dish in the Philippines? This dish ties us to Spain, Philippines was a Spanish colony for 300+ years. I saw a BBC documentary about Philippine years ago and the presenter concluded with “Philippines is a Latin country in Asia”. When you visit Philippines as soon as you step out of the plane you will straight away see why. The Manila – Acapulco route brought many Latin influences into the country, this includes food, language and textiles.
Filipino Menudo is completely different from Mexico’s menudo recipe. They use tripe, chillies and it’s a soup. Filipino Menudo does not have those, instead we use either chicken or pork, liver and it’s a stew not a soup. My theory is that when Spain came to Philippines, when they saw a dish that is being prepared similar to what they already know they renamed it. Because of the language barrier and that Filipinos are very nice we just agreed to avoid conflict!
This is my rustic menudo, with the kids around because of school holiday I have less time on my hands. With this recipe I used chicken on the bone because I think it’s tastier than chicken breasts but if you like it boneless you can use chicken breast or boneless chicken thighs, alternatively you can use pork too! I haven’t tried making a seafood or vegan version of menudo but I will try it out sometime. There are some who are not a fan of liver, you could take this off if you like. It will change the dish slightly but it’s ok we can’t all like the same things. This is what’s great about cooking, you make it how you like your food. As you noticed I didn’t chop the liver as I like to see them, unfortunately my girls are not a fan of liver so for me it’s easier to pick them off before serving them to my kids.
Menudo is usually eaten with rice but you can eat this with some bread too.
I hope you enjoy this dish and if you do make it please tag me in your instagram photos or videos and rate the recipe. I would love to see your cooking and your feedback is also appreciated!
Ingredients
Instructions
In a large cooking pot, heat some oil, saute onions and garlic for 5 minutes. Add chicken, cook until the meat turns white then add liver and cook for 10 minutes.
Add carrots, tomato paste and passata. Mix them all together and bring it to boil. Season your stew with salt and pepper. Turn the heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes with the lid on. Mixing the stew occasionally.
Add potatoes into the stew. You can taste your stew and see if you would like more salt with it. Continue to simmer until the potatoes are cooked, maybe 15-20 minutes. This dish is goes well with rice but you can also eat this with bread too.
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