Tinola na Manok
Chicken and Ginger Soup
“Hindi sa akin yan…Sayo te!” A friend jokingly commented, to many people they know the vegetable as ‘chayote’ in Filipino language it’s ‘sayote’ haha!
Tinola is a classic Filipino dish with the chicken, ginger and either chayote or green papaya. When my papa taught me how to cook this dish at 10 years old, he added an amazing ingredient that I haven’t seen someone else use. I’m not sure if that was his own twist or that was a regional. He added chili leaves to the soup which blown my mind. At this time I wasn’t a fan of the heat from chili so I really enjoyed adding the leaves as I can taste the chili flavours but not the heat. Now as an adult I love adding chili leaves and chillies too! haha! I didn’t chili leaves with this recipe but you can definitely do that if you want. Thank me later *wink*.
I make Tinola a lot in winter and even in the summer time. Especially when I’m feeling a little under the weather. It’s a lovely soup and it will defintely hug you from the inside.
For this recipe I used chicken thighs, I deboned and took the skin off. I kept the bones for the soup and threw the skin away. I personally like chomping on the bones but my family prefer their chicken bonesless (they spoilt!).
I bought my chayote from Chinatown like most of my Filipino ingredients. Unlike before there’s only a few products available in Chinatown. Today they have so many fresh, dry and frozen goods! I hardly use an alternative ingredients unlike before.
option 1 cooking method 
option 1 cooking method
Recipe Update:
I added two options for cooking Tinola. Option 1 is sauteeing the chicken and aromatics with some oil. This gives the soup less clearer broth but it tastes amazing too. Option 2 will give you a clearer soup and it will taste as delicious as the first one but it will probably have less cooking time.
Ingredients
Instructions
UPDATE: Option 1 – heat some oil in pot, add onions & ginger, saute for 2 minutes. Then, add garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the chicken and sautee for 5 minutes. Pour some water and bring it to a boil. Once boiling, turn the heat to medium or low and simmer for 20-30 minutes.
Option 2: In a large pot pour water, add ginger, onion and garlic. Bring it to boil. Once boiled add chicken bones from the thighs if you have them and let it boil again. Add chicken thigh meat into the broth and simmer for 20 minutes.
Add chayote to the chicken soup and continue to simmer for another 10-15 minutes or until the sayote is cooked and soft. Next add the spinach, put the lid on the pot and continue to simmer for 3 minutes or until the spinach is cooked.
It’s now ready to serve with some jasmine rice. You can also serve with some fish sauce on the side or if you like some heat like I do add some chopped fresh chillies too.
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