A hot chicken soup always seem to be what the doctor ordered, when someone in the family is sick or feeling poorly. Growing up in Davao, with my mom and dad’s combined heritage, that usually means Tinolang Manok or Chicken Tinola.
Chicken tinola or tinolang manok, is a soup made with chicken pieces
(usually the whole chicken cut up in pieces), slices of green papaya, malunggay (moringa) leaves or pepper leaves, lots of garlic, ginger, onion, salt and crushed black pepper. My mom prepares it with Moringa leaves most of the time since it was plentiful. I happen to like the hint of bitterness and hint of spice in pepper leaves, so I prefer my tinola with both kinds of leaves in it, if possible.
Since leaving Davao City, and coming over to live in Texas, I think I have only had a proper tinola, once. And, that was a very long time ago. I have never been able to find malunggay/moringa leaves even the frozen version, at any of the Asian stores we have gone to.
Once, I was able to find frozen pepper leaves and green papaya at the same place and time. Guess what I served for supper ? Yes! Tinolang manok, hot over cooked rice, with lots of ginger and garlic. Oh, I was feeling like Davao was just a skip and a hop away. Needless to say, I relished every spoonful of it. My husband liked it, too. Maybe not as much as I did, but I already knew that. You see, Sinigang with Shrimp tops his Filipino soup list. 🙂
Anyway, because some ingredients are not readily available here most times, I have had to make substitutions when making tinola. I know it’s not traditional. Others, will say not proper tinola, but here’s the recipe that my children have come to appreciate. It is one of their preferred soups, when they are feeling poorly.
Gluten Free Chicken Tinola (Tinolang Manok)
What we will need to have:
2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken, cut up in bite sized pieces
1 tbsp. vegetable oil of choice
1 large onion, chopped
1 knob, ginger ( about 2 by3 inch) peeled and sliced thinly*
4-5 cloves garlic, minced
4 large Chayote – peeled, quartered, seeded and cut diagonally into 1/4 inch thick pieces
1 1/4 cup chopped or whole baby spinach leaves ( rinsed well to rid it of any dirt or sand)
12 cups of water
1 1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
sea salt to taste
What we will need to do:
- In a big pot (6-8 qt) over medium heat, heat vegetable oil and saute onion for about 2 minutes.
- Add ginger and saute for 2 more minutes.
- Add garlic and saute for about 30 seconds, long enough to release oil, aromatics into the mix.
- Place chicken and chayote into the pot and stir fry for about 5 minutes, being careful not to brown the garlic, as it will taste bitter.
- Pour in 12 cups of water. Cover pot and let it come up to a rolling boil before reducing the heat to medium low. Simmer for 30-40 minutes until chicken is cooked and chayote is just tender but not mushy.
- Add spinach leaves, season with salt and pepper and cook for another 5 minutes.
Serve hot, as is in a bowl or over steamed rice. Enjoy!
Notes:
* If you do not like to bite into ginger pieces, do not cut them too thin so you can remove them before serving the soup. My kids have learned to just put them aside and not bite into them.