Tinolang Manok — Ginger Chicken Soup

Name: Tinolang Manok — Ginger Chicken Soup
Total time: 1 h 5 min
Yield: 5
Cuisine: Filipino
Ingredients: 900 g (2 lbs) Chicken, cut into serving pieces; 3 thumbs Ginger, julienned; 1 Unripe papaya, cut into wedges; 150 g Malunggay leaves (moringa); 150 g Hot pepper leaves; 1.4 L (6 cups) Water; 1 Chicken bouillon cube; 1 Onion, sliced; 4 Garlic cloves, crushed and chopped; 2 tbsp Fish sauce (patis); 0.125 tsp Ground black pepper; 3 tbsp Vegetable oil

The clear, gingery chicken soup Filipino households make when someone is unwell or the rain will not stop. No coconut milk, no tomato, no chili — just ginger, fish sauce, green papaya and a lot of leaves.

Source

Recipe by Vanjo Merano · 📱 Influencer · Vanjo Merano — Filipino food writer behind Panlasang Pinoy, the largest Filipino recipe site

Names of cooks and creators appear as source credit only. More Recipes Please is independent and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by them.

Panlasang Pinoy (Vanjo Merano) — Vanjo Merano's published classic tinolang manok. 'Manok' is Tagalog for chicken. The dish is well enough known in the Philippines that José Rizal used a pot of tinola as a scene-setting device in the opening chapters of Noli Me Tángere.

Cook: Vanjo Merano

Watch it being made · 3 videos

Vanjo Merano Cook with Ea Nina Bacani

⏱ 65 min🍽 5 servings🔥 530 kcal🇵🇭 Philippines

Gluten-freeDairy-free

Steps

Heat the oil in a pot over medium heat and cook the garlic, onion and ginger with the black pepper until the onion softens and the kitchen smells strongly of ginger.
💡 Do not rush this. Ginger fried in oil first tastes warm and rounded; ginger dropped straight into water tastes raw and sharp. It is the same ingredient and two different soups.
Add the chicken and cook for about 5 minutes, turning, until the outside is lightly coloured.
Pour in the water and bring it to a boil. Cover, turn the heat to low, and simmer for 40 minutes.
Skim the foam and excess fat off the surface with a wide spoon.
💡 Tinola is meant to be clear. Skimming is the only thing separating a clean-tasting bowl from a greasy one, and it takes about a minute.
Drop in the bouillon cube and the papaya wedges, cover, and cook for 5 minutes until the papaya is just tender.
Add the malunggay and hot pepper leaves with the fish sauce and cook for 2 minutes only. Taste, adjust the fish sauce, and serve.
💡 Two minutes, not five. These leaves go from fresh and green to grey and bitter faster than almost any other vegetable in this book.

💡 Tips

Tinola is the Filipino equivalent of chicken soup for a cold, and the ginger is why. Increase it rather than reducing it if you are actually unwell.
Serve it with a small dish of fish sauce and a chili on the side. Diners season their own bowl at the table — that is the normal way to eat it.
Green papaya and chayote are interchangeable here, but a ripe papaya is not — it will collapse into sweet mush. Check that it is hard and green before you buy.