Chicken Tocino recipe is the perfect replacement for pork or beef tocino. As you might already know, chicken is healthier than the other two types of meat as it contains less fatty. Chicken tocino is a full of flavor recipe: it’s savoury, tangy with a little bit of spiciness and a balanced amount of sweetness. Follow the step by step guide below to create your own version of this mouth-watering dish!
Ingredients for Chicken Tocino recipe
To make this recipe, you need to prepare the ingredients below:
- Oil (1 tablespoon)
- Water (1/3 cup)
- Black pepper (1/2 tablespoon)
- Salt (1/2 tablespoon)
- Garlic powder (1 tablespoon)
- Chili sauce (2 tablespoon)
- Brown sugar (3 tablespoon)
- Ketchup (3 tablespoon)
- Pineapple juice (1/3 cup)
- Chicken thigh or breast (1 pound, cut into cubes or thick slices)
Chicken Tocino Instruction
You can make this chicken tocino dish simply by following a simple 3-step guide: marinate – boil – pan-fry. Once you’re done with marinating the chicken, the whole cooking process should only take 15 minutes or so. This recipe allows you to make 4 servings, but feel free to double or triple the amount of ingredients to feed more people. Here are the step by step instructions for chicken tocino:
Step 1: Marinate chicken meat
It’s recommended that you perform this step the night before to let the chicken marinate longer, which is the secret for the best-tasting tocino. Otherwise, make sure that you marinate the chicken for at least 4 hours.
To start off, combine your ketchup, pineapple juice, pepper, salt, garlic powder and chili sauce in a bowl. Stir up until every ingredient is well incorporated. Submerge the cubed chicken meat in the mixture and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight for best results.
Tips: You can also make the chicken meat tenderize by pounding it. This will help the meat marinate faster, especially when you’re pressed for time.
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Step 2: Boil the chicken tocino until tender
Add the marinade liquid and chicken to a saucepan then bring to the boil. Pour in the pan 1/3 cup of water. Let everything continue boiling until the chicken meat becomes tender and the liquid evaporates.
Step 3: Pan fry the chicken tocino and add finishing touches
To pan-fry the chicken, first you need to add some oil to your pan. Then let the oil heat up on medium heat. Sauté the chicken to obtain a perfect caramelized and golden brown surface.
Serve the chicken tocino on a plate with sliced peppers, a fried egg and rice. Before serving, you can also stir fry the rice with minced garlic. This will make the dish more authentic.
Bake chicken in the oven
You can use the oven to bake thawed chicken at 350-degrees F. Don’t forget to wrap the chicken in tin foil then bake until the chicken meat is cooked through (for roughly 30 minutes).
Open the tin foil, flip the chicken meat and continue baking (for about 5 – 10 more minutes). At this point, the chicken can easily burn so remember to pay close attention.
Before pulling out the chicken from the oven, sear the exterior for about 1 minute by turning to broiler. You can also choose to skip this step as it’s optional. Finally remove the chicken from the oven.
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Grill the chicken tocino
For the grilling method, you can use charcoal or gas to grill the chicken. With a charcoal grill, place the coals on one side of the grill. If you use a gas grill, set the grill to low fire. The cooking time will vary based on heat temperature.
Lay the chicken meat on tin foil under the coals, this way the chicken will cook through slowly. It’s not advisable to place the chicken directly on the grill as it can easily burn.
The chicken meat will release juice, continue grilling until all the juice evaporates. Once the chicken’s surface starts to brown, you can choose to place the chicken on the grill directly or transfer the chicken with foil to the other side of the grill without charcoal.
Caramelize both sides of the chicken and cook it for 2 – 3 more minutes. You should pay close attention as the chicken will easily burn.
Store and reheat Chicken Tocino
If you have leftovers, just simply put the chicken tocino in an airtight container and store it in the fridge. The chicken tocino will stay perfectly juicy and tender for up to 5 days. That’s why this dish is an amazing option for meal preparation throughout the week.
You can easily reheat the chicken tocino in the microwave for about 2 minutes. Otherwise let the chicken steam in a pan with a lid on the stovetop until heated. Don’t forget to add to the pan a few tablespoons of water.
Another option is covering the chicken with tin foil and placing it in an oven-safe container or dish. Add a splash of water before wrapping with foil to keep the meat tender. Then bake the chicken in the oven at about 250-degrees F until it warms up.
It’s inadvisable to sauté your leftovers, because the chicken is already golden brown and perfectly caramelized. If you try to pan-fry it again, the meat might burn black on the surface.
You might have never heard of the Chicken Tocino recipe, but it may become every household’s favorite. For this dish, you only need simple ingredients that can be easily found in your kitchen pantry. There are no complicated cooking procedures. Just mix the marinade liquid, cure and marinate the chicken, boil and pan-fry! See you in Bourbon O’s next articles for more interesting recipes.
