Afritadang Manok (Chiken Afritada) Recipe | Panlasang Pinoy Recipes™ (2024)

I absolutely love tomato-based Filipino recipes and I’m quite excited about this recipe as we are going to be cooking Afritadang Manok or Chicken Afritada. Afritadang manok is a common enough food cooked in the Philippines, typically served for lunch, dinner, and even for celebrations and special occasions.

Afritada is basically meat stewed in tomato sauce and the meat is first marinated in the delicious tomato sauce before cooking to get that deep flavor with every bite which I always find delicious if done right.

Different types of meats can be used for Afritada recipes and Filipinos all have their own favorites with the most common options of meat being between pork, chicken, and beef. I most preferred using chicken on my afritada recipe because I find it to be the healthiest option for an already healthy recipe.

Its ingredients are made up mostly of different cuts of vegetables but tomato and green peas are never absent in an afritada recipe. Its sole meat ingredient is usually the type of meat of the cook’s choice but others also like to add in slices of hotdog (I’m not really sure what they’re made of) which I do as well. I like that the slices of hotdog add texture to the dish but you can opt to skip adding hotdogs if you don’t want to.

Anyway, the vegetables that are commonly used in afritada recipes are tomatoes, green peas, potatoes, and green and red peppers. You can add in chopped carrots too if you want which I also usually do. But the first five vegetables I listed are the traditional ingredients added to the dish.

There’s also another style of cooking afritada called hamonado style which literally only adds pineapple chunks to the original recipe. This extra ingredient makes a sweeter and somewhat juicier version of the original afritada recipe and is also known as pineapple afritada.

Some people confuse afritada with other tomato-based Filipino recipes like kaldereta and menudo which both uses tomato sauce to stew meat like afritada. The difference is that menudo is unique in using sliced liver while the original version of a kaldereta recipe only uses goat meat. Afritada differentiates from the two recipes with its use of green peas and hotdogs (sometimes).

Now back to the delicious recipe we’re going to try out. I’ll be using two pounds of chicken as my meat in this recipe. For vegetables, I’ll, of course, be using chunks of potatoes, sliced red and green bell peppers, green peas, and some carrots chunks.

Additional ingredients will be garlic and onions, lemon juice, soy sauce and fish sauce for seasoning, and a cup of tomato sauce as the primary sauce of the dish which I opted for rather than fresh tomatoes because I like the thickness it brings to the sauce.

Now it’s very important that you marinate the chicken cuts in a mixture of lemon juice and soy sauce for at least 30 minutes before you start cooking. After marinating the chicken, sautee the minced garlic and diced onion in a hot deep pan. Then add the chicken until it’s a golden brown and pour in the marinade mixture.

Add the tomato sauce and three cups of water that you need to boil bring to a simmer for 20 minutes until the chicken is almost cooked. Now it’s time to add in the vegetables with the tomatoes and carrots, plus the slices of hotdogs. Cook it this for about 10 minutes until the potatoes are cooked.

You’ll then need to add the slices of bell pepper and green peas and let it cook for another minute or two. Lastly, for seasoning, add some fish sauce or salt and pepper to taste.

And you have a delicious afritadang manok or chicken afritada. It goes perfectly with warm white rice. I always find the serving of afritada dishes to be stunning because of its bright red-orange color and the pops of green from the green peas. I hope you enjoy cooking this afritada recipe!

Recipe Source here