Chicken Afritada (Filipino Stew) ala MyExpatMommy

Afritada is one of the simplest dishes in the Philippines and is one of the first recipes I have learned from my father. I believe I inherited my love for cooking from my father, we both love good food. I think I was about 10 when I first tried cooking real dishes and the ones I normally cook are my adobo, afritada and sinigang.

Sinigang being one of my all time favorites while adobo and afritada are the two simplest dishes we make. When I was younger, what my Tatay taught me to avoid any accidents in the kitchen is to just toss everything in a saucepan, cover and let it simmer until meat is cooked. I recommend this for  first time cooks, it actually works! I still do that until now. My Tatay and I are also not very fond of tomato sauce, we both prefer using fresh tomatoes for our sauces, as we do not like that artificial taste and color.

Although this time I would love to prepare pork afritada, given the circumstances, I would just settle for chicken (still waiting for our friend to bring some pork from the Philippines!).
 Ingredients:
1 whole chicken (about 1kg), chopped
2 tbs vegetable oil
3 cloves garlic finely chopped
1 medium sized onion, sliced thinly
3 medium sized fully riped tomatoes, coarsely chopped
1 medium potato, sliced
1 large carrot, sliced
1 bell pepper, sliced
2 tbs fish sauce
1/2 cup water
salt and pepper

Method
In a wok, heat the oil and put in the garlic and onion, saute until garlic is lightly brown and onion is soft and a little clear.
Add the chicken, do not stir. Then add the fish sauce. Stir a little and cover. Let the chicken render its juice and oil. Maintain medium heat while cooking. Don't set the fire to low to avoid rendering too much oil and drying the meat. Add the water when the sauce becomes very thick.
Let it simmer until meat is cooked, about 15 minutes. Then add the potatoes and carrots. Cover and let simmer for another 5 minutes then add the bell pepper.
Add salt and pepper to taste. Turn of the heat after another 5 minutes. Serve with rice. Enjoy!

Homemade Chicken Afritada