Not Quite Chicken Adobo

I tried this dish, a variation on the chicken adobo, two days ago. The idea to use this method actually came from a Cretan chicken dish, but since I did not have red wine I used Filipino vinegar instead.

Ingredients:

chicken thighs
whole garlic cloves, crushed
vinegar (coconut or cane)
laurel leaves
black peppercorns
salt
cooking oil

1. Lightly season the chicken with some salt and coarsely ground black pepper. Set aside.

2. In a pan or wok, heat the oil and quickly fry the laurel leaves and peppercorns until you smell their aroma, then saute the garlic until lightly brown.

3. Add chicken and fry just until they start to brown but are not yet cooked through.

4. Pour in enough vinegar to submerge (or mostly submerge) the chicken and bring to a boil. If you don't have enough vinegar you may add some water, but this will lessen the flavour.

5. Lower the heat to a simmer and continue cooking, turning from time to time, until all the vinegar has evaporated and you're again left with chicken frying in oil.

6. Continue frying until the chicken attains your desired level of brownness.

Serve with steamed rice. As my Dear said, "Tastes like chicken adobo, but not quite."

The Cretan dish was mostly the same, but replace vinegar with red wine and include cinnamon bark in (2) and kalamata olives in (4).