Chicken Tinola Recipe
Chicken Tinola is a Filipino soup dish. It involves cooking chicken pieces in ginger broth. It is a popular cold weather dish. I always feel warm and cozy every time I eat it. This Filipino Chicken Soup is best enjoyed with fish sauce as dipping sauce, and a cup of warm white rice. Tinola is…
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Chicken Tinola is a Filipino soup dish. It involves cooking chicken pieces in ginger broth. It is a popular cold weather dish. I always feel warm and cozy every time I eat it. This Filipino Chicken Soup is best enjoyed with fish sauce as dipping sauce, and a cup of warm white rice.
Tinola is traditionally cooked with wedges of unripe papaya and malunggay leaves. These components make it a good source of nutrients. The secret in making a good tinola is to simmer the chicken for longer periods of time. This extracts the flavor from the chicken. It also makes the chicken tender in the process.
How to Cook Chicken Tinola
This recipe for tinola is simple and straightforward. I highly recommend this to beginners.
Start by sauteeing onion, garlic, and ginger. Do this by heating oil in a cooking pot. Add onion and garlic. You can put either of the ingredients first, followed by the strips of ginger. Make sure to saute these until the onion softens. You are almost done when you start to smell the good scent of the aromatics that you are cooking. The scent slowly fills the kitchen and it can linger for a while.
Add chicken pieces. The size of each piece does not matter. It depends on your preference. Cook the chicken for 3 to 5 minutes or until it turns light brown. You may even saute longer if desired. I am adding a bit of fish sauce during this step to provide initial flavor to the dish. You can opt to add this ingredient towards the end of the cooking process.
This chicken tinola recipe makes use of rice washing for the soup. It refers to the water used to wash the rice. Let me quickly describe the steps on how this is done. Rice needs to be cleaned before cooking. This involves pouring water on a rice cooker or pot where the rice will be cooked and stirring everything until starch goes off from the outer part of the rice. The starchy water is what we call rice washing. Simply drain the water from pot and use it for your tinola. Let it boil, cover the pot and simmer or you can also boil in low heat for 40 to 45 minutes, or until the chicken tenderizes. This is also the step wherein you can add chicken cube or chicken powder to further enhance the flavor of the soup.
Add the papaya once the chicken gets tender. Boil it for 5 minutes, and then add hot pepper leaves, or malunggay leaves. You are almost done.
The last part is to season your chicken tinola with either salt or fish sauce, and ground black pepper. The amount of ingredients will depend on your preference.
There are variations of chicken tinola that I enjoy eating. Have you tried Tinolang Manok sa Gata ? This version makes use of coconut milk. It is rich, creamy, and worthy of your time.
Chicken Tinola Alternative Ingredients
It is best to use bone-in chicken for this dish. You can remove the skin from the chicken to reduce fat. Boneless and skinless chicken breast or thigh can also be used.
Green papaya is commonly used to cook tinola. There are times when this is not available especially if you live outside of the Philippines. You can use chayote or sayote as an alternative to papaya.
It is always best to use malunggay when it is available. However, there are also healthy alternatives to it. For example, this recipe calls for hot pepper leaves or dahoon ng sili. Spinach is also a good substitute.
Try this Chicken Tinola Recipe. Let me know what you think.
Did you make this? If you snap a photo, please be sure tag us on Instagram at @panlasangpinoy or hashtag #panlasangpinoy so we can see your creations!
Chicken Tinola Recipe
Ingredients
Instructions
- Sauté the garlic, onion, and ginger
- Put-in the chicken and cook until color turns light brown
- Add the fish sauce. Stir. Pour rice washing into the cooking pot. Let boil. Cover the pot and simmer for 45 minutes. Note: add water if needed.
- Add green papaya. Cook for 5 minutes
- Add the hot pepper leaves or malunggay leaves. Stir and cook for 1 minute.
- Season with ground black pepper. Note you can also add fish sauce or salt if needed.
- Transfer to a serving bowl. Serve hot. Share and enjoy!
Nutrition Information
Watch How to Cook Chicken Tinola
Junior says
Awesome! Ty!!
Vrassi says
Fantastic meal that is nutrient-rich. I appreciate you sharing this recipe; I loved it when I tried it at home. I’m hoping that you upload more recipes of such a nature. is a recipe made entirely of healthful components. I hope you’ll post more recipes similar to this one.
Mark Joseph Medina says
Easy to follow and tasty
Eddie says
Super tasty! Did you think about adding lemon grass?
Rainier Cuyugan says
Excellent
Gesenia Jimenez Tubio says
This is a great recipe. My tinola came out great.
P.S. I tried to watch the video but it was not good. I don’t speak Tagalog but I catch a few things here and there. The music was too loud and it drowns out the cooks voice.
Ina says
Thanks a lot for helping me
Imelda sumagaysay says
I have read & tried your recipes before and the results were just perfect but since i went to melbourne and found that my son-in-law there consulted your recipes also, now i am an avid fan of yours. Going back to the philippines during the lockdown periods is no easy task to do so while am here it gave me time to explore your dishes where everyone became an instant chef or baker. Thank you to your panlasang pinoy. ..note on tinolang manok, could you replace buko juice and include its buko meat with water? A perfect variation yay!
Benny Pena says
Ohhh yeah, neighbor Manny from Chicago, IL. I’m up North of you in North Chicago, Gurnee area and there’s lots of Fresh Chicken Leg Quarters here on Sale($0.39/lb.)here . It’s so cold out(10 degrees Fahrenheit) and wondering what to cook. Pinoys from way up North (Milwaukee) shops here for the cheaper prices and varieties of Fresh Asian Vegetables. Anyways, thanks for the idea bro.(Y). Your Chicken Tinola recipes and mine are basically the same(Y)…The more Fresh Ginger slices, the better (for me)! And for the left overs(if there’s any), I put it in the fridge and make Chicken Arrozcaldo the next day! Happy Holidays to you and your Family Bro. !!!
Kabir says
Just awesome recipe with full of nutrient. Many Thanks for posting this recipe, I will must try to home. As a Nutritionist I appreciate thMany Thanks for posting this recipe, I will must try to home. I hope you will upload more this type of recipes. is recipe with all healthy ingredients. I hope you will upload more recipes like this.
Jessie says
Can I substitute the rice water with only water?