Calderetang Manok

What’s your favorite rendition of this much loved tomato-based stew? At my home, Calderetang Manok is a popular option; it’s something my kids just love to see at the dinner table. My personal favorite is the kind made with beef, which you can actually learn how to make here. But I acknowledge the goodness of this white meat version too. The texture of the chicken is perfect against the potatoes and carrots. Plus this meat has quite the neutral taste, which suits our rich stew quite well.

What is the Calderetang Manok Recipe?

But this is my special version of the recipe! For this, we utilize as much ingredients as we need to make our stew perfectly thick and flavorful. Now if this is your first time giving caldereta a shot, here’s a bit of background. This is an orange stew that’s made slightly savory by a mix of seasonings and ingredients including liver spread, soy sauce, garlic, and of course, tomato sauce. It’s a beloved dish among Filipino families because of its warmth and hearty quality!

Calderetang Manok Recipe with Gata?

Every Filipino knows just how delightful a creamy stew can be, hence, the many ginataan recipes you can see around. It’s just fitting for us to try making our caldereta a bit milkier by adding that coconut milk flavor and texture. You can try Panlasang Pinoy’s recipe for Pork Kaldereta Sa Gata to taste it for yourself! Feel free to substitute the red meat with chicken as well if you prefer this ingredient in your stew.

But going back to the classic, let’s go through the food you will need for Calderetang Manok.

Calderetang Manok Ingredients

Our preparation will start with cutting 3 lbs. of chicken into serving pieces. Afterwards, you may dice 1 potato and 2 carrots. Then mince 1 onion and 4 cloves of garlic, and grate 1 ounce of cheese. Next on the list would be 8 ounces of tomato sauce, 3 ounces of liver spread, 4 tablespoons of soy sauce, and 1 ½ cups of water.

We should also have 1 lime, 1 ½ teaspoons of garlic powder, and ½ cup of cooking oil in the kitchen. Lastly, just have some fish sauce and ground black pepper on hand. You will add as much of this as preferred.

How to Make Calderetang Manok

Marinating our chicken

Get a container, and place your chicken inside. Add your soy sauce, garlic powder, and ground black pepper. Squeeze in the juice of 1 lime too before we let everything marinate together for a minimum of 1 hour. And if you do not have a lime, you could also use 2 pieces of calamansi instead.

Frying the potatoes and carrots

Grab your potatoes, and fry them in some oil within 3 to 5 minutes using medium heat. You will know this is good to go once the exterior turns light brown. Then fry your carrots too, but this time just within 2 to 3 minutes. We should keep the fried potatoes and carrots in a bowl with some paper towels to absorb excess oil.

Sautéing the onion, garlic, and chicken

Let’s place around 3 tablespoons of cooking oil in a cooking pot. Then toss in your onion and garlic. We will sauté these two, and wait for the onions to soften before adding the chicken we marinated.

Sauté the chicken as well, but just until it becomes medium brown. Take note that we don’t add our tomato sauce and water until after this step so we can achieve that nice, slightly toasted exterior!

Letting the stew boil

It’s time to get the tomato sauce and water in the pot too! Just cover the pot afterwards, and keep this up until the liquid boils. Now you may adjust the heat to a simmer. Keep cooking for 40 minutes more.

Integrating some seasonings and vegetables

Incorporate your liver spread, and stir it into the mixture. Great! Now we may place our delicious veggies inside too– bell peppers, and the potatoes and carrots we fried awhile ago. Pour in your fish sauce, and add ground black pepper too. Then you may integrate your grated cheese for that extra oomph in flavor.

How to Serve Calderetang Manok

Are you just about ready to get spoonfuls of delicious caldereta into your belly? We’re almost there! Simply transfer your Calderetang Manok to a serving plate of choice, or just eat it straight out of the pot. It really is up to you! But I can guarantee this would taste fantastic with some warm rice.

How to Store Calderetang Manok

For your leftovers, just take an airtight container, and put your caldereta inside. And before we cover and refrigerate this, it’s important that it is down to room temperature. Then you can keep it in the fridge for 3 days.

Any questions on how to create Calderetang Manok? Comment them below!