A Binakol Recipe As Easy As One Two Three

Ilonggo cuisine includes the finest soup dishes: KBL (kadios, baboy langka), batchoy, molo and this one, Binakol.  This hearty soup dish is similar to chicken tinola although the use of coconut water and coconut flesh makes the dish distinctly sweet rather than just savory. 

Traditional methods of cooking this dish requires the use of native chicken to be simmered for hours to soften the tough meat. This also gives the dish a yellowish color from the chicken fat. But for this recipe, we will be using regular broiler chicken. For you coñokids, you can used the over-priced "free-range" chicken you can get at your local supermarket.

Chicken Binakol

INGREDIENTS

1 whole chicken (about 1 kilo), cut into serving pieces
3 cups of young coconut water
2 cup of young coconut flesh
3 cups of the my "awesome" stock, regular chicken stock or water. (Please don't use water. But if you insist, you can use water and 1 chicken bouillon cube)
2 tbsp fish sauce (patis)
1 small green papaya, wedged
1 cup of pepper leaves (talbos ng sili)
4 stalks of lemongrass, remove the leaves leaving only the white bottom part. pound
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 medium onion, chopped
2 small ginger, sliced
3 tbsp of cooking oil
salt and pepper to taste


METHOD

1. In a pot, with high heat, saute the onion, garlic, ginger and lemongrass in hot oil for a minute or till fragrant.
2. Add the chicken pieces to the pot and saute for about 2-3 minutes or till the chicken changes color.

3. Pour the "awesome" stock and young coconut water to the pot, turn the heat to medium low, cover and simmer for about 30-35 minutes.
4.  Season with fish sauce, salt and pepper.
5. Add the green papaya wedges and continue simmering for 5 minutes or till chicken and green papaya are cooked.
6. Put the pepper leaves in the pot and continue cooking till the leaves are wilted.  
7. Transfer to a serving bowl and serve hot.

THINGS OF NOTE

- Traditionally young coconut strips are used in the dish to mimic the texture of noodles. You can serve it diced or free-style like what I did with this dish to mimic the look of molo wrappers in pancit molo.
- If can't get hold of green papaya, you can use sayote instead, but papaya adds a different texture and flavor profile to the dish that sayote can't.
- I know some people would experiment on filleted meat, without skin or worst, all breast part. It's your call, but I tell you flavor would certainly be compromised.
- Just remember that this is cooked like a regular tinola. That's it!