My Whole Chicken Soup With Vegetables: Filipino Chicken Tinola is a Filipino dish cooked like the Korean Chicken Soup. The Filipino Chicken Tinola is basically a Filipino Chicken soup (in pieces) cooked with wedges of unripe papaya, vegetable pear and fresh hot pepper leaves. The Korean Chicken Soup is made with whole young chicken with ginseng, dates and sweet rice stuffing. See my other Filipino dishes with inspiration from other country’s cuisines, Ground Beef Recipe: Filipino and Cuban Style Picadillo, Recipe For Plantain Lasagna with Ground Beef, and One Pot Chicken and Rice Recipe: Asian Rice Porridge.
I came across this Korean Chicken Soup recipe when I was watching a Korean YouTube Channel to get some inspiration. I was immediately interested in the recipe because it involves cooking the whole chicken and whole onion along with other ingredients. In the show I was watching, the chicken really looked so tender and delicious. After watching the show, my interested was peaked to cook the Filipino Chicken Tinola like the Korean Chicken soup. I decided to use the whole young chicken instead of using pieces of chicken and I decided that I would use the whole onion and that I would not slice it. Since fresh hot pepper leaves are not available here in the U.S., I decided to add 3 whole of Serrano peppers and use spinach for this recipe to replace the fresh hot pepper leaves.
After a few weeks of contemplating the idea of cooking my version of Filipino Chicken Tinola inspired by the cooking method of the Korean Chicken Soup (using whole young chicken and yellow 0nions), I finally decided to turn this into reality and the result was surprisingly delicious! The chicken was super tender, juicy and melted in my mouth! My husband and I both loved it! We ate it with Asian glass noodles while my husband ate it with his favorite angel hair pasta but you can also eat it with steamed rice. 
How To Cook Whole Chicken Soup With Vegetables: Filipino Chicken Tinola
My recipe is actually very easy and simple to make especially if you skip the tying together of the chicken legs. You can actually skip that part if you are not planning to stuff the inside of the chicken. However, according to food experts, tying the chicken together prevents both the extremities and the breast from drying out while cooking. This is probably one of the factors as to why the chicken in this recipe is so tender. So why not take an extra step and tie the chicken legs together? The result will be very satisfying.
If you would like to take the extra steps and you want to stuff the chicken with green onions, garlic or soaked rice, watch the video below to see how I tied the chicken legs without using twine. Of course, you can use twine if you prefer. After the process of tying the legs, the remaining steps are easy. Start by sauteing ginger and garlic for a few minutes and the add the whole chicken into the boiling pot. Sear the whole young chicken for 1 minute or until it turns light brown and then flip the chicken and sear it for another 1 minute. After that, pour in the chicken broth, whole onions, water, fish sauce, salt and pepper. Cover and continue to cook until the chicken is cooked through. Afterward, add the wedges of papaya and Serrano peppers, cook until it gets tender. Stir in the spinach and cook until its wilted. Then you are done!
I hope you give this recipe a try and let me know what you think!
Note:
In case you bought a papaya that is not totally green, just remove the orange flesh and use the green part and then you are good to go.
Whole Chicken Soup With Vegetables: Filipino Chicken Tinola
Ingredients
- 1 whole Young Chicken
- 2 inches Ginger or 2 tbsp of grated fresh ginger Peeled and sliced
- 6 cloves Garlic sligthly pressed
- 4 cups Spinach
- 4 cups Papaya Peeled and sliced.
- 3 whole Serrano peppers
- 1 tbsp olive oil or vergetable oil
- 1 whole White Onion
- 2 stalks green onion
- 2 15 oz. can Chicken Broth
- 2 cups water or more enough to cover most of the chicken
- 6 tbsp Fish Sauce
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 3/4 tsp pepper
Instructions
- Pat the whole chicken to dry.
- Place the chicken into a tray. Stuff the inside of the chicken or cavity with garlic cloves and 1 stalk of green onion.
- Season the whole chicken with 1 tsp of salt and 1/4 tsp. pepper
- Grab your kitchen scissors to make a small cut through the thick skin part of the chicken between the thigh and the cavity opening. Expand the hole using your finger and bring the leg over on the opposite side and insert the end part of the leg and then repeat the procedure on the other side to keep the legs crossed together (see the video above). This helps to keep the garlic and green onions inside the cavity while cooking. Then set aside.
- Heat the oil in a medium size boiling pot over medium heat. Add the ginger and saute for a minute. Then stir the garlic and continue to cook for an additional 2 minutes.
- Add the whole chicken into the pot and sear it for 1 minute or turn until it's a light brown. Then flip the chicken to the other side and sear for another 1 minute. Next, add the chicken broth, water, whole onions, green onions, fish sauce and the remaining salt and pepper. Cover and bring it to boil. Then reduce the heat to medium for 40 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.
- Scoop out the scum then, add the papaya and Serrano peppers into the mixture. Cover and continue to cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until the papaya is soft.
- Remove the stalk of green onion and add the spinach into the mixture. Cook for 2 minutes or until the spinach has wilted. Turn the heat off and rest the chicken for 10 minutes in the pot.
- Serve with glass noodles or steamed rice and salt and pepper on the side. Enjoy!
