Chicken Tinola

Tinola is a Filipino soup with chicken, fish sauce, and green papaya. And ginger. Lots of ginger. There’s many meat and vegetable variations; but the one mom cooks has chicken, carrots, and tomatoes.

Green papayas are just unripe papayas (like green mango). Apparently papayas grow in Texas just fine since a family friend gave it to us. In this recipe you can substitute chayote, a similar squash, as well.

Fun facts from Wikipedia: 
– “Both green papaya fruit and the tree’s latex are rich in papain, a protease used for tenderizing meat and other proteins. “
– “The latex concentration of unripe papayas are speculated to cause uterine contractions, which may lead to a miscarriage. Papaya seed extracts in large doses have a contraceptive effect on rats and monkeys, but in small doses have no effect on the unborn animals.”

A one pot meal is efficient enough for any med student

Chicken Tinola

Ingredients
2 tbsp olive oil
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 onion, roughly chopped
ginger
4 chicken thighs, cut in pieces
2 tbsp patis (fish sauce) and/or soy sauce
3-4 cups water
1 green papaya, peeled and cubed
3-4 carrots
Directions
With the olive oil, saute the garlic, onion, ginger, and chicken in hot oil, cooking until chicken is browned. Add patis/soy sauce and water. Bring to boil.

Reduce heat to medium low, cover and simmer until chicken is tender, about 20-30 minutes. Add papaya and carrots about halfway in (15 min), which can be adjusted depending on how well cooked you want the vegetables. Add additional patis/soy sauce to taste.

Similar Posts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

One Comment

  1. This is what i suggest,Why not try my favorite if theres no papaya i use it with potatoes and carrots plus chicken fingerlings you may add red chilli.