This is a long post in the making. So guilty haven’t updated in a while. But nevertheless, I gained more information about this dish. The chicken inasal. It is one of my favorite Filipino chicken dish particularly the one in Inasal Chicken Bacolod (ICB). Just writing about it makes my mouth water. Yes, there are a lot of chicken inasal places sprouting all over the metro but the Inasal Chicken Bacolod (ICB) has won my heart.
Maybe it was the first one I have ever tried, when I was in college and bleary-eyed from making my thesis. It was close to midnight then and my thesis mates took me to this place as a pick me up. It was my first time to taste chicken inasal and it certainly woke me out of my stupor. What’s this? an orange-hued chicken with a succulent, garlicky flavor to go with my cup of steaming rice. Yum!
I have been in Inasal Chicken Bacolod (ICB) particularly in SM Bicutan a couple of times. It is my go to place when I have a craving for this type of barbecued chicken. Inasal means barbecue in Bacolod. I haven’t been in Bacolod but if this dish originated from there, I may want to visit that place one day. Imagine what the authentic one would taste like if the inasal I’m having here is quite a treat already.
Anyway, I also learned that the chicken inasal is typically marinated in vinegar and garlic and basted in annatto oil while being grilled. So that’s why the chicken is so tasty, it is steeped in acidic vinegar and pungent crushed garlic for hours, no wonder. And once you start eating it and immersing it in a dipping sauce combination of soy sauce, vinegar, calamansi and crushed siling labuyo (bird’s eye chili), it’s hard not to ask for extra rice 🙂
The dipping sauce just highlights the salty and garlicky flavor of the meat, whetting your tastebuds for more. And the kicker is that you can also ask the waiter for some “chicken oil” meaning the annatto-hued chicken drippings that you can drizzle on your rice.
The orange-colored oil gives an earthy, richer flavor to the warm rice and when you eat it with the recently-dipped chicken meat, it tastes sinful. Rich, fatty and full of flavor. Any meat marinated in vinegar and garlic has my vote anytime, I absolutely love it. The acidity of the vinegar and sharpness of the garlic cuts through the meat, transforming it from a bland chunk of meat to a full-flavored one.
And for drinks, I usually have sago’t gulaman with chicken inasal. The dark, vanilla flavored drink with small tapioca balls and gelatin bits make it a good foil to the chicken’s tangy taste. And if I want to indulge more, I’ll have some turon (deep fried banana wrapped like a spring roll) for dessert or share some halo halo (glass of shaved ice with milk, yam, camote, saba ) with my husband to end this good meal J
Inasal Chicken Bacolod website:
