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This was really REALLY good! I loved the recipe.. I’m Filipino and I am not the best cook. Your recipe was really tasty!
Jane
When I think about the sights and smells of our street in the Philippines, this is what I’ll think of – little homemade grills with hot, smoking coals, where people stand around in a cloudy haze of smoky-smoke leisurely fanning the grill area with little pieces of cardboard. And if you walk closer and get past the haze, you’ll see that there are wire grates over the coals holding sizzling skewers of golden, crispy filipino chicken barbecue.
I’ll be the first to admit it: I feel confused calling it chicken barbecue because in my mind that involves barbecue SAUCE and I’m a girl who loves my Sweet Baby Ray’s. But here, chicken barbecue is nothing more than perfectly grilled pieces of real chicken (no boneless-skinless-chicken-breasts here) in easy-to-eat skewer form. How seriously genius.
For this, the skin stays on so the chicken meat gets nice and juicy, even though the outside is basically double-charred-crispy. Like literally, the uncle (like how it’s the uncle this time instead of the aunties? thank you very much sir!) who showed me how he was making this communicated that the first pan of chicken in this picture below was like a little resting pan for keeping the chicken after grilling it just once, and then the second pan was for when the chicken pieces that had been finished by putting them back on the grill… again. Grill, rest, grill. And it’s totally crispy and juicy and wonderful, especially with that skin. Thank you, Filipinos, for opening my eyes to the magic of chicken skin.
So here’s chicken barbecue, CSC slash Filipino style, in pictures.
Filipino Chicken Barbeque
- Total Time: 4 hours 5 minutes
- Yield: 5 1x
Description
This recipe for Filipino chicken barbecue comes from the orphanage that I worked at for a year. Chicken on skewers, marinated and cooked over an open grill.
Ingredients
- 6 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 tablespoons lime juice
- 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 bouillon cube
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 lbs. chicken thighs, cut into small pieces (at the shelter they keep the bone in)
Instructions
- Combine all the ingredients except chicken to make a marinade. Marinate the chicken for 3-4 hours.
- Start a charcoal grill and let the coals get very hot. You want smoking, flameless coals. Thread the chicken pieces onto wood skewers and place on a metal grate over the coals. Brush with oil and grill until the chicken is cooked through, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let rest for a few minutes.
- Repeat the grilling process with the cooked chicken, brushing with oil as necessary, until the outside of the chicken is a deep golden brown with a crispy exterior. Dip in a soy sauce and vinegar mixture with bird’s eye chilis for a little spiciness.
- Prep Time: 4 hours
- Cook Time: 5 mins
- Category: Dinner
- Cuisine: Filipino
Keywords: chicken barbecue, filipino chicken, filipino chicken recipe
Hop on over here for my post on Chicken Barbecue on the Children’s Shelter of Cebu website. And if you start thinking that I’ve forgotten about FRIED chicken, believe me you. I ate so much of that in my year in Cebu – there’s a full post on that a-comin.
It might sound so dumb for me to ask this, but are you able to cut up the chicken into pieces with the bone in? It seems like it would be too hard to cut through. We don’t have boneless skin-on thighs in store, so I would have to buy bone-in, skin on. What is shown in this recipe? Thanks!! Looking forward to trying it out this weekend 🙂
Hi Amber! They used bone-in skin-on chicken in the recipe. If you have a good chef’s knife, you should be able to cut through the bone. Otherwise, you could try to cut the meat off the bone. Enjoy!
great very yummy
this is similar to Indonesian food “SATE”. but with different sauce. In Indonesia using peanut sauce. It was sweet and savory
This was really REALLY good! I loved the recipe.. I’m Filipino and I am not the best cook. Your recipe was really tasty!
This re pie looks amazing! Leaving the skin on gives it so much added flavor! I did a similar BBQ chicken recipe on Momma Hearts Baby!
https://mommaheartsbaby.com/oven-bbq-drumsticks/
-Caitlyn
Just wanted to say you are doing such a great job! Your recipes are keeping me up (it’s 3 am) planning staff meal for the kitchen tommorrow at work.(pancit! They won’t know what hit them) and I just realized you live in Mn!(typing this from uptown mpls) so you rock in my book. Keep up the great work, I look forward to visiting your site again.
I just made this for a party last night. I used half the oyster sauce because I wasn’t sure everyone would enjoy it as much as I do. That was fine but I used boneless skinless- not a problem- however, I think the skin would be even better! I’ve been grilling for parties for two years now and this is the BEST recipe I have ever made. I used a HUGE amount of canola oil and it was SOOO good!
Awesome, Kyle!
Better than this, add pineapple juice, depending on how much barbecue you’re making, pineapple juice, half a cup, then banana sauce.Put in half a cup of 7 up or beer if you prefer it.Get some of the marinate from your chicken.Make sure the basting of the marinate is thick, to make it more flavorful.Just a suggestion.
I have made this recipe several times for my family and it is not a favorite of ours. I will be cooking it this weekend for a crowd!
Thanks so much for all the detail you put into your posts.
I love hearing that! Thanks Dawn!
Just made it tonight for the whole family. Nothing left! They all loved it! Definitely in the weekly rotation!
So great! Thanks Scott!
I would love to make this over the weekend. When you say baste with oil, what kind of oil? Can you also baste with left over marinade, if boiled first? Also, do you use regular white vinegar with the soy sauce? Thank you. It looks wonderful!
Sure, leftover marinade would work great! And I would use white cane vinegar if you can find it!
Great job on presenting this recipe!! I’m loving your blog and now following!!
Your pictures and instructions were easy to follow and interesting! I can’t wait to make this!!
I have been looking for just the right recipe for my favorite Filipino bbq, so you bet I’m going to try this one asap!!! Great photos and the chicken looks and sounds great. And my favorite sawsawan (dipping sauce) is vinegar, a little soy sauce, and several cloves of crushed garlic–tangy and spicy. YUM! 🙂
Yummy!
Can you suggest a dipping sauce for these? ….
Yes! Filipinos dip it in a soy sauce/vinegar combo, with little birds eye chilis in it for spiciness.
Looks great! Approximately how long does the chicken need to cook for the first wave and the second wave? Can I assume that the bone is NOT in the chicken pieces?
It would more or less depend on the size of your chicken pieces. Bone-in takes a bit longer, but remains juicier vs boneless. You want to grill the chicken to a light brown outside and cooked almost all the way through… remaining only a little pink in the center over medium hot coals. 2nd wave should be cooked over very hot coals until golden and a bit charred.
The pieces on the photo above might take closer to 15-18 minutes total over an open grill. BBQ grills with covers might cook quicker.
No, it actually is in the pieces. And I would say 5 minutes for the first time, then let them rest for 5, then another 5 minutes to get the skin crispy.
I think I’m only going to be able to have barbecue chicken Filipino-style from here on out!
These look so tasty! I love the marinade!
I love that you captured the movement of the smoke in these photos. It’s also really valuable that you can share your international experience with us! We don’t have enough good, old-fashioned street cooking here in the U.S.
Agreed!
I love a good char on my chicken, and this looks perfect! Thanks for sharing your beautiful photos and mouthwatering recipe, Lindsay!
Thanks Georgia! 🙂
same thing is done with pork – porkloin or shoulder is best, sliced into 1/8 to 1/4 inch thin slices of about 1 inch wide and threaded through the marinade. For extra tenderness, we like to pound the meat a bit prior to marinating. Traditionally, an inch of pork belly fat is threaded in first. Gives a wonderful smoky flavor to the BBQ.
Lindsay, are you back in Cebu? c”,)
No, I’m in the US now. 🙂
I forgot… banana ketchup or tomato ketchup/sauce is also sometimes added into the marinade.
We were put on dinner duty short-notice today and had chicken to work with. The delicious pictures from the email with this post came to mind and we tried it right away tonight.
It was awesome! The whole family loved it and not a single piece of chicken was left over.
Thank you for this wonderful recipe Lindsay. We love to eat ‘globally’ 😉
How cool! Thanks Regina!
Wow these look amazing. The oyster sauce is an interesting addition, what kind of flavor does that provide would you say?
Salty! Like a flavorful brown sauce.
I’m loving all of your Filipino posts! So heartwarming – not to mention delicious!
Thanks Mary!
Love the simplicity of this! Looks like a good way to end the Summer! Grilled anything is always ah-may-zing.
Found your blog through Pinterest and love your posts about Filipino food! My Mom was from Cebu City and has a lot of family that’s still there. Brings back memories of my visit there about 15 years ago now.
That’s great! I love getting comments like this. Thanks Beth! We love Cebu!!