Slow Cooker Chicken Adobo
103 CommentsUpdated Jan 31, 2026
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This Slow Cooker Chicken Adobo is a perfect dish to add variety to your weekly dinner menu. The sauce has soy sauce, ginger, garlic, and tangy vinegar and goes perfect over rice with steamed vegetables.
Featured Comment
"I keep coming back to this recipe. It’s a favorite at our house! I love that I can just put it in the slow cooker and make rice in the instant pot. Easiest dinner ever!!"
- sophie
The first time I encountered a chicken adobo recipe was on a viral youtube video that popped into my feed. Of course, I had to try out chicken adobo on my site and share how good it is with all my readers. (Note that I use a few more ingredients than she does in her video).
Chicken Adobo is a Philippine dish; the sauce for this recipe is heavy in vinegar and soy sauce. The taste is savory, with a touch of sweetness. There are also hints of garlic and ginger.
Some will say making chicken adobo in the crockpot isn't authentic; that's fine, don't make it then. If you want the EASIEST way to make chicken adobo, then try my recipe; you won't be disappointed.
Key Ingredients
Chicken Thighs - Bone-in chicken thighs work the best for Filipino chicken adobo! They get very tender in the crockpot.
Soy Sauce - I use low sodium soy sauce, though regular works just fine in this recipe if that is all you have.
White Vinegar - Add a tang to this recipe. If you are out of white vinegar, you can use apple cider vinegar.
White Onion - One whole diced white onion adds so much flavor to the dish.
Chicken Broth - Helps keep the entire dish moist and evens out some of the vinegar taste.
Seasonings - Sliced fresh ginger root, garlic cloves, bay leaves, and peppercorns
How to Make Chicken Adobo in the Slow Cooker
- Brown the chicken thighs for added flavor.
- Combine soy sauce, vinegar, broth, and aromatics, then pour over the chicken.
- Slow cook until tender, then finish with green onion on top.
What to serve with chicken adobo?
Here is how I like to serve this chicken dinner:
- Steamed white rice, jasmine rice, or fried rice goes well with the vinegar and soy sauce flavors. Cauliflower rice for if you're watching your carbs. This chicken adobo is very low in carbs!
- Steamed green veggies such as asparagus, bok choy, sugar snap peas, green beans, or broccoli
- Top your chicken with green onions. Also, great with a touch of sriracha if you want spicy chicken.
Tips & Variations
Cut Swap: Bone-in dark meat works best, but you can use nearly any cut of chicken—drumsticks, bone-in breasts, boneless thighs or breasts. Just aim for about 2 pounds (or a whole chicken around 5–6 lbs.) so there’s plenty of sauce to go around.
Shredded Chicken: Did your meat fall off the bones too much? Simply shred the chicken instead of serving whole.
Add Veggies: Add 3-4 cups of sliced bok choy during the last 5-10 minutes of cooking time. Or you can add carrots and celery at the beginning of the cooking time.
How to Video
Ingredients
- 5 skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs
- 2 Tbsp. cooking oil
- 1/4 cup reduced sodium soy sauce, regular soy sauce will work fine as well
- 1/4 cup white vinegar, (can use apple cider vinegar)
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 1 cup white onion, diced
- 3 garlic cloves, left whole
- 3 small slices of peeled fresh ginger root, (or 1/4 tsp. ground ginger)
- 2 bay leaves
- 10-15 black peppercorns, (or 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper)
- 1 bunch green onion, sliced - for serving
Instructions
- Set a large skillet over medium-high heat. When the pan is hot add enough of the oil to coat the bottom of the pan. Brown the chicken on both sides. Add the chicken to the slow cooker.
- In a medium sized bowl whisk together the soy sauce, vinegar, chicken broth and onion. Pour this mixture over the chicken. Or you can add everything to the slow cooker without dirtying a bowl, this works fine too.
- Add the garlic cloves, ginger slices, bay leaves and peppercorns on top of the chicken.
- Cover and cook on LOW for 6-7 hours or HIGH 4 hours for without opening the lid during the cooking time.
- Remove bay leaves, and garlic cloves if desired.
- Serve chicken drizzled with plenty of the sauce out of the slow cooker and enjoy! Top with sliced green onion for flavor and texture.
Nutrition
Nutrition info is auto-generated. This information is an estimate; if you are on a special diet, please use your own calculations.
More slow cooker chicken recipes:
Hawaiian Chicken and Crockpot Lemon Pepper Chicken both bring a burst of flavor, whether you're craving something sweet and tropical or zesty and bright.
Slow Cooker Hot Chicken and Garlic Butter Chicken are bold and flavorful options—one with a spicy kick, the other rich and buttery.
Leek Chicken and Full Chicken Dinner are hearty, comforting meals that cook all in one, making dinner easy and satisfying.
I can’t wait to make this!! Do you have any suggestions for a ginger root substitute? I really want to make this dish soon and I’ve got everything but that.
Kaley, just go ahead and omit the ginger. It will still taste fine without the ginger.
This looks and sounds amazing and i love this a lot
This really does sound yummy and I just bough a new slow cooker!
This looks and sounds amazing, yum!
xx Kelly
Sparkles and Shoes
So smart to leave the garlic and bay leaves in top so you can fish them out quick! This dish sounds so flavorful. Definitely going to have to try this soon! 🙂
This looks so delicious. I can just imagine how wonderful it tastes with those ingredients. I’m going to have to try this! I’ve got an old slow cooker, but I think yours is older than mine! haha
I’m drooling over this dish! Such a popular meal when we lived in Hawaii. Printing so I can make this soon!
Oh my gosh does this sound delicious and I love that you adapted it for the slow cooker.
I hate to correct your chicken adobo,you try improvise the way it is cook, But I am a Filipino and we boil the chicken with vinegar, water,soy sauce , bat leaf, ground pepper, the garlic need to be pounded and boil them altogether, when the chicken is tender, then I fried the chicken along with garlic that you boiled along with chicken. I do not measure the vinegar, water and soy sauce. When you fried the chicken adobo that is how you would smell how the chicken adobo is being cooked and yes it is good with boiled rice, I like mine mine with slice tomatoes, cilantro with some squeeze lemon juic and for desert is ripe mango.
Your authentic version sounds delicious Rosalina! I made this recipe so it can be simply made in the slow cooker, I’m sure there are many versions of this delicious meal!
I’m glad there’s a way to cook this..I love slow cooker meals..its handy and helpful, especially when your busy parent..Thank you for this 🙂
Waaoooo !!!!! This recipe looks great. let’s invent. Regards from Dominican Republic.
I would use deboned, skinless Chicken Thighs and also add Chicken Breasts cut the same size. I’ve tried a version of this and it turned out good in my slow cooker.