Slow Cooker Chicken Adobo
103 Comments Apr 05, 2022
Updated Sep 09, 2025
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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.
Slow Cooker Chicken Adobo Recipe
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.
Okay. Pretty basic flavor profile. Need to add seeded chilis, sweetener and reduce the sauce next time.
I really wanted to like this recipe. Unfortunately, it just didn’t hit the spot. I did use Swan soy sauce and vingear. Maybe that changed it? I am used to very good adobe, military wife and large Filipino population where I live.
I am making for the. First time. Had bone in breasts. Should the liquid cover the chicken in the crockpot?
No, don’t add more liquid. The chicken will make more.
I wasn OK, but I wouldn’t try it again. Nothing exciting about the taste for me.
I’m going to be trying this recipe for the first time. Instead of 5 chicken thighs. I want to use 10. Do I double up the ingredients. And can I still cook it for 4 hours on high
I would double everything and you probably need to add one more hour of cooking time.
Ok thank you.
I always double or triple the whole recipe and never add time. It’s perfect
So, I’m part Filipino, but I’ve never really made adobo on my own. Yours was fantastic! Had the same nostalgic flavor that I remember from my grandma’s adobo. My only change was reducing the amount of chicken broth, as I like a stronger soy/vinegar flavor. I’ve made your recipe several times with chicken or pork and it comes out perfectly every time. Thanks!
This sounds really good. Why must the thighs be browned first? Does it make a difference in flavor? I’m just trying to save on dirtying up another pot.
Has anyone skipped this step?
You can skip this step but you may want to remove the skin before eating, it will be pretty pale and flavorless.
Does this scale up easily? I’d like to do this with double the amount of chicken if possible!
Yes, that would work, though I would double the sauce too.
Fantastic recipe and one of the easiest I’ve done in a crockpot. I had chicken leg quarters on hand and they turned out PERFECT! Scoop out with a slotted spatula. ( Tongs would’ve shredded them.) Fall off the bone TENDER! I had big cloves of garlic and gave them a little crush and added 2 to 3 tablespoons of brown sugar. 4 hours on high. Spooned sauce and onions over the chicken in the last 20 minutes. Do Not Open your crockpot! I had a Filipino bestie in grammar school and this recipe whisked me back in time. With high fuel costs, using the crockpot for this recipe was a cost saving effort, but I am never going to make it in on the stove. Such an easy and perfect recipe to make in the morning! Thank you.
Is Adobo seasoning supposed to be in this recipe? If yes or if it’s optional how much can be added?
No, adobo seasoning isn’t used for chicken adobo (strange, I know!). Though if it’s a favorite seasoning you can add a teaspoon or so to your chicken, it won’t hurt it!
Yes, I do love Adobo seasoning so I’ll most likely add it. Thank you!