Come Dine In

The Aristocrat Restaurant, though Greek in term, is 100% Filipino owned. This is a well-known restaurant in the Philippines famous for its juicy and tasty chicken barbecue and a lot more Filipino dishes. I have just tried dining there twice and in both times I ordered their really yummy chicken barbecue. I always like my barbecue sweet, may it be chicken or pork and I would say, Aristocrat’s is my favorite.

Because summer has finally begun, I thought of making a really good chicken barbecue to start with. So I searched around the net to find a recipe that would somehow replicate the Aristocrat’s and fortunately, I found TS and JS of eatingclub vancouver. Their wonder Yaya gave them the secret recipe and they were just so generous to share it to the world.

When I was making it, I told hubby that it’s going to taste like the Aristocrat’s chicken bbq and when he tasted it his comment was, “Mum, mas masarap pa to sa Aristocrat eh! Hhhmm… Ang sarap talaga!” (“Mum, this tasted much better than Aristocrat’s! Hhhhmm… Yummy indeed!”) And the words SARAP TALAGA, Mummy came out of his mouth countless times while he was eating…

I will be sharing with you the actual recipe I used for our very own chicken barbecue dinner, but you can always follow the original recipe of TS & JS.

INGREDIENTS:

soy sauce, just enough to achieve the color you like

7up or Sprite, just enough to cover the meat

1 large garlic head, peeled and crushed

1 lemon, juiced

2 tbsp. sugar

3 chicken legs & 3 chicken thighs

coursely ground pepper

salt to taste

METHOD:

1. Combine all the ingredients, except the chicken. Taste and when you’re happy with the marinade, you can then add in the chicken. According to TS & JS’s yaya, chicken barbecue must be marinated for 2 days and 2 nights, but because my sweet hubster can’t wait any longer, we already tried cooking 2 pieces after marinating for about 5 hours.

2. For the sauce and baste, I just used about 2 cups of the marinade and add some oyster sauce (worcestershire from the original recipe – but I don’t got on hand that time), UFC catsup (yeah, I don’t use any kind of catsup as I want my catsup to be sweet and I believe the banana catsup added to the sweetness I really want) and 1 tablespoon of oil. Bring to a boil until sauce gets a bit thick.

3. Grill. I just used my pre-heated oven grill and basted 4 times for 20 minutes. Mine was cooked for only 20 minutes at 180C, but additional of 10 minutes more won’t harm.

This is one great RV and campfire cooking menu since it can be brought uncooked and meat can be grilled anytime. The next time we plan a trip, I would prefer renting an RV so we can cook while on the road and of course, the owner should get us backed-up with the reliable rv towing in case of emergency.