Featured product: Chicken Inasal

Filipinos’ obsession with chicken is glaringly apparent in the many recipes they have come up with to enjoy the meat. Not even a single chicken part goes to waste as those usually discarded (in some cultures, at least) are reserved for grilled bite-sized skewers sold in the streets. Meanwhile, the best parts of the chicken get the creative treatment that varies according to region. It’s not unusual to find yourself in a street lined with restaurants and stalls offering grilled or fried chicken, only set apart by their touted signature recipes, usually with the addition of a secret ingredient.

In Bacolod, it’s the other way around: the absence of one all-pervading ingredient in many regional chicken recipes gave rise to its status that overtook fried chicken. Chicken Inasal (or just Inasal as called by locals) refers to a Visayan recipe of grilling marinated chicken over burning charcoal. Looks can indeed be deceiving in Negrense cuisine. While it looks like any chicken barbecue you have seen, Inasal became a national phenomenon for its peppery and succulent taste. The secret is in a unique marinade mixture that doesn’t involve the savory umami of soy sauce, making Inasal worlds different from the usual chicken barbecue. The marinade is usually made with vinegar, calamansi, annatto, pepper, and other secret ingredients, depending on the Inasal specialty house.  During grilling, the meat is rubbed with oil infused with a medley of annatto seeds, garlic, calamansi, and butter. This basting sauce gives the chicken (usually breast, leg, or wing) the signature golden hue and mildly sweet and garlicky taste.

Before Inasal restaurant chains (Jollibee acquired one) began burgeoning all over the country, the Visayan chicken dish originated in the ‘Chicken Alley’ back in the 1970s. The famous alley is, in fact, Cuadra Street, located across the public plaza and public market in Bacolod. The area has been renamed “Manokan Country” (Chicken Country), surrounded by fast-food chains, a sprawling shopping mall, department stores, and auto parts stores. Few family-owned Inasal establishments have weathered the times and remained icons of local cuisine amidst the discovery of modern flavors. Aida’s Manokan, in particular, is a must-try gastro destination. You’ll find the place in no time given the long queue outside the most popular restaurant in Manokan Country. Whether dining at a local Inasal house in Bacolod or Inasal restaurant chains, you will find that eating with bare hands is commonplace—though utensils are available on the table or upon request. But it is the full sensory experience of pinching a lump of rice and a piece of grilled chicken between your fingers that makes Inasal tastier and comforting.

Before you sink your teeth into the grilled chicken, there’s more you need to know. The dish is typically served with annatto-flavored garlic rice and brought to you on a table with an array of bottled condiments—usually soy sauce, spiced vinegar, chicken oil, and fish sauce. Everything starts with drizzling a generous amount of chicken oil on top of steaming white rice to give it the flavor and aroma of annatto, garlic, and chicken fat. You don’t have to repeat the same step with the chicken as it has been basted before with the same oil during grilling. Next, prepare sawsawan (dipping sauce) by mixing soy sauce and spiced vinegar. You can also add chili to plain vinegar or calamansi as a souring agent according to your preferences. Lastly, you can hold the Inasal chicken by the skewer or remove the stick to grab the meat aggressively as you sink your teeth into the perfectly charred, juicy skin. Savor the meat infused with the minty taste of lemongrass and zest of ginger to contrast the creamy, garlicky taste in every bite.