Inihaw Na Manok (aka Filipino BBQ Chicken) is one of Janelle’s comfort foods
so I veganized it for anyone who needs some Filipino comfort :)
It’s been yet another few months since I’ve posted here but don’t worry, I have lots of recipes coming soon that I have been meaning to share with you. The last couple months have been filled with complicated feelings and grief, peppered with family obligations and playing catch up. My dad passed away but we weren’t close, and I haven’t mentioned it too much here but we were essentially estranged for the last 3 years. He passed away earlier this fall and it was faster than we had all expected and a lot of us weren’t really prepared. But it’s been almost seven weeks now and I have had a lot of time to heal and process through it all.
If you are interested in hearing more about that little life update, I did post a mukbang/chatty video about it all on my YouTube channel.
But in lighter news, I finally feel like I’m on my feet. Our home is no longer in garbage bags (although I mean, we still have some stuff still needing treatment but that’ll be done over time), we haven’t seen any bed bugs in about a month, and then aside from the two dead ones we saw a month ago, we hadn’t seen any for about 3 months before that. Fingers crossed we’re totally in the clear now!
Finally with the wedding chaos over and done with, family stuff mostly sorted, and my busy season of Veg Fests for the most part done with, I’ve been developing recipes, filming tons of videos and cooking up a dream project that I can’t wait to share with you.
Today’s recipe is something inspired by Janelle, who is my best friend and is half Filipina. She has been sort of on the fence of wanting to go vegan or eat more plant-based for a while, but she was feeling conflicted about how she wouldn’t be able to eat foods from her culture. I was eager to help her veganize this inihaw na manok (which translates to BBQ chicken) with soy curls! There are tons of vegan protein alternatives to chicken out there, but I feel like soy curls are the easiest, most affordable, and tastiest of them all. Although double-frozen tofu is a very close second.
Traditionally, inihaw na manok is made with a sauce that’s already vegan. Taking your traditional components of a BBQ sauce: salt, acid, and sweetener; inihaw na manok uses soy sauce, brown sugar, lemon juice, vinegar, and banana ketchup as a base. I’ve never had banana ketchup before this, but it was a less acidic sweet ketchup that was kind of aspic-gelatinous in texture. It’s the reason the BBQ is such a bright orange colour, but it creates a really mellow, lush base for BBQ sauce. In the video, I added a bit too much brown sugar, so I’ve adjusted the sweetness down below in the recipe, but you can always adjust and play with this recipe to get the profile you like. More sweetness, more saltiness, a bit more punch; all done with playing with the ratios.
The video is pretty long, but mostly because I left a lot of us gabbing about growing up and eating foods from our culture and how it was received in school by kids and people around us. I think it’s definitely something a lot of people of colour growing up in the West experienced, and honestly for me, it felt really validating to hear that I wasn’t the only one with this experience growing up. I’m so thankful that we live in a time where we can talk about this and connect with people with common upbringings, and Janelle and I have definitely bonded a lot over our shared experiences with having one foot in Canadian culture and one foot in our Vietnamese/Filipina heritage.
I hope you enjoy this recipe and video, and stay tuned for more Adventures in Veganizing Filipino Food with Janelle!
Recipe adapted from I Am A Filipino cookbook (affiliate link) and Asian in America
Vegan Inihaw Na Manok (Filipino Barbecue Chicken)
Ingredients
- 227 g about 3 cups of dried Soy Curls (you could also use tofu or seitan)
- 1 tbsp mushroom broth seasoning optional
- 1/3 cup 80 mL lemon-lime soda (I used Sprite)
- 3 tbsp 45 mL lemon juice
- 3 tbsp 45 mL soy sauce
- 3 tbsp 45 mL vinegar
- 2 tbsp 30 mL packed brown sugar (we originally used 3 tbsp)
- 3/4 cup 186 mL banana ketchup (you could substitute regular ketchup but it would be more vinegary)
- 4-6 cloves 11 g garlic, peeled and minced
- 10-15 wooden skewers
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, rehydrate the soy curls by covering with hot water (I generally use boiling water) and season with mushroom broth seasoning. Mix carefully to get all the curls soaked in some liquid and let stand for 10 minutes.
- In another large bowl, combine all the ingredients and stir until the sugar dissolves. You may need a whisk to completely incorporate the banana ketchup.
- Once the soy curls have sufficiently rehydrated, drain and squeeze out as much liquid as you can.
- Add the soy curls to the marinade bowl and stir well to make sure everything is well coated. Let marinate at least for 1 hour, ideally marinade overnight.
To assemble the skewers
- Soak wooden skewers in water for at least 10 minutes so that they don't burn the BBQ.
- Turn on the BBQ and let preheat to about 400F.
- Skewer the soy curls (you may need to fold the longer curls so they stay on the skewers well). Cook for about 5 minutes on each side until you get some light charring. Enjoy immediately!
Elizabeth Ann Quirino says
This looks absolutely delicious. Thanks for the mention and the link to my blog. You have made me so hungry with this post :)
Lisa Le says
Thank you! I’m glad I could give back to our original inspiration.
Greg says
Nice to see another interesting recipe from you! And I’m sorry to hear about your father passing away. Even being estranged, the feelings can be tough, and you have my sincere condolences.
Samantha says
I love Asian food and cook it all the time, yet I’ve not tried making any Filipino recipes! But this looks simple enough as a start. And yummy! This is going on my Super Bowl snack list. I’d definitely love to see more of Janelle’s comfort foods!
I’m sorry about your dad. I didn’t see much of my own dad in the last 20 years of his life because he had moved to Taiwan (from the US) and started a new family. His death still hit me hard because I was mourning the dad I knew growing up, not the stranger he’d become.
Lisa Le says
That’s so hard, I’m sorry for your loss as well :(
shah says
Hi Lisa! sorry to hear about your father passed away. Trust this delicious recipe I like very much. This is very helpful because of including the instructions also. Thanks to your friend Janelle for her inspiration. Best of luck.
Ennah says
stumble across your blog because i’m filipino canadian starting to go vegan but want to still eat filipino food. where do you buy the soy curls?
Lisa Le says
I buy them from my local Vegan market (Coven in Hamilton). You can probably buy direct from Butler Soy Curls, from Amazon, VeganSupply.ca, or Compass foods!