Chicken & Green Papaya Stew

Click to Enlarge	Chicken & Green Papaya Stew Philippines - Tinolang Manok or Tinola
	Serves Effort: Sched: DoAhead:	4 main ** 1 hr Most	A very popular dish in the Philippines, sometimes made with chayote instead of green papaya, but many consider chili leaves essential.

1-3/4
14
6
2
1
8
2
5
2
1

#
oz
oz
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in
oz
T
c
T
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Chicken (1)
Green Papaya (2)
Onion
Garlic
Ginger root
Chili Leaves (3)
Oil
Water
Fish Sauce
Salt

Prep

Cut CHICKEN into pieces about 1-1/2 inch to a side. If using whole chicken parts (legs, thighs, wings) chop each part in half crosswise.
Peel PAPAYA, cut in half lengthwise and scoop out white seeds, cut into cubes 3/4 inch on a side.
Cut ONION in half lengthwise and slice fairly thin crosswise. Crush GARLIC and slice thin. Slice GINGER ROOT thin, then cut into thin matchsticks. Mix all.
Remove CHILI LEAVES from stems, or thaw if using frozen.

Run

Heat OIL in a spacious sauté pan or Dutch oven and fry Onion Mix stirring for about 1 minute. Stir in Chicken and fry stirring until you get light browning on the bottom of the pan.
Stir in Water, Fish Sauce and Salt. Cover, turn heat low and simmer until chicken is tender, about 20 minutes for boneless pieces, 30 minutes for bone-in joints.
Stir in Papaya, bring back to a boil and simmer for 8 minutes.
Stir in Chili Leaves, bring back to a boil and simmer another 3 minutes for fresh leaves, 1 minute for frozen.

NOTES:

Chicken: The weight given is for boneless skinless pieces (preferably thigh). Whole bone-in joints can be used as well but up the weight by 1/2 pound. In the Philippines a whole chicken cut up into serving pieces would likely be used.
Green Papaya: This must be bought specifically as "green papaya" from an Asian market, not just a greenish regular one. The seeds inside should be pure white and the flesh a very pale green, almost white. If you can't get one use chayote squash but give it a bit more cooking time to get tender.
Chili Leaves: Fresh chili leaves are available only erratically even in the Philippine markets of Los Angeles, but frozen is generally available there. A half pound frozen package is mostly ice and yields only about 2-1/2 drained leaves, but that's enough. By time you strip fresh ones from the stems and simmer them you're probably near that. The most common substitute is Malunggay Leaves which are very common in the Philippines but less available than chili leaves around here. Other than that Spinach is suggested.- not the same but something at least. If you do use spinach (about 2 cups loosely packed) just stir it in and immediately take off the heat. I would suggest water spinach as a better substitute, but it's pretty much illegal outside California.
U.S. measure: t=teaspoon, T=Tablespoon, c=cup, qt=quart, oz=ounce, #=pound, cl=clove in=inch