Sitting Chicken (Pinaupong Manok)

Pinaupong Manok (Sitting Chicken)

This is a Philippine dish that I haven't cook for many years now. It was simply disregarded and completely forgotten in my recipe box. This morning as I was dusting and sorting my files, I found this recipe tucked in a cookbook.. A Kapangpangan friend of mine handed this recipe to me 10 years ago).There is a traditional way of cooking this chicken (without water, just let the chicken sit on the bed of salt and steam it) but I prefer my recipe with 7-up. Note: You can lay the dressed chicken in a lying position, not literally on a sitting position.

Pinaupong Manok Recipe
Ingredients:
1 whole dressed chicken
1 bottle 7-up or sprite
1 pc. onion, chopped
1 bay leaf
2 cloves garlic, chopped
5 pcs. whole peppercorn
3 pcs. calamansi or 1pc. lemon juice
1 pc. chicken bouillon cube
1/4 cup margarine or butter
achute for coloring or 3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp. salt.
Procedure:
In a deep pan, boil chicken with 7-up, onions, calamansi or lemon juice, chicken cube, margarine and salt, enough water to cover the chicken. Cook in medium fire until chicken is tender. Cook for about 1 hour for a kilo of chicken. Let chicken sit in the pan for 30 minutes. Remove from pan  Make sure to lift the chicken carefully to avoid breaking the body of the chicken. Reserve soup for sauce,  You can actually thicken the sauce bymixing 2 tbsp cornstarch dispersed in 3 tbsp cold water and heat the sauce in low fire until it thickens. Remove from heat to avoid burning the sauce.