aristocrat

Due to the extreme yummy-ness of the subject matter, of which nothing was left, there are no pictures for this post.

Tonight I cooked the BEST BBQ chicken of my entire life. Strong words from the committee! Yep, I have never made a chicken dish so perfectly tasty until now. Thanks to a recipe that Dino got from one of his Twitter friends. Who knew Twitter could bring in something so practical and outstandingly delicious to our life?

So the back story: Most Pinoys here in the US think Max's fried chicken is THE epitome of chicken fried goodness back in the Philippines...well, there's the other side of the chicken spectrum (barbecue!) that was dominated by Aristocrat Restaurant during the 1980's.
Back then, Aristocrat was one of the most popular food destination for families in Manila. I distinctly remember most of our trips from the province to the big city would always include a stop at Aristocrat. (The other place was Kamayan, where appropriately you eat with your hands.)
I don't know if the restaurant is still alive now but before we left for the US, Aristocrat had already been relegated as a "relic" and one of those places that people only went back to for sentimental reasons.
They offered tons of dishes but to this day, their bbq chicken is still the stuff that pinoys like Dino and myself dream and get homesick about.

So here's how to make your own Aristocrat chicken. Let the reminiscing begin.

The chicken pieces need to be marinated for exactly 2 days and 2 nights in the following ingredients:

1 whole garlic head, crushed
2 teaspooon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
4 tablespoon soy sauce
4 tablespoon sugar
1 Sprite or 7-Up
10 calamansi (I used frozen pure calamansi juice- they came in little packs, preservative and sugar free; just approximate how much liquid 10 pieces of real calamansi would yield)
2 tablespoon Lea Perrins worcestershire sauce (my tweaking)
2 tablespoon of oil

That's it! Don't forget to baste during cooking. I made a separate batch of sauce for basting, using the same ingredients above.
I didn't have the chance to bbq outside the house and so I used the oven/broiler. The results were still perfect. I'm drooling as I imagine cooking it the old fashioned way.

*If you're going to bbq pork, add ketchup. Marinate overnight.