Chicken Tinola

It's been raining for the past two days and it seems an attack of the cold virus is impending.

The cold weather was an excuse to whip up a batch of good ol' Tinola (for those unfamiliar with it, this would be Filipino Chicken Stew) for dinner.

I know this isn't exactly a new recipe (at least for us Filipinos) but I wanted to explore the nutritional benefit of this humble meal. In the US, chicken soup is considered a remedy for when you have colds, so I figured Tinola wouldn't be much different. So I went online and delved into what I could on the health benefits of the ingredients in Tinola. Here's what I found:

On CNN, I found an article about a scientist - Dr. Stephen Rennard - who tested separate components of chicken soup. They found that even the boiled extract of chicken alone helped stop the movement of neutrophils. Neutrophils are the white cells in our body that eat up the bacteria being released by viral infections such as colds. When the neutrophils move, they stimulate the release of (pardon me for mentioning this in a food blog) mucus.


I also read that Onion, Garlic and Ginger all have anti-inflammatory properties. On Health 24, I found out that onions even help relieve congestion in the airways. Also, according to Health Diaries, ginger has long been used as a natural treatment for colds and the flu.

Malunggay (or Moringa), Sayote (or Chayote) and Garlic are good sources of Vitamin C. On the website for Trees For Life, they say that scientific research shows that gram for gram, malunggay has 7 times the Vitamin C in oranges. I did not know that! Good thing we have a malunggay tree on our property.

It turns out Tinola is healthier that I thought. We should make it more often.

Tinola with Sayote and Malunggay overload :)

Happy Cooking!