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One of my favorite home-cooked meals: barbecued chicken, white rice and finadene. Barbecued meats and finadene are the basics of Chamorro cooking. Once you’ve worked with both, you’re on your way to learning how to make one of the most popular dishes of Guam—kelaguen. You can also use the marinade recipe for barbecued ribs, another Chamorro favorite.
This meal was prepared by my parents and it was so easy:
They cut a whole chicken and marinated the pieces in soy sauce, fresh lemon juice, crushed black pepper, onions and one clove of crushed garlic. After several hours, my dad barbecued it.
The finadene (finn-uh-denny) pictured above on the left was prepared using reduced-sodium soy sauce by Trader Joe’s, lemon juice, sliced onions and crushed red chilis.
Vegetarians can enjoy a simple, flavorful and healthy meal of rice and finadene. But overall, with fresh ingredients, you can enjoy a savory and nourishing meal.
Filed under: Food, recipes, Simply Chamorro Tagged: | Chamorro, Chamoru, chicken, finadene, Guam, home-cooked, rice
Your recipe looks very good. I met several people from Micronesia 30+ years ago when I was in college. Even then, I think the obesity issues were a problem, perhaps related to U.S. influence of canned goods such as spam. Or perhaps not. They were all males, and they all liked big women.
They cooked for us skinny girls/women in the dorm, and the food was delicious! Your fenadene sauce brings back memories. I never knew how to make it.
Hafa Adai, Tess,
Always nice to meet someone who’s familiar with the Chamorro culture.
I have heard the connection between the post-war presence of canned foods and obesity in the past– interesting you mentioned that.
Your college times sound like good ones! Hey, you can’t go wrong with Guamanian locals cooking up a party. I’m glad the finadene brings back those memories.
Judy “the foodie”
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Hafa, Judy. My wife makes excellent lumpia but insists on using a sweet orange sauce she learned while living in the P.I. I have been looking for an authentic finadene and finally found it, thanks to you. I lived on Guam from 1978 to 1990. I worked for Foremost and lived in Tamuning. Those were great years.
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