i think teddybear has summed things up, but just in case you didn't look close enough at his attached image:
the default location for the icon is Objects\res\drawable. the default image is icon.png.
the easiest way to have your custom icon be the app icon is to put your custom icon in
Objects\res\drawable, delete icon.png and rename your custom icon icon.png. and to be
on the safe side, set its attributes to readable (you can try without performing that step).
the ide expects to find some things where it expects to find them. unless you have the
manifest say otherwise, the ide will look for (or create) a default icon.png in Objects\res\drawable.
sometimes - at least in the old days - it would overwrite custom elements with its default elements.
that is why i suggest making your custom icon.png readable only. this stops the ide. but you are
welcome to try without that step. worst case, you re-copy your custom icon and make it readable only.
that said, and in the spirt of full disclosure, this is not the only place where you can put
icons. adaptive icons are located in several folders.