Checkout! How to Cook Crispy Pork Belly Lechon (A La Cebu) Without Using an Oven

Due to popular demand, I'm going to share how I cooked this super crispy pork belly lechon without using an oven. So, grab your apron and let's start cooooking! 🍴🔪 

Recipe Ingredients:

• 2 kilograms of Pork belly slab

For the brine/marinade:

• 1 stalk of lemon grass (tanglad)
• 1 stalk on onion leeks (scallion)
• 2 pieces of laurel (bay leaves)
• 1 table spoon of ground black peppercorn
• 5 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1/2 cup rock salt
• 5 cups of water

For the fillings:

• 1 stalk of lemon grass (tanglad)
• 1 stalk on onion leeks (scallion)
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed

For the glaze:

• 3 part of evaporated milk + 1 part of water

Recipe Cooking Procedure:

1. Wash the pork slab with running water and make sure that hairs on the skin are shaved.

2.  In a pot, put 5 cups of water then add lemon grass, bay leaves, onion, black peppercorn, garlic, and salt.

3. Make the brine/marinade: Bring water to boil then lower heat and simmer for at least 10 minutes. This will allow the herbs and spices to release its flavor and aroma.

4. Turn off heat. Set aside the brine solution until it cools.

5. Pour the brine on the pork slab and marinate overnight.

6. After marinating, remove the pork from the brine. The surface of the pork is quite salty so we have to rinse with fresh water then pat dry with towel.

7. Lay the pork slab on a flat surface and place the lemon grass, onion leeks and garlic.

8. Now roll up the pork slab, form a roulade with garlic, leeks, and lemon grass on the center. Tie pork with twine (string) to keep its roulade in shape.

9. Brush the surface with mixture of milk and water. Set aside for at least half to an hour to allow milk to set in the skin milk makes the skin color reddish brown when roasted.

   

 10. Cook Lechon Using Turbo Broiler

a. Set and preheat your turbo broiler at 375 ° Fahrenheit ( 190 ° Celsius) Maintain this temperature up to the end of cooking.

b. Put the pork roulade on the turbo broiler but cover with aluminum foil.

Note: I put aluminum foil to cover the meat temporarily for the first 2 hours of cooking to keep the belly moist inside and to shield from direct hot air from the broiler fan otherwise the outer part of the pork will be cooked quickly yet the inside is still half cooked.

C. After 2 hours remove the aluminum foil cover. Continue cooking but rotate the roulade, at least every 10 minutes on each side to evenly cook the skin.

D. Check if the skin is already crackling crispy then it is done.

Recipe Cooking Tips:

• Cooking time may vary from 2 hours up to 3hours depending on the pork slab if it came from a young or matured pig.
• If your oven has rotisserie then you can use it. Just wrap it with aluminum foil for the first 2 hours  of cooking.
• To make the skin bubbling crispy, pierce the pork skin with fork before cooking. Make sure that the pierce is not to deep to reach the far section of the pork.
• Left over Lechon belly can be recycled to as LECHON PAKSIW rather reheating the same dish again.

Thank you www.filipinofoodrecipes.org for this #putokbatok dish that surely made our New Year's eve hit with a Bang! Cheers to 2017, woot!woot!  🎉🎊🎉🎇