Lechon Belly Recipe (TAGALOG)

Roasted Pork Belly or Lechon Liempo is a baked pork belly after stuffing it with a mixture lemon grass, green onions, red onions, garlic, salt and pepper. butter is added on the skin to give appetizing aroma and taste. This yummy kitchen lechon pork belly will show you how to cook lechon belly in very easy and simple way. The lechon belly or bellychon is one of the more convenient versions of lechon, especially for small occasions. No whole pig and no grill needed! Still enjoy your favorite lechon with this lechon belly recipe

LECHON BELLY

Lechon is always the star of the night when one has it on their table. If you are new to the Filipino cuisine, lechon is a whole pig stuffed with seasonings inside, and is grilled and roasted until the skin gets super crispy and crunchy with some very tender and flavor inside.

Lechon = made with one whole pig

Lechon de leche = made with one whole pig, baby version

Lechon belly = only made using the belly

Usually, we order a whole pig for different occassions, especially during fiestas when we had really a lot of visitors. Since the pandemic, we only conduct very small gatherings for safety. It was really hard to look for a shop that serves lechon de leche in our place. I found one which serves lechong kawali but.. we really crave for the real deal.

Since we went to the province, there was really no immediate lechon shop we can go to. The nearest lechon I can taste was the one from 711 ready to eat meals.

I then learned about making lechon belly at home with no grill needed. This was when I saw my neighbor grilled their lechon belly outside of the house (because too smokey). I really thought that this was a very laborious process which is why I did not attempt to prepare it at home. I was really kilig when my neighbor offered me to taste their lechon belly. I was deprived of the real lechon once we got into the province and now I get to taste a real lechon!

This lechon belly recipe is best for small gathering or you had extra budget and simply want to treat your family which a nice serving of lechon. If you wanna know how to make one at home, read and follow the recipe below.

HOW TO COOK LECHON BELLY

To start, get the best lechon belly meat you can get. If you have an option to choose, pick the one which has an equal amount of fat and lean meat onto it.

Before everything else, pat the meat dry. Do this using a paper towel. In all recipes where you want the meat/skin to be crispy, try to get them at their driest before cooking. Score the lean part of the meat diagonally. Rub the garlic and rosemary on the meat. Make sure that they sip in these scores.

Place the stuffings at the center. In this recipe, I added green onions, lemon grass and onions. If you wanna add more for a much more flavorful lechon belly, go add them. Just make sure that the belly can still handle them (haha).

Once you fold the belly, it will then look like a roll already. Get your kitchen twine and secure the belly. If you need an actual demonstration on how to do this, you can watch the cooking video for reference.

Preheat the oven and we are now ready for roasting. You can opt to also grill instead. Brush the skin with oil from time to time just as to make sure it will end up crispy. The roasting or grilling will take around 2 hours, so make sure you have plenty of patience for it (it will be super worth at the end!).

After grilling, allow the pork belly to breathe first before consuming. As the oil from the skin dries, that’s when you know the skin is gonna be super crispy!

I also prepare homemade lechon sauce for my lechon belly. I’ll share the recipe with you soon! I usually papak my lechon belly or have it with unli rice. Yummy!

Lechon Belly Recipe (TAGALOG)

Mga Sangkap:

• 1 malaking hiwa ng pork belly
• 1 bugkos ng lemon grass
• Spring onions
• 1 maliit na sibuyas
• 2 bawang (tinadtad)
• Asin at paminta

Paano Gawin:

1. Tuyuin ang pork belly gamit ang paper towels. Lagyan ng hiwa ang karne na parang letter X (hindi yung balat na part). Budburan ng asin at paminta ang parehong sides. Hayaan lang ito ng 15 minutes.
2. Sunod na ibudbod ang bawang at rosemary.
3. Ilagay sa loob ang green onions, tanglad at sibuyas.
4. Ifold ang belly para maging roll. Isecure ito gamit ang panali.
5. Ilagay ang pangroast na stick sa pork belly. Ibrush ang balat nito ng mantika o tinunaw na butter.
6. Ipreheat ang oven ng 180 C. Iroast ang pork belly ng 2 oras o hanggang maging crispy ang balat nito. Ibrush ng butter o mantika paminsan minsan.
7. Kapag roasted na, palamigin muna ito ng konti para mahanginan ang balat at maging crispy. Hiwain ito sa serving slices.
8. Ilipat ang pork belly slices sa serving dish at samahan ng mainit ng kanin at lechon sauce. Enjoy!