Popular Liempo Recipes You Can Do Right Now

September is here and that rings in the holiday season for Filipinos. This means that butchers and small businesses are becoming busier as they try to keep up with the demand for pork. One of the popular pork meat cuts that Filipinos will be looking for to prepare holiday dishes is called liempo. This term simply refers to pork belly -- the fattiest and most flavorful part -- which can be cut in a number of ways: whole, bone-in, lechon kawali cut (cubes), country style (thin slabs for barbecue), and bacon slice. 

What makes pork belly a crowd-pleaser? Its alternating layers of fat and meat renders oil that can make broth ambrosial and flavor-rich. Liempo can also be fried to turn into crispy and deliciously crunchy guilty pleasure for any occasion. When put on the grill, liempo with rub or basted with your favorite marinade can be the most succulent and juiciest barbecue you’ll ever have. In other words, there’s no shortage of ways you can mix it up and produce dishes using this particular cut. In fact, a lot of pork dishes in the Philippines can be substituted with liempo. 

Lechon Kawali (Fried Pork Belly)

The texture and juiciness of lechon kawali parallels none. There is a certain cooking technique to the exterior crisp and fork-tender goodness of lechon kawali. It’s the one liempo recipe that you will gladly let make your heart stop at first bite. Kidding aside, the secret to the crunchy skin and tender juicy interior is the laborious process that involves boiling the thin fatty slabs of pork first. Traditionally, spices and aromatics such as bay leaves, soy sauce, and garlic are put in the boiling water to inject flavor into the meat. Then, the slab is air dried and rubbed with salt to be left overnight in the fridge. Afterwards, liempo is cut in cubes and deep fried in hot oil to produce that signature crackling look of the skin. (Photo from Serious Eats)

Tokwa’t Baboy

One of the most famous recipes that uses liempo is one that can be made appetizer before a weekend lunch and most sought-after beer chow for holiday drinking sessions. The protein is usually a mix of pig’s ears, pork belly, and deep fried tofu. For this one, you can focus on serving lechon kawali and tofu combo in a simple sauce made with the mixture of vinegar and soy sauce. Garnish this appetizer with fresh slices of onion and green or red chilies for an amazing tang and spicy kick. (Photo from Mama Sitas)

Lechon Belly Adobo

Yes, you’re seeing it right. The traditional adobo is already the darling of international media for many good reasons. The good thing about adobo is that there are no strict rules about making one as the term is more of a cooking technique rather than a reference to a specific dish. So, if you want to elevate your recipe to a level nobody has been before, substituting the regular pork cuts with crispy liempo cuts is the only way to go. You can go for the saucy version or dried version of this recipe. Either way, you can expect a delightful burst of flavors in your mouth coming from the combination of the rendered oil from liempo, soy sauce, and vinegar. (Photo from pepper.ph)

Lechon Kawali Binagoongan

Finding a liempo recipe even more savory than lechon belly adobo? You cannot go wrong with lechon kawali that surprises you with a binagoongan twist. Like adobo, binagoongan is a generic term that refers to the cooking process of sautéing or braising meat in bagoong alamang or shrimp paste. The usual protein used for binagoongan is pork, but you can take the flavors a notch higher by using crispy fried pork liempo to add texture and enhance the savory profile. (Photo from yummy.ph)

Sinuglaw

Sinuglaw is a refreshing and gratifying appetizer or main dish that calls for contrasting pairing of fresh fish ceviche and savory grilled pork belly. The dish hails from the Visayas and Mindanao regions as its name suggests. Sinuglaw is in fact a portmanteau that refers to the two popular cooking technique in those areas – “Sugba” (to grill) and “Kinilaw” (to soak in vinegar). When the two ingredients are paired together and garnished with chilies and onions, the result is nothing short of amazing. (Photo from Ang Sarap)