Crispy Adobo
Everybody knows adobo, this national dish of the Philippines where fatty pork is stewed in sugar, soy sauce and vinegar sauce which gives it a slightly sweet, slightly salty and slightly sour flavour, the most perfect pair a freshly steamed rice can have. It’s a popular dish in the Philippines and now becoming popular around the world but do you know it has many variations that rooted from the original dish?
From meats like pork, chicken, beef, vegetables, tofu and squid name it there is an adobo variant for it. There are also some different coloured sauces like yellow, white and even red. Today it’s a totally different adobo version as this one does not have any sauce on it but it still uses the Filipino choice of meat which is pork, think of this as a cross between a Lechon Kawali and adobo where pork is twice cooked by stewing then deep frying to get that crispy outer texture and soft insides.
Sounds too good to be true, try it but be warned it is addictive.
- 1 kg Pork belly, cubed
- 1 whole garlic, minced
- ½ cup vinegar
- ½ cup soy sauce (Philippine Soy Sauce not the Chinese Soy Sauce, they taste differently if you can’t find one you can use Kikkoman)
- 1 tbsp sugar
- oil
- bay leaves
- whole pepper corns
- water
- In a skillet sauté garlic in oil using low heat until golden brown. Remove from pot and set aside.
- Add pork belly and fry until browning occurs.
- Add ½ cup water, ½ cup vinegar, ½ cup soy sauce, 2 tbsp peppercorn, 4 bay leaves and 1 tbsp sugar then bring to a boil and simmer for 30-35 minutes or until pork is tender and liquid dries out.
- Remove pork from skillet then drain off excess liquid and let it cool.
- Prepare a wok for deep frying, add enough oil and heat it to 180C. Carefully drop the pork and deep fry for 3-5 minutes or until crispy.
- Using a slotted spoon remove pork from hot oil, place in a paper towel lined plate to drain excess fat then place in a serving platter toss in the crispy garlic then serve.
My mum makes her crispy Adobo with chicken, but pork seems great for this dish as well 🙂
I can confirm from restaurants it is addictive, will have to try at home 🙂
I just want to grab a fork and plunge into this! Crispy pork belly…that’s the only way I like it!
Oh my! Oh my!!!! That looks so so so good!!!!
Mention the word pork belly and add crispy to it and I can see why it would be addictive.
It would be a dream to taste test all of the different variations of adobo! Yours looks so spectacular!
I definitely need to buy Filipino soy sauce. Are they similar to kikkoman? I feel like it’s time to invest on Filipino soy sauce so I can make it authentic as possible. Looks so delicious. I have to try this one!
Nearly similar in fact I used them a lot back in Malaysia when I cant find the Filipino one. Our Soy Sauce is a tad less salty than Kikkoman.
Wen and how is corn starch used?
Ooops sorry I added that by mistake. Changing the recipe now. Thanks for letting us know