We were planning on seeing Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire yesterday morning, and eat an early lunch our, but Big Sister wouldn’t get out of bed. By 12.00 noon we knew we wouldn’t be able to go out anymore. Little Sister was throwing a tantrum and I was problematic about lunch. I hadn’t taken anything out of the freezer because the plan was to eat lunch out.
I took out a whole slab of pork and threw it, very much frozen still, into the pressure cooker. I added a lot of salt and some water and cooked it for about 40 minutes from the time the valve started to turn.
Straight from the pressure cooker, I placed the boiled pork into an oven dish, skin side, up, and put in the oven. Minutes later, it turned into that mouthwatering thing you see in the photo. It’s really lechon kawali except that there’s no deep frying involved.
What’s so cool about cooking lechon kawali in the oven, anyway? Well, first, you save time. You can’t deep fry a newly-boiled slab of pork. You need to cool it and air dry it a bit. If you cook it in the oven, you can skip that part.
Then, of course, there’s the oil issue. People seem to be allergic to anything fried these days. Actually, I hate frying but not so much for health reasons but because I hate oil spatters. I don’t like being a kitchen slave. If I can do something with half the mess and half the cleaning, I’m all for it.
Note that I don’t think this can be done in a traditional oven, especially gas ovens. What you need is an oven that can grill. A convection oven or an electric oven with a “broil” setting (heat source on top) will do the trick. A turbo broiler will do as well. Like a convection oven, a turbo broiler has a fan that circulates the heat.
What I did was to set both the top and bottom heat, and the fan, on during the first 15 minutes or so of grlling. When the meat started to show signs of browning, I switched the bottom heat and the fan off. The heat directly above the pork skin (rind) did the job of turning it into a crackling.
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I tried this recipe for new year’s eve; it was easy and it turned out great. Thanks! I’ve been living in the boonies of the US where there’s no Pinoy restaurants so I was really missing lechon kawali.
Oh, good! Less mess, right? Less work and less fattening too. Cooking it this way actually allows the prok fat to drip.
Can I use the slow cooker instead of a pressure cooker para mapalambot yung pork?
I think you can do that, Tonette. In fact, even an ordinary casserole will do so long as the pork is simmered long enough.
Hi,
I’d like to try this recipe. Kungsa oven, ilang deg? for how long? So pwede kong pakuluan sa caserole then paglambot sa oven na?
dee, it really depends on what kind of oven you have. if you have a “grill” setting, should take about 20 to 30 minutes at 180oC.
Atty. Connie,
Dito sa U.S. ang settings sa mga ovens are using “F” Fahrenheit not “C” centigrade. So, if it is 180C what’s it in Fahrenheit?
There are lots of free conversion tools on the web.
Its 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
Thanks Connie,
I have an electric oven with broil/grill setting. Do I place the pork in a baking dish or pan? Do I have to boil the pork first until tender before cooking in the oven? Anong ihahalo sa pagpapakulo?
Yes, dee, boil with lots of salt until tender.
This looks good! I’d love to try this one at home. Then serve it my barkada composed of a Korean, an Indonesian, two Filipinos and a Chinese – we call ourselves the Crispy Pata Gang! i’m sure this would pass our taste.
Thanks Connie.
Excellent. Too bad I only have a gas oven. Though it does have a broiler… maybe I can set the broiler on low and keep the pork about halfway down?
Or, I can use this as an excuse to buy a turbo broiler. It’d certainly save me from the medical bills incurred from hot splattering oil everywhere
Thanks.
Any left over can be made for tokwa’t baboy, dipped in your tokwa’t baboy sauce, panalo!
Ito rin ang sahog ko for ginisang gulay, much like your liempo, although mine is not boiled – broiled na diretso. Try this for adobong sitaw, it’s a wow!
Hi Connie,
You said “if you have a “grill” setting, should take about 20 to 30 minutes at 180oC” – is this the same if I use the Turbo broiler?
Also, since it’s cooking in a baking dish, so then it’s fat is still there or will this fat/ oil dry up? Thanks.
racquel, yes, same principle as turbo broiler. If you don’t want the bottom to get soaked in the fat, you can place the pork in a rack that fits into the baking dish.
I even used 220 degrees on the Turbo and yet it still took me almost an hour for the skin to become crispy. So then, if it’s just 180 degrees, won’t this take much longer?
It depends on 1) how mature (or young the hog) which determines the thickness and toughness of the skin 2) how sufficiently it has been boiled 3) the quality of the cooker.
By the way, are you measuring the temp by Celcius or Fahrenheit?
This looks so delicious, Connie! I cannot wait to try! Is this a pork belly roast you used? What should I buy? I also have a pressure cooker and will use the technique you did. I also would like to know if I could broil it after the slow cooker process? Please let me know. Thank you for your wonderful site, I love to cook! Eileen
hi ms connie
tried this recipe, nasarapan husband ko. tks and more power.
i’ve tried it last night for dinner and oh my it was really crispy! i never imagined it that easy to make. just like you, i don’t like cleaning oil splatters. and my husband adores it, to think that normally he doesn’t like pork rind and fat. he told me he has not eaten something like that before.well, i guess french are missing a lot of yummy stuffs ! it encourages me to serve more filipino food for him . thanks a lot connie. you really are my cooking fairy!
Perhaps, crispy pata next time?
I have tried eating in a new Visayan Lechon Restaurant near Mother Ignacia Street, Quezon City. It”?s in front of ABS-CBN exit. it”?s called “Hacienda Lechoneros”. It”?s the best lechon I ever taste. Check it out. they also have Facebook page name as Hacienda Lechoneros.
Hi Miss Connie..
Just want to thank you for your good and helpful blog for people like me. Now I love cooking and baking and u made it so easy and handy to be specific on do and donts… Thanks and more power!
Re: lechon kawali… Just want to ask you how to do it. I have an electric oven with grill and bake botton that can be use one at a time. So if ill boil my pork with lots of salt til tender i will just grill/broil it 180C for 20-30 mins in the oven?
I will really appreciate it because since i move here to new zealand i really do miss all the good food there… Thanks so much in advance!
Yes.
Just want to thank u!!! The pork is wonderful… It takes me 3hrs though but it was worth the wait… Its so crispy n tender…
but miss the rice part coz we had it with mashed potato n broccoli with cheese sauce.. Yum!
Cant thank u enough… Til next time! More power!!!
Hi we have a gas oven with broil setting. Do you think my lechon in the oven will have a crispy skin as well?
Depends on what the highest temperature of your oven is. If it goes up to 500F or higher, it’ll work.
first i must say, yours is the only filipino food website i’ve been to that has original content and some labor involved. most filipino recipe sites contain recipes that are copied from other sites (yeah, they don’t even bother to change the wordings a bit). yours recipes are clearly from your own kitchen and experiments or from people you know. i’ve been going to your website for a few years now, i’ve done your lechon kawali recipe (by the way, it does work in a gas oven as well…i just basted the skin with water towards the end to give it the crackling blistered puffy look to the skin para “galitin ang mantika”).
thx, more power and yes, your cooking ideas rock!
Just wondering how much salt is “a lot of salt”?
Think of a brine.
Hi miss Connie….
I have a question.. I have a couple of friends coming and requested your lechon sa hurno… Can i boil the meat at night til it is tender and place it in the freezer and just bake it the next day to finish it!? Is that gonna work too? I will appreciate if you can tell me… Thanks in advance and more power… Your tortang talong with ground pork is superb!!!!;)
I don’t know. I’ve never tried cooking it that way.
Hi Connie,
I’m a working mom here in the US, so the faster it is, the better when it comes to cooking. SO i want to thank you for sharing how to cook this the “healthier” and cleaner way.
I was just wondering how many lbs. was the pork. Usually, the weight will determine the length of cooking, right?
Thanks!
I go by 30 minutes per pound if cooking with raw meat. But since the pork here has already been boiled, the weight is not really determinative. Just whack up the temp and when the skin browns and blisters, that’s it!
connie,
i’m going to have a big party one month away from today. i’m planning to make this but i’m worried that by the time the party has started, the crispiness of the skin might be gone already. i’m planning to make this recipe the night before. how can i make the skin crispy longer? help please!
This isn’t a make ahead dish. A day later the meat dries and the skin toughens. Only way to serve that is to turn it into paksiw.