Good Adobo Flavors, but Wanted Extra Meaty Pork Belly
After finding Filipino adobo recipes that I like for chicken, pork ribs, and chicken wings, I’m excited to add another one to my collection for pork belly. The only thing I would need to remember is to use the leanest pork belly with rind available.
Below are some links to more details, including photos:
My Story
One day at my local supermarket, I found cut-up pork belly with rind on sale, so I purchased some. Originally, I was thinking of making a Chinese or Taiwanese braised pork belly dish, but as I was browsing recipes online, I came across something with Filipino influence.
Inspiring Recipe
I was excited to try Filipino Pork Adobo Recipe from the presenter of CiCi Li, Asian Home Cooking, a cooking show.
First Try
With the pork belly purchased, I didn’t need to buy anything else for the recipe!
Ingredients to Use
Starting with 2.23 pounds of skin-on pork belly, I had to scale down the recipe from the website slightly as follows:
- 1/2 tablespoon + 1 1/8 teaspoons of oil
- 5 garlic cloves
- 5 bay leaves
- 1/2 tablespoon + 1 1/8 teaspoons of whole black peppercorns
- 3 ounces + 1 tablespoon + 1/3 teaspoon of soy sauce
- 3/4 teaspoon + 1/8 teaspoon of sugar
- 3 cups + 4 ounces + 1 tablespoon + 1/4 teaspoon of water
- 3 1/2 tablespoons + 1/3 teaspoon of vinegar
Steps to Prepare
Of the seven steps in the base recipe, I slightly modified four of them as follows:
- Step 1: Since I bought pre-cut pork belly, I skipped this step. Instead, I decided to marinate the meat with soy sauce and garlic before cooking, which was done for about 2 hours.
- Step 2: I used a wok instead of a pan to ensure that I had plenty of room to fit everything.
- Step 3: Since some garlic pieces were already in the wok from the marinade, I didn’t check the time, but just gave them a quick stir after adding the remaining bits from the leftover marinade.
- Step 5: After turning the stove down to low heat, the liquid wasn’t simmering, so I brought it up to medium low.
Time to Eat
Because this was my first time braising pork belly, I couldn’t wait to taste the dish!
Recipe Rating
Below were the results of the recipe after the first try:
| Number of Ingredients | Effort (Low🤏, Medium🤏🤏, High🤏🤏🤏) | Cost per Serving (<$2💰, $2-5💰💰, >$5💰💰💰) | Taste (Not for me🤔, Trying Again🙂, Eating Regularly😋) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9️⃣* | 🤏 | 💰💰 | 🙂 |
The pork belly was tender and full of adobo flavor. Yum!
Second Try
For the second round, my goal was to maintain the delicious flavor.
Ingredients to Use
This time, I bought 2.51 pounds of pork belly, but wasn’t 100% sure if the pieces had any skin on them. Nevertheless, I purchased and cooked them with the following ingredients, rounding up the garlic, bay leaves, water, and vinegar for convenience:
- 1 tablespoon of oil
- 6 garlic cloves
- 6 bay leaves
- 1 tablespoon of whole black peppercorns
- 1/2 cup of soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon of sugar
- 4 cups + 3/4 teaspoon of water
- 2 ounces + 1/8 teaspoon of vinegar
Steps to Prepare
For the instructions, the only differences this time, as compared to the first try, were in the steps below:
- Step 1: I marinated the pork belly longer, for almost 3 hours.
- Step 3: After adding the remaining garlic, I stir-fried everything for 30 seconds.
- Step 5: Learning from the first time, I turned the stove down to only medium low heat after the sauce started to simmer.
Time to Eat
As shown in the photo below, the pork belly was a lot fattier this time, so I was worried that there wasn’t going to be enough meat for everyone.
Recipe Rating
Below are the results of the recipe from the second attempt:
| Number of Ingredients | Effort (Low🤏, Medium🤏🤏, High🤏🤏🤏) | Cost per Serving (<$2💰, $2-5💰💰, >$5💰💰💰) | Taste (Not for me🤔, Trying Again🙂, Eating Regularly😋) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9️⃣* | 🤏 | 💰💰 | 🙂 |
Although I still enjoyed the flavor of the pork belly, it was too fatty for my taste. However, half of my family didn’t mind it, so there was plenty to go around.
If I see skin-on cut-up pork belly on sale again, I would try this dish once more. To make it better, I would do the following next time:
Continuous Improvement
- Buy the package of pork belly with the least fat.
After going through the experience of uncertainty while shopping for pork belly the second time around, I learned the following that I would like to share with my younger self:
Lesson for Dumber Self
- If you’re missing some information, try cross-referencing with other available information. (In my case, I could’ve confirmed whether my package of cut-up pork belly had any skin on it by visually comparing it with the skin-on pork belly strips in the supermarket.)
What will you do now?
Next Step for You
- Try the Filipino Pork Adobo Recipe from the presenter of CiCi Li, Asian Home Cooking, a cooking show?
- Share a tip on how you can easily tell the difference between the skin and fat of raw pork belly?
- Read another post on this site? (Go to the menu at the top of the page.)