Simple Grilled Pork Belly Recipe

The Marinade: Brown Sugar and Fish Sauce

One of the easiest and perhaps most common party dishes we get served in our family is grilled pork. It is usually pork liempo or pork belly. But sometimes, the aunts also serve grilled pork ribs, or grilled porkchop. Instead of complicated long marinade recipes with a dozen or so ingredients, my aunt use a very simple marinade mixture.

The ingredients: brown sugar and fish sauce (patis). The combination is a good balanced flavor of sweet and salty that brings out the best flavors of grilled pork. Flavorful but not overpowering.

It is a taste that I and my cousins have grown up to. And it is something we have also tried. I recently used this marinade for our New Year’s lunch with some blogger friends and they love it.

This grilled pork belly recipe is great for any meal or as pulutan (accompaniment for alcohol drinking). If you don’t have a grill, I have also tried to use this marinade for deep frying pork.

The recipe is not mine, but my aunts’. The proportions are from my own experimentation.

Simple Grilled Pork Belly Recipe

Good for 3 – 5 persons, depending on how hungry they are.

Ingredients:

Pork Belly or Pork Liempo

• 1 kilo pork belly or pork liempo
• 1/8 kilo brown sugar
• 1 cup fish sauce or patis

Procedure:

1. Rub the sides of each pork belly strip with brown sugar.
   
   

   Pork Belly with Brown Sugar

2. Lay down the pork belly strips in a deep dish or deep container. Pour the fish sauce or patis.
   
   

   Pork Belly with Brown Sugar and Fish sauce

3. Let the pork belly marinate in the mixture for at least 30 minutes. You may prepare this a day ahead. Just make sure to cover the container and refrigerate overnight.
4. Grill the meat. Brush some of the the marinade mixture on the meat while it is grilling.
5. Cut the pork belly strips into bite size pieces. Or any size that you prefer.

Grilled Pork Belly

This grilled pork belly is best served with piping hot rice and the dipping sauce of your choice. Also goes well with beer or other alcoholic drinks.

Sometimes, I add a can of soda water into the marinade just for added flavor or texture.

Happy eating!