I love that it’s finally time to share our version of this sinful Filipino recipe: crispy pata. I’m pretty sure everyone who has an ounce of familiarity with Filipino cuisine at least has an idea what crispy pata is. It’s probably pretty obvious what this Filipino dish is with the picture above. This dish is extremely popular amongst Filipinos to eat during celebrations or just for everyday meals.
But for those who don’t know, crispy pata is a huge Filipino pork dish that uses a pig’s whole leg. Usually from its hock to its trotters or knuckles. The huge pork piece boiled along with other ingredients to tenderize the meat and absorb all the other ingredients’ flavors.
Then the entire leg is deep-fried to achieve that sinfully delicious crispy skin. I heard that more contemporary versions of this recipe have the pork baked in the oven but I prefer the old fashioned way in preparing this recipe. A special dipping sauce is a must when consuming this all-time favorite Filipino dish. So we have the whole package for this recipe, dipping sauce and all.
During huge celebrations and the holidays, it’s always a must to have at least one huge pork Filipino dish on the table like lechon or a variation of it. Crispy Pata is the perfect substitute for Filipinos who can’t afford an entire lechon. You see, the crispy pata recipe can be easily done in the kitchen. It can be intimidating to prepare because of its size but trust me, it doesn’t require to have advanced skills at all.
In fact, it’s quite easy to cook once you know the correct steps and the correct way to use it in the ingredients. Crispy pata is already a pretty common dish amongst Filipino households, not just during special occasions. A lot of restaurants also offer a boneless crispy pata version to their customers if you don’t want to cook the dish yourself at home.
I learned to cook crispy pata at home during my senior year at high school. I tweaked the recipe over the years to get that perfect mix of flavors that I love along with the special dipping sauce. I got really good at cooking this recipe that I would often have it prepared whenever my friends would come to hang out or for drinking sessions at home.
I highly recommend preparing this recipe whenever your friends are coming over for any kind of activity. They will love you forever.
Where to get a whole pork leg? I guarantee that there is always a fresh pork leg or two at the local public market. If you can’t find any, look at butcher shops. As for the other ingredients, they’re common enough that they’re probably already in your pantry. If not, they’re always available in the public market or at the supermarket, including the ingredients for the special dipping sauce.
Patience is key when cooking crispy pata at home. You need to prep all the ingredients for the pata first. You can prep the ones for the special sauce later. I prefer to slice the ingredients that go in the boiling water with the pork leg to get a punchier flavor out of them.
Make sure to boil everything in the recommended time of at least 1½ hours to get the pork really tender and absorb all the ingredients. You don’t want to take it out too soon and have turn out not so tender or, god forbid, raw on the inside.
While you’re boiling the crispy pata, it’s the perfect time to do some quick household chores or prep the ingredients for the special sauce. This time, the ingredients are going to be chopped to pieces. Set that aside for later, we’re going to prepare the special dipping sauce last.
Check to see the pork if its tender enough and let it drain and cool first. You can heat the oil in the meantime for deep frying the pork.
Once the pork is dry, you can now deep fry it in hot oil. Fry both sides until the skin is golden brown and crispy like its namesake. Again, don’t rush this process.
Once both sides have beautiful crispy skin, set the pata aside, and let it rest. Don’t disturb it so that the juices inside it can set. We don’t the flavors from those juice inside the pata spilling out if we cut it too soon. All that work will go to waste.
So, to make use of our time while the pata is resting, it’s now time to prepare the special dipping sauce. Just combine all the ingredients that were prepped and mix well. After 10 to 15 minutes or so, the pata is ready to be cut. But you can serve it whole if you want to.
We’ve listed all the ingredients that you’ll need down below for this crispy pata with special sauce recipe. The instructions to prepare everything can also be found below.
Are you a visual learner? Well, we’ve made a very satisfying video you can watch below that includes everything you need to know. This includes all the ingredients used in this recipe as well as the step by step process on how to prepare it.
Serve it whole or cut, you have prepared the deliciously sinful crispy pata along with a special dipping sauce. Eat it with rice or as is. Enjoy!
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 120 Minutes
Serve: 5-6 Persons
Ingredients.
- 1 Whole Pork Leg/ Pata
- 2 pcs. Slice Onion
- 7 cloves of Slice Garlic
- 3 – 5 pcs. Bay leaf
- 1 tsp. salt
- 3 tbsp. Fish sauce
- 1 tsp. peppercorn
- 1 thumb of Slice Ginger
- 1 stalk Onion Leeks
- 1 liter water
- Oil for frying
Procedure.
- Stab the pata/pork leg all side.
- Put all the ingredients in a pan add the 1 liter of water, add the 3 tbsp. of fish sauce, add 1 tsp of peppercorn, add the 1tsp of salt, add the 3 – 5 pcs. Bayleaf, add the sliced garlic, add the sliced ginger, add the sliced onions and lastly add the onion leeks.
- Then cook for 1 1/2 hour over medium heat until the meat is soft. Drained and let it cool
- Heat the pan with oil and dip fry the boiled pata/ pork leg until crispy skin.
- Drained the excess oil before cutting it into pieces.
- Serve with your favorite Dipping Sauce. Enjoy
Home Made Sauce For Crispy Pata
- 1 pc onion small dice
- 3 cloves of garlic chopped
- 3 pcs of red chili chopped
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pepper
- 1⁄4 cup of soy sauce
- 1⁄8 cup of vinegar
Procedure.
- Put together in a bowl the sliced onions, add the sliced garlic, add the sliced chili, add a few of pepper, add the 1 stp of salt, add the 1 tbsp of sugar, add the 1⁄8 cup of vinegar and add the 1⁄4 cup of soy sauce and mix well.
- Serve with Crispy Pata. Enjoy
