Lechon is a Filipino spit roast pig basted in soy sauce and stuffed with garlic, lemon grass, green onions, and Thai chili peppers. Lechon Belly is the same idea but is made with a pork belly instead of a whole pig.
While I was building my wife's spit roaster ( BBQ-BRETHEN Build Thread), I was google imaging spit roasters and spit roast pig to get an idea of how I wanted to build the spit. The pigs that looked the best where always made lechon style. It really has to do with the soy sauce making the skin darker. A lechon pig done right has crunchy, dark golden honey brown skin with no to very little crackling.
This was our second cook on the spit and it was for my folk's 45th anniversary! I consider myself very lucky that they have stayed together all these years.
Enough back story, lets get to the pron!
Here is the pork belly washed, skin down on some foil getting ready to be dressed up.
Here I've added all of the garlic, lemongrass, green onion, and Thai chili peppers. You need to mash the ingredients to help them release their flavor. I also salted the inside generously.
Here I have the 60" mild steel rod over the pork belly. Wish the rod was stainless, but man is stainless spendy!
Here I have used doubled up cooking twine to tie the belly to the rod with butcher knots. The head chef at Bangers taught me to double the twine up and use butcher knots to secure anything to the spit. He said he used to use metal screws and clamps to secure pigs to the roasters they use to cook in front of thousands of people, but he switched to doubled up twine because as he said "I didn't like the faces people where making when I had to use tools to remove the hardware from their food."
I coated it with 50/50 of soy sauce and dark soy sauce. I'm not sure if that is how real lechon is made or not, but I had them both so I figured it couldn't hurt.
Here is the skin side coated in the mixture.
And on the spit we go! I had to cook this in my garage because it was supposed to rain. My garage now has the added benefit of smelling like a BBQ PIT!
The skin is starting to darken a bit.
This is the skin side at a the same time as the pic from above. Look at the 3rd section from the left, the part where the forks end, the skin had pulled away from the belly and was trapping fat that was rendering. It looked almost iridescent, much better in person than the pic.
Oh yeah! here the fat is starting to render out from most of the belly! It's now basting itself in it own juices.
Here you can see I started running out of time and had to stop the roaster in certain parts to crisp up the skin. It was still pliable and that isn't lechon, but my folks are old and it was going to be getting dark soon so I had to do it. Some of the skin crackled up, no biggie it was still good to this Texan!
After 4.5 hours we took it off the spit and let it rest in a light foil tent, didn't want to steam the skin.
Here is the cross section. Oh it was so good that night! Everyone had at least two slices. It was nice to have some BBQ that had light and aromatic ingredients for a change to Texas style BBQ, or most Que in general.
The next morning I cut up some leftovers and tried to fry them up like bacon, but most of the fat had already rendered so it didn't fry up like normal. It did become crispy on the out side and chewy on the inside! So so good guys!
I enjoyed the fried up bits right out of the pan. Then I cut up the long parts and made a sandwich. It was a good sandwich but the meat could have been paired with ingredients that better suit it. Next time I might try to do a cuban sandwich and use the lechon as the ham in the cuban.
Thanks for watching! Let me know what you think.
While I was building my wife's spit roaster ( BBQ-BRETHEN Build Thread), I was google imaging spit roasters and spit roast pig to get an idea of how I wanted to build the spit. The pigs that looked the best where always made lechon style. It really has to do with the soy sauce making the skin darker. A lechon pig done right has crunchy, dark golden honey brown skin with no to very little crackling.
This was our second cook on the spit and it was for my folk's 45th anniversary! I consider myself very lucky that they have stayed together all these years.
Enough back story, lets get to the pron!
Here is the pork belly washed, skin down on some foil getting ready to be dressed up.
Here I've added all of the garlic, lemongrass, green onion, and Thai chili peppers. You need to mash the ingredients to help them release their flavor. I also salted the inside generously.
Here I have the 60" mild steel rod over the pork belly. Wish the rod was stainless, but man is stainless spendy!
Here I have used doubled up cooking twine to tie the belly to the rod with butcher knots. The head chef at Bangers taught me to double the twine up and use butcher knots to secure anything to the spit. He said he used to use metal screws and clamps to secure pigs to the roasters they use to cook in front of thousands of people, but he switched to doubled up twine because as he said "I didn't like the faces people where making when I had to use tools to remove the hardware from their food."
I coated it with 50/50 of soy sauce and dark soy sauce. I'm not sure if that is how real lechon is made or not, but I had them both so I figured it couldn't hurt.
Here is the skin side coated in the mixture.
And on the spit we go! I had to cook this in my garage because it was supposed to rain. My garage now has the added benefit of smelling like a BBQ PIT!
The skin is starting to darken a bit.
This is the skin side at a the same time as the pic from above. Look at the 3rd section from the left, the part where the forks end, the skin had pulled away from the belly and was trapping fat that was rendering. It looked almost iridescent, much better in person than the pic.
Oh yeah! here the fat is starting to render out from most of the belly! It's now basting itself in it own juices.
Here you can see I started running out of time and had to stop the roaster in certain parts to crisp up the skin. It was still pliable and that isn't lechon, but my folks are old and it was going to be getting dark soon so I had to do it. Some of the skin crackled up, no biggie it was still good to this Texan!
After 4.5 hours we took it off the spit and let it rest in a light foil tent, didn't want to steam the skin.
Here is the cross section. Oh it was so good that night! Everyone had at least two slices. It was nice to have some BBQ that had light and aromatic ingredients for a change to Texas style BBQ, or most Que in general.
The next morning I cut up some leftovers and tried to fry them up like bacon, but most of the fat had already rendered so it didn't fry up like normal. It did become crispy on the out side and chewy on the inside! So so good guys!
I enjoyed the fried up bits right out of the pan. Then I cut up the long parts and made a sandwich. It was a good sandwich but the meat could have been paired with ingredients that better suit it. Next time I might try to do a cuban sandwich and use the lechon as the ham in the cuban.
Thanks for watching! Let me know what you think.
