Filipino Recipes

16 Filipino recipes. Page 1 of 1. Compare ingredients and cooking times. Bicol Express (Filipino Pork Belly in Spicy Coconut Cream Stew).

Asian Medium

Bicol Express (Filipino Pork Belly in Spicy Coconut Cream Stew)

This dish takes its name from a train line between Manila and the Bicol region in southeastern Luzon, where coconut and chilies go into cooking more freely than almost anywhere else in the Philippines. Pork belly simmers in coconut milk with shrimp paste and chilies until the coconut fat separates and the meat starts frying in it. By the end there is almost no loose sauce, just a creamy coating on every piece.

Prep 15min Cook 35min 4 servings

Baking Hard

Ensaymada Cheese Bread (Filipino Sweet Cheese Brioche)

Ensaymada traces back to the Spanish ensaimada of Mallorca, but the Filipino version turned into a soft, buttery brioche finished with butter and salty cheese. Each bun rises tall with visible spiral layers because the dough is rolled into ropes, coiled loosely, and baked in muffin tins. Powdered Parmesan stands in for the grated cheddar or Edam common in the Philippines, giving a lighter salty edge against the sweet crumb. The butter and cheese wait until the buns have cooled completely, or the cheese turns soggy. It shows up at Christmas, and the rest of the year as a breakfast bun with coffee or hot chocolate.

Prep 45min Cook 20min 4 servings

Stir-fry Medium

Sisig (Filipino Crispy Chopped Pork with Chili and Calamansi)

Boiled pork gets chopped fine and fried hard in butter until the edges crisp, then calamansi juice (from a small sour Philippine citrus) and mayonnaise are stirred in at the end. Any water left on the pork makes it steam before it browns, and without crisp edges this Filipino bar snack loses its point.

🏠 Everyday 🍺 Bar Snacks

Prep 20min Cook 25min 2 servings

Grilled Medium

Chicken Inasal (Bacolod Citrus Lemongrass Grilled Chicken)

The orange sheen of Bacolod-style grilled chicken comes from annatto oil, brushed on thinly every time the pieces are turned. In Bacolod a street called Manokan Country holds dozens of inasal stalls, and the dish is often simply called Bacolod chicken. A sour marinade of vinegar, lime juice, lemongrass, and garlic needs at least 2 hours and ideally a night in the fridge to reach into the thighs. Set aside annatto oil that never touches raw chicken for basting, and throw out the used marinade. In the Philippines it comes with garlic rice.

Prep 20min Cook 30min 4 servings

Soups Medium

Sinigang na Baboy (Filipino Tamarind Sour Pork Rib Soup)

Filipino families often make this on rainy days and ladle the broth over rice. The sourness comes from tamarind paste, and if it tastes too mild, another tablespoon goes in. Tomato and onion, added in big pieces, melt into the broth over 30 minutes of simmering.

🏠 Everyday

Prep 20min Cook 50min 4 servings

Noodles Easy

Pancit Bihon (Filipino Stir-Fried Rice Vermicelli with Chicken)

The water used to poach the chicken breast is kept, and a spoonful goes in whenever the rice vermicelli starts to look dry in the pan. The thin noodles soak up the chicken flavor along with the soy and fish sauce and finish loose, with no liquid pooling underneath.

Prep 20min Cook 20min 4 servings

Asian Easy

Bistek Tagalog (Filipino Beef with Lime Soy Sauce)

Thin beef and thick onion rings are tossed in a salty, tangy sauce of soy sauce and lime juice, a regular weeknight dish with rice in Filipino homes. It is the Philippine version of Spanish bistec, and there calamansi is squeezed in where wine or vinegar would go; lime takes its place in this recipe. The onions cook only until translucent with lightly browned edges and keep some crunch.

Prep 20min Cook 12min 2 servings

Baking Easy

Bibingka (Filipino Coconut Rice Cake)

In the Philippines, bibingka is sold outside churches after the dawn Masses of the Christmas season, baked in clay pots lined with banana leaves over charcoal. Coals above and below cook both surfaces at once and keep the inside moist, while the leaves leave a green fragrance and faint dark marks on the underside. This version swaps all that for a round pan in a regular oven, and it leaves out the salted duck egg and coconut slices that vendors press on top midway. Rice flour and coconut milk give a texture somewhere between a rice cake and a sponge cake: a little chewy, but still soft and springy.

Prep 15min Cook 30min 4 servings

Soups Easy

Tinola (Filipino Ginger Chicken Soup with Green Papaya)

The papaya has to be green and firm, not the ripe fruit, and it is added only after the chicken has simmered, so it softens to fork-tender while keeping its shape. Plenty of julienned ginger, fried first with garlic and onion, gives tinola's clear broth a clean, sharp heat.

🏠 Everyday

Prep 15min Cook 45min 4 servings

Noodles Easy

Pancit Canton (Filipino Stir-Fried Egg Noodles with Chicken and Vegetables)

Chicken thigh goes into the pan first, and the fat and juices it releases carry the carrot and cabbage through a quick, high-heat toss. Water or stock is added only a spoonful at a time, so the egg noodles drink it up along with the soy and oyster sauce and no broth is left in the pan.

Prep 15min Cook 15min 2 servings

Asian Easy

Chicken Adobo (Filipino Vinegar Soy Braised Chicken)

Soy sauce and cane vinegar reduce together into a dark, tangy sauce scented with garlic, bay leaves, and whole peppercorns, and the chicken thighs braise right in it. In the Philippines some cooks braise first and fry afterward, but this version sears the skin side at the start to render fat and build color. The vinegar goes in without stirring and is brought to a hard boil first, which drives off its sharpest smell.

Prep 15min Cook 35min 4 servings

Baking Medium

Pandesal Milk Rolls

These small Filipino rolls get their slightly gritty, crumbly surface from breadcrumbs pressed onto the tops before baking. Underneath, a milk, butter, and egg dough tears into soft strands, with only mild sweetness. When the butter first goes in, the dough turns slippery; that is normal, and further kneading brings it back to smooth and stretchy.

Prep 35min Cook 18min 4 servings

Noodles Medium

Pancit Palabok (Filipino Rice Noodles with Annatto Shrimp Sauce)

An orange shrimp sauce colored with annatto blankets thin rice noodles, finished with boiled egg and a squeeze of lime. Shell-on shrimp are worth buying, because the savory depth comes from a stock made with their shells and fish sauce.

Prep 20min Cook 25min 2 servings

Asian Hard

Kare-Kare (Filipino Peanut Beef Shank Stew)

The sauce is peanut butter melted into beef shank broth: nutty, smooth, and very mildly seasoned on its own. That is why Filipinos traditionally serve it with bagoong, a salty fermented shrimp paste, to spoon on to taste.

Prep 25min Cook 90min 4 servings

Asian Medium

Laing (Filipino Bicol Dried Taro Leaf Coconut Milk Stew)

Dried taro leaves simmer slowly in coconut milk until they collapse into a creamy, spoonable mass with a faint sheen of oil on top. Fully dried leaves are essential, since fresh ones can leave an itchy, prickly feeling in the mouth. It comes from the Bicol region of the Philippines and is eaten a little at a time with plenty of warm rice.

Prep 15min Cook 35min 4 servings

Asian Medium

Lumpiang Shanghai (Filipino Deep-Fried Pork Spring Rolls)

These slim, finger-length Filipino pork spring rolls turn up at birthday parties, holiday tables, and town fiestas. They fry twice, first in lower heat and then in hotter oil, and that second round keeps them crisp long after they cool. Whole trays can be fried before a party and stacked up to wait.

Prep 30min Cook 15min 4 servings