Filipino recipes
7 viral Filipino dishes — clear, structured, and quick to cook.
-
Filipino Chicken Adobo
The Philippines' national dish: chicken braised in soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, peppercorns, and bay until the meat falls off the bone and the sauce turns glossy and intense. Five pantry ingredients, almost no work.
filipinoweeknightbraise -
Chicken Adobo — Filipino Braised Chicken
The unofficial national dish of the Philippines: chicken braised in a glossy, tangy-savoury sauce of vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, bay and peppercorns, then often reduced until the pieces catch and caramelise. Adobo is the genius of preserving-by-cooking — sharp, deep and dead simple, with every family swearing by its own balance. It only gets better the next day.
filipinochickenbraise -
Sinigang — Filipino Sour Tamarind Soup
The Philippines' beloved sour soup: pork (or shrimp, fish or beef) simmered in a broth made mouth-puckeringly tangy with tamarind, loaded with vegetables like water spinach, radish, eggplant and long beans. Sinigang is comforting, savoury and bracingly sour — the national craving on a rainy day — and the level of asim (sourness) is a matter of fierce personal pride, eaten with plenty of steamed rice and a saucer of fish sauce.
filipinoporksoup -
Lechon — Filipino Crispy Roast Pork Belly
The king of the Filipino fiesta table: pork roasted until the skin blisters into shattering, glassy crackling while the meat stays juicy and aromatic with lemongrass, garlic and bay. While the whole spit-roasted pig (lechon baboy) is the celebration showpiece, this home version — a rolled, stuffed pork belly (lechon belly) roasted to crisp-skinned perfection — delivers the same crackle and flavour from a regular oven. Served with a tangy liver-based lechon sauce or spiced vinegar.
filipinoporkroast -
Kare-Kare — Filipino Oxtail Peanut Stew
The Philippines' grand peanut stew: oxtail (and often tripe) simmered for hours until fall-apart tender, then napped in a thick, savoury peanut sauce coloured golden with annatto, alongside eggplant, string beans, banana heart and bok choy. Kare-Kare is rich and gently sweet-nutty — and, crucially, served with a side of bagoong (salty fermented shrimp paste) that you stir in to taste, the salty-funky counterpoint that makes the dish sing. A centrepiece of Filipino fiestas and family feasts, it's pure celebration food.
filipinobeefpeanut -
Sisig — Filipino Sizzling Chopped Pork
The undisputed king of Filipino bar food (pulutan): pork — traditionally pig's head and ears, plus liver — boiled, grilled and then finely chopped, sizzled on a screaming-hot cast-iron plate with onions and chilli, brightened with calamansi and sometimes bound with a touch of mayonnaise or a cracked egg on top. The result is a riot of textures — crisp, chewy, tender — and flavours — savoury, sour, spicy, rich. Born in Pampanga, the country's culinary capital, sisig arrives still spitting and sizzling, made to be eaten hot with cold beer and a mound of rice. It's loud, addictive and utterly Filipino.
filipinoporksizzling -
Lumpia (Filipino Spring Rolls)
Lumpia are the slim, shatter-crisp fried spring rolls that anchor every Filipino party table, filled here in the classic Shanghai style with garlicky ground pork, carrot, and green onion. Rolling them thin and tight — no wider than your thumb — is the secret: the raw pork filling cooks through in the same few minutes it takes the wrapper to blister deep golden, so you get juicy meat inside a wrapper that audibly crackles.
filipinoappetizerdeep-fried