Pritong Lechon / Fried Salted Suckling Pig

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Some of you will read this post and yawn followed by a big “ho hum.” But I suspect many of you will wonder why you haven’t tried this incredibly simple and utterly delicious way to enjoy some leftover lechon. I have fried leftover lechon before, and loved it, but the addition of salt and a really hot pan takes this a notch higher. Our default treatment for leftover lechon is paksiw na lechon, and I love that dish as well. But sometimes, I’m in the mood for something else. Last Saturday, we had a small birthday lunch celebrated in the house and we had some really outstanding Cebu lechon that we purchased by the kilo at the Salcedo market an hour earlier. For some reason, we had tons of skin and lots of meat and ribs, hardly any fat or other bits of the pig that make you feel like you got ripped off. Several of us munched on the lechon, but we still found ourselves with about 1/2 to 3/4 kilo worth of prime lechon meat left over. Into the fridge that went until the next day…

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Take the lechon out of the fridge to let it warm up a bit. Put a large pan on the stove and turn the heat up to HIGH. When the pan is hot, add about 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil and wait for the oil to get very hot. Meanwhile sprinkle the lechon with a generous amount of rock salt, turning pieces over to mix thoroughly. I find the granules of local market salt to be almost too big for this dish, so I would crush them a bit to make them smaller. I used kosher salt instead and that seems to have naturally smaller granules. As soon as you salt the meat, put it into the hot oil and step back while it snaps, crackles and rolls. Leave it for about half a minute or a minute, depending on the heat factor and turn the pieces over to brown all sides. The idea is to caramelize the exposed meat areas, and the salt will also adhere to the meat and make it even more delicious. Take the lechon out of the pan and serve hot. I love it when served with a big side dish of homemade acharra. This was fantastic. In some ways, except for the skin, I think I like this dish almost more than the original lechon itself! Try this the next time you have nice meaty pieces of leftover lechon!

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36 Responses

  1. Never had this before sounds like a bright idea to resurrect the glorious, mighty and tasty leftover lechon to another life of its own – the evolution of leftover lechon! Like much the cooking method just a dab of hot cooking oil not in a vat of oil and of course what is pork skin frying without the festive noise of splattering oil that makes it even more rewarding to fry! The noise of the escaping oil from the pan is music to my ears like rhythm and blues! Hand torn mustasa, chopped red onion and tomatoes, vinegar and bagoong balayan for me will heighten the flavor of the pritong lechon and of course tons of steaming rice.

  2. Another wondeful idea on how to make leftover lechon lechon exciting. We tried your Sinigang na Lechon recipe and it was superb! Will try this fuss-free recipe next time. Isn’t it wonderful to learn new ways of preparing our dear old lechon leftovers?!

  3. What a great idea! I like eating lechon right out of the fire pit and this should come close.
    Umm, please send a couple of people after I cook in order to clean up the mess around the stove top/frying pan.
    Better yet, I think I better cook this outdoors with the cast iron pan on top of the BBq grill. I will then use my brother in law to tend the pan, that way he gets the hot splatters and not me! In the meantime, I will mix up some of that Maria Clara mustasa salad for the ultimate pig out.
    I love this blog! You guys always inspire me with these wicked ideas. Did I tell you about the time my friend brought over these freshly butchered squirrels to throw in the ol’ barbie? But that’s for another time!

  4. Silly Lolo, actually if you use the right sized pan (relative to the volume of meat) and not too much vegetable oil, the splattering is minimal. I hate to fry as well but this wasn’t too bad. And it is over in a few minutes time.

  5. Oohhh! This is my favorite way of cooking lechon leftovers! The best part is if you can get some of the ribs and fry them up this way. Then you can hold them with your hands and gnaw on the bone until you’ve practically licked it clean. I like this with some diced tomatoes and chopped onions with a vinegar/fish sauce dressing sprinkled with a bit of chopped cilantro. MM, you’re making me hungry!

  6. MM, I’ve had pritong lechon since I was a child because this is how my Nanay cooks leftover lechon. Must be one of the reasons my parents both have hypertension =). Now this is what my kids prefer over paksiw na lechon. Pair this with KBL and jasmine rice and I’m in lechon heaven. Diets be damned! Hahaha…

  7. this is the best way to do leftover lechon. when i was still in the philippines, i don’t even add oil anymore and just let the lechon’s own fat render and fry the meat. here in the US since lechons don’t have that 1 inch (or more) thick of fat between the skin and the meat, a little oil is necessary. serve it with lipitor on the side. :)

  8. Pardon my ignorance, but how is this different from lechon kawali? Is lechon kawali not made from leftover lechon?

    As a kid, I much preferred the fried version to regular lechon, and didn’t even like paksiw at all. I love how crunchy the skin of lechon kawali gets!

  9. love this too! leftover from this would be made into crispy fried lechon flakes, extra rice please :)

  10. suzette, three layers of fat!!! Katrina, sorry, my spam filters are misidentifying some regular commenters and asking me to clear the comments, so bear with the filters… I just get so much spam these days… and sometimes regular commenters get included in the net…

  11. My mother-in-law always does this with left-over lechon. It’s very tasty and yummy over hot steamed rice…except that being in my mid-thirties, I’m already getting some dizzy spells everytime I eat this stuff…I just can’t over-emphasize how good a simple fried lechon is!

  12. i love this dish MM! we always do this whenever there’s left over lechon and i prefer it over lechon paksiw. we usually slice the lechon meat like that of the ham and fry it. the skin on the other hand turns to something like chicharon. then we pair it with the regular lechon sauce and steaming rice, YUM!

  13. We also fry left-over lechon. When there’s left over lechon, my mom sets aside some portion for paksiw and for frying!

  14. Loved this idea too, kaya nga lang yung mga “peklat” ko sa wrist it’s because of the tilamsik. I tried putting this left over lechon sa deep fryer na may takipand with the “sandok” attachment, eh naku, pag-scoop nung lechon, kahit nasa plate ko na, eh aba parang buhay, it will suddenly burst and fly right into your skin.. parang gumaganti.. heehe. Kaya nga nowadays, I use this left over lechon by adding them into my ginisang monggo.. wow, sarap nga eh.

  15. MM, instead of frying leftover lechon, we roast it in the turbo broiler. we just salt the lechon or sprinkle some patis, and put the whole thing on the turbo rack. about 30 minutes later, the skin is crisp once again, and, i think, a bit healthier since a lot of lechon’s oil pools on the bottom of the pan. just don’t go scooping up the oil and pouring it onto your rice…yuck!

  16. we do this at home. we fry leftover lechon and season it with salt pepper and chilli flakes. then dip in vinegar-soysauce-garlic-shallot… yup!

  17. love fried left over lechon!!! it’s a must serve here in gensan esp after a party. it’s a pulutan also and very yummy when dipped with pinakurat!

  18. we always do this too, our sawsawan is patis with lemon or kalamansi even leftover lechon kawali

  19. Our small get togethers usually have lechon and about a quarter of the lechon gets fried immediately. Agree with Alilay about the patis and calamansi dipping sauce.

  20. I do exactly the same with our leftover lechon, and yes, I look forward to it even more than having the lechon itself, as where we live, the lechon’s not that great. Sometimes, I also marinate it a bit with soy sauce.

  21. been doing that most of my life except that i dont salt it when fryin but i do dip it in bagoong isda with calamansi mmm.

  22. i gotta try this sometime. but usually i sautee my left over lechon in garlic, onions and bagoong then add lots of kangkong and a little bit of water. let it boil til the kangkong is cooked and serve, yummy!

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