This Crispy Pata Recipe is not your usual crispy pata recipe. Instead of boiling the meat until tender, I marinated the pork for 24 hours. Then, I baked it in the oven for four hours before deep frying.
The traditional way of cooking crispy pata is by simmering the pork leg for several hours until the meat is tender. Then, the meat is air dried before frying. The seasoning depends on you choice but I prefer my crispy pata with lemongrass and the usual garlic, onion, salt and pepper.
I was watching this youtube video about a Filipino in America making a living by selling food during this pandemic. He cooked this pork belly in the oven for several hours, then, he deep fried the pork belly and voila, it’s lechon kawali. So I thought of, why not do the same with crispy pata. To be honest I never perfected making crispy pata, only this time.
I think, preparing the meat this way helps to cut some fat from the meat. That crispy pork skin crackling is easy to achieve in deep frying. It would actually take about 3 to 5 minutes.
I know this is a sinful dish, but hey! You can just cook it for special occasions. In our case, its weekend and we are complete.
Tips
This Crispy Pata Recipe can be prepared several days and simply deep fry it before meal time. I prepare ours last Saturday night. Then, I baked it in the oven on Sunday night and deep fried it on Monday lunch.
To achieve that puffed skin crackling, simply dap the skin with water and rub with fine salt before deep frying. The salt helps in achieving that burst crispy skin.
Make sure that the oil is very hot. Once submerge, the skin will easily puff and would probably take 3 to 5 minutes to cook the whole pork leg. I did some flipping since only half of the pork leg was submerge. Ideally, the whole meat is submerge but I find it too much waste of oil.
For more pork dishes check out our Pork Recipes.
Ingredients
| 1 piece | Whole Pork Leg |
| 8 cups | Water |
| 4 stalks | Lemongrass |
| 12 cloves | Garlic, chopped |
| 1 piece | Onion, chopped |
| 1 cup | Salt |
| 1 teapsoon | Ground Black Pepper |
| 1 teapsoon | Fine Salt |
| Oil for deep frying |
Procedure
Thoroughly clean the pork leg and pat to dry.
In a pot, combine water, lemongrass, garlic, onion, salt and ground black pepper. Boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Let it steep and cool to room temperature.
Pour marinade over the pork and marinade for 24 hours.
Preheat oven to 150 degrees Celsius. Bake for 4 hours.
Dap pork leg with water and rub with fine salt.
Deep fry pork leg in hot oil until crispy.
Crispy Pata Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 piece Whole Pork Leg
- 8 cups Water
- 4 stalks Lemongrass
- 12 cloves Garlic, chopped
- 1 piece Onion, chopped
- 1 cup Salt
- 1 teaspoon Ground Black Pepper
- 1 teaspoon Fine Salt
- Oil for deep frying
Instructions
- Thoroughly clean the pork leg and pat to dry.
- In a pot, combine water, lemongrass, garlic, onion, salt and ground black pepper. Boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Let it steep and cool to room temperature.
- Pour marinade over the pork and marinade for 24 hours.
- Preheat oven to 150 degrees Celsius. Bake for 4 hours.
- Dap pork leg with water and rub with fine salt.
- Deep fry pork leg in hot oil until crispy.
