I REALLY WANT LECHON. But given COVID and a dearth of celebrations, I didn’t foresee any lechon in my future… I even tried checking lechon belly recipes online (#desperate), but wow, it’s difficult to do – definitely not within my level of cooking expertise. So no lechon for the past 4 months… Until, the Locale Food Groupe promo caught my eye – Buy 1 Take 1 for the Hukad frozen and cooked lechon. Don’t believe me? Here’s the link to the actual promotion

With this promo, I get ~2.4 kg frozen lechon belly (with all the herbs and spices rubbed in!) for just PHP 600. Sulit diba? Even better, they have an Ayala Cloverleaf branch, which I pass by when coming home from work. It was like God telling me “Ito na! Buy it!” Of course, who am I to say no? So here I am – sharing my Hukad Frozen Lechon Belly experience

Disclaimer: This post is NOT a paid ad. I just like blogging about my food finds – coz sharing is caring, and I think you guys deserve to know which food items are good value for money!

Without further ado, let’s dive in!

VERDICT: RECOMMEND

Cooking Instructions

What cooking instructions? LOL. What you purchase is what you get – literally a slab of lechon pork belly. No instructions, just a slab.

No worries – I asked the waiter at Hukad and I asked LFG via Instagram for cooking instructions. Here’s the step-by-step procedure that I followed (tweaked coz some of the stuff they said didn’t make sense):

1. Fully Thaw Lechon Belly. Once the lechon is soft to the touch, that’s when you know it’s thawed.

2. Pre-heat oven at 350F. Arrange the Lechon belly in roasting pan and roast for 1.5-2 hrs.

3. Place water in an oven safe cup beside the belly while cooking it. This should keep the meat juicy and prevent it from drying out. Unfortunately I only found out about this AFTER, so my lechon was a bit dry. Oh well, sharing here so you won’t make the same mistake.

4. Remove the lechon belly from the oven every 30 minutes in the oven. Dab the skin using a towel to remove excess oil (I didn’t do this), and rotate the lechon belly to make sure it would be equally cooked (you don’t have to do this if your oven has a rotisserie function.)

5. Once you’re happy with the cooked quality, it’s time to remove the lechon belly from the oven. How do you know it’s well-cooked? No idea. In my case, I cut it up and ate a slice… Don’t judge, I was hungry! Anyway, I had the lechon belly cooking for 2 hours. I think it was safe by then!

6. Let the lechon belly cool down for 5-10 minutes. Afterwards, it’s ready to serve!

Value for Money

Honestly, to get ~2.4kg worth of lechon belly (replete with the flavored spiced rub Cebu lechon are well-known for) for just PHP 600 is SUCH A STEAL. Super sulit. I actually weighed it after I brought it home, and it’s really 2.4 kg.

The price is equivalent to me purchasing raw lechon belly from the market, but that doesn’t take into account all the herbs and spice rubbed in + their labor.

Equally important, I found the lechon belly very meaty. Sometimes you get lechon that’s more fat than meat and it’s quite disappointing. Hukad’s lechon didn’t disappoint though. There remains a thin layer of fat near the skin, but everything else was delicious meat!

Taste

Cebu lechon belly, which takes at least four hours to cook (according to them) is well-known for being extremely flavorful. No need for Mang Tomas (liver sauce) because every single inch of the lechon belly can be eaten on its own, without sauce. Was the experience the same for me given I baked it myself?

Yes! Super flavorful. The only problem is – it was a tad bit dry AND the skin wasn’t crispy.

• I checked with LFG and they told me to place water in an oven safe cup beside the belly while cooking it next time. This should keep the meat juicy and prevent it from drying out. (You’ll see this step in the cooking procedure above, but they only mentioned this AFTER THE FACT. So sad!) But, it was still pretty good, so no regrets!
• For the skin – I have noo idea what I did wrong… Anyway, I figured this is a necessary evil when you purchase lechon for delivery or takeout. No sweat – everything else was still edible and yummy.

Overall – great buy (in large part because of the promo!). Would I buy again if there was no promotion? Maybe. I’d probably double check the cooking procedure with them again, to make sure my next purchase won’t be dry AND retains its crispy skin after I cook it.