Filipino Pork BBQ : The AirFryer Kind

I made Filipino Pork BBQ at home!

My friends and I were supposed to go out and have a fun Saturday out in the woods along the river. It was canceled because of the rain. We figured we should stay safe because rivers in Japan could cause death and injury. Not to scare anyone but there were many reports like that during summer because of the sudden strong current.

I was planning to bring the marinated pork I made on a Thursday night to the riverfront BBQ party with friends so since it was canceled, I’ll just have to eat it with my partner at home.

As I’ve mentioned, I already marinated this last Thursday night so the marinade should be doing its job now that it’s Saturday night.

And I wasn’t mistaken!

I took it out from the ref and started putting them in sticks. Agh, my friends and I were supposed to be doing this. In the photo it looked like it was not full, right? Well, actually I’ve taken that photo after I took some pork. So actually it was a big bowl full of marinated pork.

Since I sliced the pork into cube-like size, it was easy to put them into sticks. The technique is always to put the fatty portion at the end.

I don’t know how long it took for me to put them into sticks but I didn’t mind the time as I was enjoying it. I put 3 pieces of sliced pork into one stick.

In Tokyo, it’s not allowed to have BBQ outside the home. There’s a grill for fish in our kitchen but it’s been long time since we used it so that’s also not a good option. I decided to use my airfryer for grilling these.

There’s a meat preset in my airfryer so I tried using that. It was 205 degrees 8mins. It burned the fatty portion a bit so I tried adjusting it to 7mins and it seems great - a little bit scorched now. If you don’t like scorched portions, 6mins is fine.

The first batch turned out well but I remembered seeing the usual BBQ vendors in the Philippines basting them with sauce during the BBQ process. So I made the basting sauce for the next batches and my partner said he liked it better than the first one. He noticed the difference when I didn’t even tell him what I did.

I made a lot but my partner also ate a lot as I was cooking. 😅

The reason why I used the steel sticks was because the bamboo sticks were not long enough to put them on both ends at the airfryer. I’ll try to find longer sticks next time.

Here’s the finished product! I was also basting more sauce into these after 3 or 4 minutes in the airfryer. It’s more yummier this way.

I paired these with the rice porridge I cooked while the airfryer was doing its thing.

The rice porridge or lugar in Filipino seems to be full of soy sauce which was a mistake on my part but it turned out well. Still, the lugar I knew was white and not brown like this. 😅 My partner’s first time tasting this and he liked it, he didn’t know it was a fail. 😂

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Filipino Pork BBQ Recipe:

Marinade:

Notes:

• I mixed the pork shoulder and pork belly because the pork belly has more fat than the pork shoulder. It's always good to have the fat in BBQ sticks.
• If sprite is not available, 7 up or any lemon lime soda can be a substitute. The first time I tried making these at home with a lemon lime soda I found, it wasn't that great but with sprite it turned out best. You can adjust accordingly.
• Filipino soy sauce and vinegar are always better but since I only have Japanese soy sauce and vinegar at home, I didn't have a choice but to use what I have at hand. If you could use Filipino soy sauce and vinegar, I think the taste would maybe be the same as that of the BBQ vendors you see in the Philippines.
• Banana ketchup is of course the best but since I don't have one, I just use a ketchup I have at home. It's a bit on the sweeter side so I think it's okay.

Basting Sauce:

Actually, I didn't measure these well but you can adjust accordingly.

Cooking Process:

1. Cut the pork into cubes. It doesn't have to be the perfect kind, some of mine were more of a rectangular form.
2. Make the marinade sauce. Mix all the ingredients well first before adding the pork and sprite.
3. Add the pork to the liquid mixture. Make sure you mix them well, massage them if needed so the marinade goes well.
4. Add the sprite and try to mix all the ingredients again.
5. Store them in the fridge for at least 6 hours or overnight.
6. When ready to grill, put 3 or 4 pieces in sticks. Make sure the fat goes in first and then the lean part.
7. Prepare the basting sauce. Just mix all the ingredients.
8. Preheat airfryer for 5 mins in 200 degrees.
9. Add the pork BBQ sticks in the airfryer basket. Baste it with the sauce you prepared in #7 before going to the airfryer.
10. Set the airfryer to 205 degrees for 7 mins.
11. After 3 or 4 mins, pause it, take it out and baste it again with sauce. Put it back after.
12. When the airfryer rings to 0, that's the end. Enjoy!

You can prepare a sauce of your liking like soy sauce + vinegar + chili to pair it with the pork BBQ.

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That's how I enjoyed the Saturday night at home - making BBQ and grilling them. It was delicious but since I couldn't eat very well because I wasn't feeling well, I took my time eating and savoring every bit of it. This goes well with rice of course but I can only eat porridge for now.

To be honest, I was only experimenting with the marinade and this was my 2nd time. The first time I made this was the other week and well, it was good so I thought I could make it better by adding the basting sauce.

Anyhow, if you haven't tried this, maybe you should! Putting them in sticks may be tiring for some but it was a bit therapeutic for me. Let me know if your marinade is different than mine so I can experiment a bit more. 😀

Enjoy the weekend!

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Thanks for reading!
See you around! じゃあ、またね！

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With love,

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^{All photos are taken using my phone unless stated otherwise.}