Air Fryer Lechon
No Kawali is Involed with this recipe
What is Lechon Kawali
Lechon Kawali is an alternative to Lechon. It’s usually a whole roast pig but we can’t always buy a whole roast pig and it takes a long time to cook too. This was before restaurants started selling smaller portions of spit roast pork. Today there are many Lechon restaurants in the Philippines dedicated to cooking lechon everyday!
So alternatively Filipinos invented ‘lechon kawali’, the word ‘kawali’ means pot or wok. Together it’s pork cooked in a pot or work. Instead of spit roasting lechon kawali is fried. It’s twice cooked pork belly. It’s boiled with aromatics first, it’s air dried to take as much water out and then it’s fried until crispy.
This recipe is cooked in the airfryer, maybe I should call this Lechon Air fyer haha! Because there is no kawali involved in this recipe.
Swap it and Common Qs
Do I have to brine it?
I really recommend that you do, it makes the meat tender and tasty. If you don’t have time, of course you can skip the brining part. You can tell the difference when you taste it.
Should I boil it first like lechon kawali?
You can do this too, I didn’t boil the pork with this recipe as I wanted to save time and washing up. If you do boil it, you probably need to cook the pork on 180C for 30 minutes or until crispy.
If you do use this recipe, please let me know how it went. Happy Cooking!!
Ingredients
Brine
Instructions
To brine the pork, in a large bowl, add water, salt and pork. Add something heavy on top of the pork to keep it underwater. Brine this overnight.
Take the pork out of the brine and wipe it down. With some foil or aluminum wrap the meat part with the skin on top uncovered. Place it in the air fryer.
To cook the pork in the air fryer, set it roast, put the temperature to 130C for 45 minutes. Then turn the temperature up to 180C for another 30 – 40 minutes.
Take the pork out of the air fryer, discard the foil or aluminum and place the pork in a chopping board. Chop the pork into cubes and serve with spiced vinegar or mang tomas sauce or banana ketchup.
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