Rellenong Manok
Roasted Chicken Stuffed with Minced Pork, Sausages and Boiled Eggs
What is Rellenong Manok
Rellenong Manok is usually seen as a centerpiece Christmas dish during the Noche Buena feast after attending the midnight mass on Christmas eve. The Philippines is predominantly a Catholic country and during the Spanish colonisation, Catholicism was introduced to the Filipino people. Many Spanish traditions including food were passed on to the Filipino people. The word ‘relleno’ means filled or stuffed with the addition of a Filipino connective word ‘ng’ (rellenong) and the word ‘manok’ means chicken in Filipino.
Rellenong Manok is a roasted or fried chicken dish, deboned and stuffed with a mixture of ingredients from minced pork, hard boiled eggs, edam cheese, chorizo, olives, spam and vienna sausages. The filling can vary from region to region as well as households to households and according to individual tastes or preferences. It’s roasted until the chicken and fillings are cooked through. It’s eaten with some rice and banana ketchup for me.
Beside Lechon (slow roasted pork hog) as the centerpiece, rellenong manok is also a popular choice and if your family can flex the cash, sometimes both lechon and rellenong manok will be seen on the table side by side. Now that’s a FEAST!
Swap it / Common Questions
Sausages – I used this frankfurter because it’s accessible and my kids like it. We haven’t tried using vienna sausages yet but this is the common sausage used in the Philippines or hotdogs.
Cheese – for the cheese I used edam or mild cheese but you can use any cheese you like that will compliment the dish.
Minced Pork – if you want to swap pork, a great substitution is cooked fried rice or chopped mushrooms.
Boiled Eggs – you can opt out of this if you are allergic or don’t eat eggs.
How to debone the chicken watch it here: https://youtu.be/KKIqtVex9uY
Full video on how to cook Rellenong Manok
Ingredients
For the chicken
For the Fillings
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6.
In a large bowl make the stuffing. Add pork, spring onions, carrots, garlic, ground pepper, salt and mix them well. Set aside for later.
Take your deboned chicken (see youtube link above to see how I deboned my chicken) and season it with salt and pepper.
Next, take the bowl of filling or stuffing, add half of the filling into the chicken first then the boiled eggs making sure it’s at the centre surrounded by the fillings add the remaining stuffing inside the chicken.
Using a large needle and butcher’s string, close the opening on the neck and bottom of the chicken OR TOP TIP! Use some toothpicks to close the opening of the chicken if you don’t have a large needle and butcher’s string. Then, tie the legs together so they keep together and in shape when cooking.
Using an oven tray with a rack, pour some water at the bottom making sure that the water does not touch the rack or the chicken. Place the chicken in an oven dish, tuck the wings behind and the legs tied together, cover it with foil. Roast the chicken in the middle of the oven for 50 minutes with the foil. Reduce the heat to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4 and roast for another 30-40 minutes in the oven without the foil.
Take out the chicken from the oven, check if the chicken is cooked through, use a stick and poke it in the middle. If the juices run clear then that should be cooked. If you have a food thermometer, the temperature should be 79C/175F or above for well done. Leave it to cool for 10 minutes before serving.
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