Inihaw na Bangus is a popular way of cooking milkfish stuffed with onion, tomato, ginger, salt and pepper. There are many stuffing variants when making this dish. Bangus or milkfish is the national fish of the Philippines. Grilling stuffed milkfish is so delicious. My Mom, brother and myself prefer the belly of the fish. My poor Dad! Growing up, my dad got stuck with the other parts of the fish especially the tail because it was too bony.
Before grilling, clean the fish and prepare the stuffing. Luckily, the Asian store where I get the fish will clean it upon request. They will remove the gills, gut and scale the fish. The only unfortunate thing when they clean it, they end up removing some parts of the fish belly. Honestly, that is the only reason why I buy bangus (milkfish). I love the fish belly. Well anyway, I am still happy that they do the dirty work and not me. Even though it is already clean, I still wash and clean the fish when I get home.
Preparation before cooking inihaw na bangus is very easy. Chop the onion, ginger, tomato and season with salt and pepper. In a bowl, mix all the ingredients. When the fish is clean, season with salt and pepper. When they gut the fish, they open it from head to belly and that’s where I place the stuffing. Since I don’t put the fish directly on the grill, I also request that they scale the fish. Fish is wrapped in banana leaves and heavy duty foil. Follow the same procedure when baking and broiling it in the oven. Using foil will catch the juice thus the fish is infused with all these flavors.
Ten minutes before taking it out of the grill, open foil so the skin of the fish becomes crispy and medium brown in color. Then flip it to it’s other side. To replicate this in the oven, after baking the fish, broil each side for about 5 minutes.
Once inihaw na bangus (grilled stuffed milkfish) is done, scrape out all the stuffing and place it in a container. Add vinegar to the stuffing and season it with salt and pepper. This savory dipping sauce goes very well with inihaw na bangus. It is very yummy!
How to Make Inihaw na Bangus
Watch my video “How to make inihaw na bangus”. Make it this weekend. Magluto na tayo!
Inihaw na Bangus is a popular way of cooking milkfish. It is grilled or baked.
- 1 large size bangus milkfish
- 1 large size tomato chopped
- 1 medium size onion chopped
- 1 thumb size ginger chopped
- salt and pepper
- ½ cup vinegar
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Clean fish by removing gills and gut. Since I have it in foil, scales were also removed. If you are putting it directly on the grill, keep the scales on so it doesn’t stick to the grill. Season the bangus (milkfish) with salt and pepper. Set it aside.
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Chop onion, ginger and tomato and mix it in a bowl. Add ¼ teaspoon salt and pepper to the mixture. If you prefer a spicy stuffing add Thai chili peppers or siling labuyo.
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When fish is clean, add stuffing in the opening. (Watch my video.)
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Wrap fish in banana leaves and heavy duty aluminum foil.
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Heat grill. Cook 35 - 45 minutes depending on how much charcoal you have on your grill.
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Before removing the fish from grill, unwrap foil to expose fish to get the skin crispy and medium brown in color. Flip fish after 5 minutes to crispy and brown the other side. Remove from grill.
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Scrape out the stuffing and put in a bowl. Add vinegar, salt and pepper to the mixture. This is your dipping sauce.
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Enjoy it while hot and make sure you have a lot of rice.
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Follow steps 1 to 4
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Pre-heat oven. Bake at 400 degrees for 40 minutes.
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Turn the oven dial to Broil. Broil milkfish for 10 minutes to crispy both sides and turn color to medium brown.
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Follow steps 7 and 8.
- Paksiw na bangus is another popular way of cooking bangus or milkfish.
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