Bicol Express Recipe

Bicol Express is a popular Filipino pork stew cooked in coconut milk, shrimp paste and chilies.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Filipino

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 45

Total Time 55

Servings people

Calories 993kcal

3 tablespoons oil
1 medium onion chopped
1 thumb ginger chopped
4 cloves garlic minced
4 to 5 teaspoons shrimp paste bagoong
1 ½ pounds pork belly cut into long strips
1 teaspoon fish sauce
1 can 13.5 fl oz coconut milk
4 green and red serrano peppers or thai chili peppers chopped (it is spicier if chopped)
Salt to taste

In a pot, add 6 cups of water. Add pork belly (liempo), onion and peppercorn. Bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for 20 minutes or until pork belly is half cooked. Slice pork belly and save broth. Set aside.
In a pan, heat oil over medium heat.
Saute onion for 2 minutes.
Add ginger and cook for 2 minutes.
Toss in the garlic and cook for 2 minutes till golden.
Stir-in shrimp paste (bagoong).
Continue cooking for another 2 minutes.
Add pork belly and fry for 5 minutes.
Add serrano peppers and fish sauce. Don’t add too much fish sauce since shrimp paste is already salty.
Pour the coconut milk and bring to a boil. Adjust the heat to low. Simmer for 30 minutes or until meat is tender.
Sauce will thicken and coconut milk will render fat.
Taste and see if you need to season with salt.
Note: For a drier sauce let it simmer over medium - high heat. Pork belly will fry with the rendered fat. Once it turns brown, flip and fry the other side until brown.

Don’t chopped the serrano peppers or chili peppers if not a big fan of spicy food. For people who cannot tolerate spicy food use chopped banana peppers.
Make extra servings, store in airtight container and freeze up to a month.