Crispy Pata Dish is a Filipino dish consisting of deep fried pig trotters or knuckles served with a soy-vinegar dip in fact.
Especially, It can be served as party fare or an everyday dish. Many restaurants serve boneless Pata as a specialty.
The dish is quite similar to the German Schweinshaxe in fact.
Crispy Pata or crispy pork leg is a popular Filipino pork dish in fact.
This dish can be eaten as a main dish along with rice and atcharang papaya.
People also consume it as beer food or pulutan. It is best when dipped in a spicy vinegar mixture.
Crispy Pata Dish: How to Cook
There are two major processes involved in making crispy Pata. It involves boiling and deep-frying the pork leg in fact.
Boiling is necessary to tenderize the meat. It also helps make the skin crunchy when fried.
Deep-frying completes the dish and provides a nice crisp texture. I don’t think that I need to elaborate more.
Boiling the Pork Leg
Start to boil the Pata or pork leg by boiling water in a deep cooking pot. Make sure that there is enough water to the point that the leg is fully submerged.
Adding spices and seasonings is recommend during this step because it helps infuse flavors to the meat.
The spices can also help reduce or eliminate the unwanted odor.
For these reasons, I add dried bay leaves or “pinatuyong dahon ng laurel”, whole peppercorn, star anise, and salt.
Deep-frying the Pata
There are many ways of cooking crispy pata. The meat needs to be fully cooked and tender. The entire dish should be saucy.
This is where the magic happens. It can be a bit challenging, but hang in there and have fun. Always have your guard up all the time.
The first thing to consider is the pot where the pork will be fried. It should be heavy, tall, and with cover.
The oil will splatter like crazy when frying the pork leg. A tall enough heavy pot gives you extra protection.
The cover will act as your shield. You may also use a deep fryer that is large enough to fit the pork leg. It is safer.
Heat enough oil in the pot. Make sure to heat the oil completely before frying the pork leg.
The ideal temperature oil the oil should be between 350F to 375F in fact.
Instructions
Pour water in a cooking pot then let boil.
Put-in dried bay leaves, whole peppercorn, star anise, and 4 teaspoons of salt.
Add the whole pig’s legs in the cooking pot then simmer until the leg becomes tender (about 45 to 60 minutes).
Remove the tender leg from the cooking pot and set aside until the temperature goes down.
Rub the leg with garlic powder, ground black pepper, and remaining salt. Let stand for 15 minutes to absorb the rub.
Heat a clean large cooking pot (preferably with cover) and pour-in cooking oil.
When the oil becomes hot, deep fry the rubbed pork leg.
Continue cooking in medium heat until one side becomes crispy, and then cautiously flip the leg to crisp the other side.
Turn off the heat; remove the crispy pork leg; and transfer it to a wide serving plate.
Serve with atcharang papaya and soy sauce – vinegar dipping sauce.
Ingredients
- 1 piece whole pig leg cleaned
- 6 pieces dried bay leaves
- 2 tablespoons whole peppercorn
- 4 pieces star anise optional
- 6 teaspoons salt
- 2 teaspoons ground black pepper
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 12 cups water
- 6 cups cooking oil
