Oven Baked Crispy Pata Recipe

Crispy Pata is a Filipino crispy pig leg dish. It is traditionally cooked by deep frying the leg (click this link to see the traditional recipe). I tried to experiment on other easy ways to make crispy pata for the benefit of our readers. This version do not use too much oil and it is way safer. If you are just starting out in the kitchen, this recipe is for you.

In this crispy pata recipe variation, I cooked the pork leg three (3) times. I first baked the pork in the oven for 30 minutes. Since the leg eventually needs to be boiled, baking it beforehand makes the skin a bit tough. This helps prevent the skin from breaking apart when you boil it. You will still notice that the skin tends to shrink and gets torn apart (especially on the side of the foot) — that is normal. The pork was cooked the second time by boiling. This step is necessary because it makes the meat tender and infuses the seasonings that we added to make the meat flavorful. It also helps make the meat crispy later on when we bake it for the last time. The last step (baking the pork for the last time) is the longest. At this point, we want to make sure that the skin gets crispy.

Once the crispy pata is cooked, you can make your own dipping sauce. I do it by chopping apiece of small yellow onion and adding 3/4 cups vinegar and 3 tablespoons of soy sauce in it. I also add 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder and 2 teaspoons of white sugar. I mix all the ingredients together and microwave it for 40 seconds.

Try this Oven Baked Crispy Pata Recipe. Send us your feedback.

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4.50 from 2 votes

Oven Baked Crispy Pata

Prep Time 1 hour

Cook Time 3 hours

Total Time 4 hours

Servings 5

Author Vanjo Merano

Ingredients

• 1 piece 3 to 4 lbs. pig leg
• 1 teaspoon whole cloves
• 12 pieces dried bay leaves
• 2 pieces cinnamon sticks
• 6 cloves garlic crushed
• 1 tablespoon onion powder
• 4 tablespoons cooking oil or cooking oil spray
• 8 cups water

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350F.
• Meanwhile, arrange the pork leg in a baking tray lined with aluminum foil. Coat the leg with cooking oil either by rubbing with cooking oil or using the cooking oil spray such as Pam.
• Bake in the oven for 30 minutes.
• Remove the pork from the oven. Let it cool down.
• Arrange the pork (pig leg) in a wide cooking pot or Dutch oven. Pour-in water. Let boil.
• Once the water starts to boil, add the onion powder, garlic, bay leaves, cinnamon sticks, and cloves. Cover and simmer for 45 minutes.
• Remove the pork from the cooking pot. Let the liquid drip while the meat cools down. Make incisions on the pig leg so that seasonings (such as salt and pepper) can easily penetrate and gets absorbed. It will also help the inner part of the leg cook faster.
• Arrange the pig leg on the same baking tray. rub salt and pepper all over the leg. Spray with cooking oil all over.
• Bake in the oven at 350F for 150 to 180 minutes.

Nutrition

Serving: 5g