Sisig
Sisig
Sizzling chopped pork, onion, chilli and calamansi — Kapampangan bar food that the world ordered after the first video.
Recipe by I Want Some Food · Reviewed by the editorial kitchen. Native name preserved: Sisig.
0 people cooked this in the public kitchen yet. Kitchen-tested by I Want Some Food. Not a purchased rating.
- Prep
- 20 min
- Cook
- 50 min
- Rest
- None
- Total
- 1 hr 10 min
- Difficulty
- Medium
- Spice
- Medium heat
- Cost
- Weeknight budget$8–16 USD · indicative, not a store price
About
Sisig is chopped pig face (or a home mix of pork belly and liver), boiled, grilled, then chopped again with onion, chilli and calamansi or lime, served on a screaming-hot plate, often with a raw egg. This home version uses belly and optional liver. It should be sour, fatty, and loud. Rice is mandatory. Boil pork belly, and liver if you are using it, until tender, then get colour on a grill or under a hot oven so the chopped pork has crunch as well as fat. Chop small. Onion should stay slightly raw at the edges. Calamansi or lime is the sour; chilli is the noise. Tip onto a screaming-hot cast-iron plate so it keeps sizzling, and crack a raw egg on top if that is the bar sauce you want. Rice underneath is not negotiable. Belly is the home cut when face is not at the butcher. If it is bland, you underdid citrus. If it is greasy without crunch, you skipped the grill step. Serve at once. Leftovers fried into rice the next day are a known second life. Do not call it a salad.
Ingredients
Scaling multiplies the written quantities. Baking still prefers a scale.
Steps
Step 1
Simmer pork in salted water 30 minutes. Drain, grill or sear until charred. Chop small.
40 minStep 2
Chop liver if using and sear. Mix pork, onion, chilli, garlic, soy and lots of lime. Taste: sour, salty, fatty.
10 minStep 3
Heat a cast-iron plate until furious. Dump the mix, crack an egg in the middle if using. Serve sizzling with rice.
5 min
Adapt this recipe
The canonical recipe stays intact. Personal versions are labelled. Serving changes are maths, not AI.
Adaptations · 0 / 15 used. Resets 10 October.
Substitutions
Pork face → Belly plus a little chicken liver
The home plate.
Tips
- Mayonnaise sisig is a later creamy style. Name it if you add it.
- Calamansi is the right sour. Lime is the honest substitute.
History & culture
Angeles City / Pampanga bar food that became a national anthem and a diaspora viral plate. It is pulutan and it is dinner. Fast-food chains in the Philippines put it in wraps, which purists mock and students buy. Overseas Filipino kitchens recreate the sizzle on a frying pan and still get the sour-onion hit. It is not a polite dish. It is chopped, citrusy pork with a party volume. Share a plate in the middle. The egg is theatre and a sauce. People who skip liver are still eating sisig in the home sense if the rest of the logic is there. People who insist on face are holding a bar standard. Both voices exist. Rice, always. Overseas Filipino kitchens get the onion-citrus hit on a frying pan when a sizzling platter is not in the cupboard. Share from the middle. The egg is sauce as well as theatre. Skip liver if you must; insist on face if you are holding a bar line. Both voices sit at the same table. Always rice.
Often credited to Aling Lucing in the 1970s as a sizzling plate from leftover grilled parts. Chopped sour pork is older. Kapampangan sour chopped pork is older than any single stall. A 1970s Angeles cook is widely credited with the sizzling platter that made leftover grilled parts a bar star; both can be true: a cook named a sizzle, and a flavour family already existed. Television and later chains nationalised that plate. The diaspora viral version is a further chapter, not the origin. There is no pre-Hispanic sisig that looks like a hot metal dish with a raw egg. There is souring, chopping, and pork. The hot plate is restaurant technology. Cooking belly at home is a translation of a bar classic, which is how most people outside Pampanga will meet it. Keep the 1970s credit without pretending a single night invented sour pork. Keep onion and calamansi even when the origin story stays messy.
Modern adaptation
Provenance: Editorial adaptation.
Questions about this recipe
Answers taken from this dish's times, amounts, swaps and tips — not a chatbot.
How long does Sisig take?
1 hr 10 min all in — 20 min prep, 50 min cook. Cook and rest follow the method. Leftover storage and optional extra waits are not included.
How many does it serve?
The recipe is written for 4 people. Scale the ingredient list on the page if you are cooking for a different number.
How hard is it?
Medium.
How spicy is it?
Medium heat.
What allergens should I watch?
This recipe is labelled for Soy, Wheat, Eggs. Labels are informational — check the packets in your kitchen. This is not medical advice.
Does it fit a diet?
The published recipe is labelled Dairy-free, Gluten-free.
What does it cost to cook?
Weeknight budget — about $8–16 USD, as a grocery budget for this recipe, not a restaurant price.
What equipment do I need?
Saucepan, Frying pan.
How much salt do I put in?
The recipe lists Salt at 1 tsp.
How much soy sauce?
1 tbsp of Soy sauce.
What can I use instead?
Pork face → Belly plus a little chicken liver. The home plate.
Any tips from this recipe?
Mayonnaise sisig is a later creamy style. Name it if you add it. Calamansi is the right sour. Lime is the honest substitute.
Can I use an air fryer?
This method is not written for an air fryer. The core technique on the page still applies.
Similar dishes
Checking your allergy settings…