Recipe
🍽️ DINNER
Inihaw na Liempo (Grilled Pork Belly)
Pork belly slabs marinated in soy sauce, calamansi, and garlic, then charcoal-grilled and basted with sweet banana ketchup until sticky and charred.
Filipino · easy · serves 4
prep 20 min · cook 20 min
~633 cal · 62g protein · 14g carbs · 35g fat · 1g fiber · 9g sugars · 12g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Inihaw na liempo is the smell of a Filipino weekend: slabs of pork belly, marinated in soy sauce and citrus, laid over charcoal until the fat and the edges catch and blister. Inihaw simply means grilled, and liempo is the belly, that perfect layering of meat, fat, and skin that stays juicy no matter how hot the fire.
The marinade is classic Filipino balance, salty, sour, and a little sweet: soy sauce, the juice of calamansi (or lime), crushed garlic, and pepper. What makes it unmistakably Filipino is the basting sauce, the same marinade loosened with banana ketchup, a sweet, fruity condiment born of wartime tomato shortages, brushed on as the pork grills so the sugars caramelise into a glossy coat.
Sliced and piled onto a platter with hot rice and a dipping sauce of vinegar, soy, and chili, inihaw na liempo is beach food, backyard food, and celebration food. It is grilled over coals with friends and eaten with the hands, the kind of dish that turns any afternoon into a fiesta.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally dairy-, nut- and egg-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
2 lbs pork belly, sliced into 1/2-inch slabs
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup calamansi or lime, juiced
6 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp black pepper
1/4 cup banana ketchup (for basting)
Hard to find? tomato ketchup with a pinch of extra sugar - banana ketchup is sweeter and fruitier; plain ketchup gives a similar glaze but a sharper tomato edge
1 tbsp vegetable oil
Instructions
1
Combine the soy sauce (or tamari), calamansi juice, garlic, brown sugar, and pepper, and marinate the pork belly in it for at least 3 hours, or overnight for the best flavour.
2
Lift the pork from the marinade and stir the banana ketchup and oil into the leftover marinade to make a basting sauce.
3
Grill the pork over medium coals, turning and basting generously every few minutes so the sugars caramelise without burning, for about 15 to 20 minutes until charred and cooked through.
4
Rest the pork a few minutes, slice into pieces, and serve with steamed rice and a vinegar and soy dipping sauce.
Filipino backyard-grill tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Central Luzon. Sisig has a clearer trail. The Kapampangan word manyisig, recorded in Bergano's dictionary, meant a sour salad; the modern chopped-pork-face version grew out of cheap pig heads from the Clark Air Base commissaries in Angeles City, and Lucia Cunanan is credited with putting it on a sizzling plate. The tourism department calls Pampanga the country's culinary capital.
🗺️
Philippines. Adobo is a method, not a region and not a Spanish import. The vinegar-and-salt way of cooking meat is pre-Hispanic and found across the archipelago; Spanish friars simply wrote it down, and a Tagalog dictionary of 1613 records it as adobo de los naturales, the natives' adobo. The souring agent in sinigang shifts too, from tamarind to kamias, guava or calamansi.
🌍
Asia. A grain line runs across the continent. Rice dominates the wet south and east, wheat the drier north and west, and the tools follow it: the wok and the steamer where rice is milled, the tandoor and the griddle where wheat is ground. Tea travels the other way, drunk green, black, salted, buttered or with milk depending how far it got from China.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Philippines
Chicken AdoboChicken braised glossy in vinegar, soy, garlic, and black pepper, the Philippines’ definitive dish.
ChamporadoA sweet Filipino chocolate rice porridge, traditionally eaten with salty dried fish on the side.
Sinigang na BaboyThe Philippines’ beloved sour soup: pork simmered tender in a clear tamarind broth, unapologetically tart, loaded with vegetables added in stages.
Browse all Philippines recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Grill or barbecue, Steamer.
Storing it: Best straight off the heat. Leftovers keep 2 to 3 days refrigerated and reheat well in a hot oven rather than the microwave.
Make it a Philippines meal
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Leche FlanDessert
Pancit BihonLunch
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Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Inihaw na Liempo (Grilled Pork Belly)?
Pork belly slabs marinated in soy sauce, calamansi, and garlic, then charcoal-grilled and basted with sweet banana ketchup until sticky and charred.
Where does Inihaw na Liempo (Grilled Pork Belly) come from?
Inihaw na Liempo (Grilled Pork Belly) is a Filipino dish from Central Luzon, Philippines.
Can Inihaw na Liempo (Grilled Pork Belly) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Inihaw na Liempo (Grilled Pork Belly) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Inihaw na Liempo (Grilled Pork Belly) safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Inihaw na Liempo (Grilled Pork Belly) take to make?
About 40 minutes total (20 minutes prep, 20 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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