Bicol Express

Pork Bicol Express is a type of Filipino spicy pork dish. Pork slices are cooked in coconut milk with Thai chili and long green peppers. Its main source of flavor is derived from shrimp paste, which is locally known as bagoong. Balaw is a more traditional ingredient for Bicol Express. This is descried as salted shrimp fry.

How to Cook Bicol Express at Home

This recipe is simple and straightforward. You should be able to cook a one pot dish by following the recipe below.

Let me describe the steps in detail so that you are guided accordingly. The first step is to saute the garlic and onion until the latter softens. This brings-in aroma and nice sweet-roasted flavor to the dish. Do this by heating around 3 tablespoons of canola oil in a pan. Once the oil starts to get hot, add onion and garlic.

The pork goes in next. Make sure to stir the pork while cooking to make the color uniform all throughout. We simply want the pork to turn light brown during this step. We still need to cook it further until tender.

Pour coconut milk and water and let boil. Cover the pan and cook in low to medium heat until the pork gets tender. It usually takes around 40 minutes, but you can cook longer of needed. Feel free to add more water if needed.

Add the chili peppers and shrimp paste next. I usually cook this covered for 8 to 10 minutes in order to extract much of the flavor from the chili pepper. You can also add the chili peppers in the previous step along with the coconut milk.

Season with ground black pepper and serve for lunch or dinner with white rice.

I enjoy having this dish as much as I do with dinakdakan.

Please let me know if you have questions or clarifications. Enjoy!

Print Pin

Bicol Express

Spicy pork with shrimp paste and chilies cooked in rich and creamy coconut milk.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Fiiipino

Keyword bicol, pork recipe, spicy pork

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour

Servings 4 people

Author Vanjo Merano

Ingredients

• 1 ½ pork sliced into pieces
• 5 pieces Thai chili pepper
• 2 pieces long green pepper
• ¼ cup shrimp paste
• 2 cups coconut milk
• 1 cup water
• 1 piece onion chopped
• 5 cloves garlic crushed
• 3 tablespoons cooking oil
• Ground black pepper to taste

Instructions

• Heat oil in a pan.
• Saute onion and garlic. Add pork once the onion softens. Cook until light brown.
• Pour water and coconut milk. Let boil. Cover and cook between low to medium heat for 40 minutes. Add more water if needed.
• Stir-in the shrimp paste and chili peppers. Continue to cook covered for 8 minutes.
• Season with ground black pepper. Continue to cook until sauce reaches desired consistency.
• Serve with warm rice.