Going for drinks with a group of friends or family? Pork dinakdakan is the ultimate Filipino beer food you should take with you! This is what’s known in the Philippines as an ideal pulutan, which stands for food that tastes best alongside liquor and beer. That’s because it is salty and flavorful but not too heavy either. It’s what you might call food that falls between a meal and a snack. However, there’s one feature that stands out about it– the face of a pig! But definitely don’t knock it ‘til you’ve tried it! Keep reading for more details about the ever delicious Dinakdakan.

How to Make Dinakdakan

For this, I just have to give you a heads up that you will need a grill. We will be making our meat beautifully smoky through this!

1. Preparing the maskara

Step one for this would be to pour the water into a large pot. Now bring this to a boil before you put your cleaned maskara inside. Place the cover on top, and just let the liquid boil until we’ve gotten the meat to become tender. Afterwards, you may take the maskara out, and get rid of the water. Going back to the pig’s face, pour soy sauce over the maskara and rub it to coat the entire thing with the sauce. Then just let this sit for 5 minutes.

2. Grilling the meat

Next up is our grill, which we need to heat up. Put the maskara here, and grill it for 3 to 5 minutes for each side. As you are doing this, you can arrange a greased aluminum foil over another part of the grill. Grill your chicken liver here for 5 minutes for each side. Once you are done grilling both types of meat, you can transfer them elsewhere to let them cool. Then chop them up.

3. Creating the sauce

Now get your large mixing bowl. Inside, we will put our vinegar, mayonnaise, sugar, ground black pepper, and salt, and then we will mix them all up. After that, you may toss in the onion, Thai chili, Jalapeño pepper, ginger, maskara, and chicken liver. Keep tossing everything together until they are well-blended. Then you can take this to your serving bowl! Feel free to refrigerate this for serving later on chilled, but you could also serve it as it is.

Filipino Dinakdakan

As I previously mentioned, Dinakdakan utilizes the face of the pig, also known as maskara, which is Filipino for mask. We boil the maskara until it gets tender, chop it up, and then mix it with other ingredients. Most of these are seasonings and spices that truly jolt the maskara to life in terms of flavor. Chicken liver also adds a great texture to the dish because it tends to crumble after grilling. We get a tastier, meatier dish with liver! Overall, this Filipino dish is known for its umami and tangy taste.

Ingredients in Dinakdakan

Now I definitely love a Dinakdakan that has a kick to it. And so I decided to take this recipe to the next level by using not just Thai chili, but also Jalapeno pepper! But if you only like mildly spicy food, you may also take some out of the recipe. It really is up to you!

Maskara – There’s really nothing to fear when it comes to eating this cut of pork. It takes like most other parts, but it’s just a tad fattier, and can be surprisingly soft.
Chicken liver – There’s really nothing neutral about chicken liver. This has a ton of flavor and is known for its somewhat bitter and definitely savory taste.
Onion – As you may expect of a pulutan dish, Dinakdakan makes use of sliced onions to give it that extra oomph in taste.
Thai chili – For that next level spice!
Jalapeno pepper – Jalapeños may be slightly less hot compared to Thai chilis, but they also contribute a delightful punch in terms of flavor.
Ground black pepper – Gives us a nice umami taste for the sauce that coats the maskara.
Ginger – This little component provides us with all kinds of flavors from a slight sweetness to a very mild spiciness!
Mayonnaise – Makes the coating for the maskara a lot thicker and more savory.
White vinegar – Dinakdakan’s tangy taste mainly comes from this!
Granulated white sugar – We’ll want just a bit of sweetness to balance out the rich saltiness of the sauce.
Soy sauce – Makes our dish saltier and tastier.
Salt – Sprinkle in some salt for meat that is truly savory!
Water – We will definitely need this to boil the pig’s face.

What to Serve with Dinakdakan

You can actually have this as your viand, and so a great side dish would be rice to make this a full meal. Now should you be wanting more spicy dishes with your Dinakdakan, my first suggestion would be to go for some creamy Bicol Express. And we can keep.that satisfying heat going with some Spicy Chicken Adobo! The stew works great alongside your Dinakdakan. And for something rich and flavorful, Lechon Paksiw would be another great dish to add to the mix.

What about you? What’s your favorite spicy Pinoy dish? Comment your answers below!

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Pork Dinakdakan Recipe

This is a recipe for Pork Dinakdakan.

Course Pork

Cuisine Filipino

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 1

Total Time 1 10

Servings people

Calories 1044kcal

Author Vanjo Merano

Ingredients

2 lbs. maskara pig’s face, cleaned
1/4 lb chicken liver
1 piece onion onion, sliced
4 pieces Thai chili chopped
2 pieces Jalapeno pepper sliced crosswise
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 thumb ginger minced
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/2 teaspoon granulated white sugar
3 tablespoons soy sauce
Salt to taste
6 cups water

US Customary – Metric

Instructions

Bring water to a boil in a large pot.
Add the maskara. Cover the pot and continue to boil until it gets tender.
Remove the maskara from the pot and discard the water.
Coat the maskara with soy souce by pouring it over and rub. Let it stay for 5 minutes.
Heat-up the grill. Start to grill the maskara for 3 to 5 minutes per side. At the same time, arrange a greased aluminum foil over the grill and put the chicken liver on it. Grill each side for 5 minutes.
Remove the maskara and chicken liver from the grill. Let it cool down. Chop and then Set aside.
On a large mixing bowl, combine vinegar, mayonnaise, sugar, ground black pepper, and salt. Mix well.
Add the onion, Thai chili, Jalapeno pepper, ginger, maskara, and chicken liver. Toss until all the ingredients are well blended.
Tranfer to a serving bowl. This can be served immediately or kept in the fridge to be served chilled later on.

Notes

Spice level – I won’t beat around the bush– this is quite the spicy dish! It definitely isn’t for the weak-hearted. However, you can simply reduce the amount of Thai chilis and Jalapeños if you want something a bit milder.

Sweetness level – There’s some sweetness in Dinakdakan that definitely makes it more appealing. But it is not a flavor that stands out too much compared to the spiciness!

Maskara – I can understand if it may be a bit hard to find maskara. And so for alternatives, you can actually try most other parts of the pig! Pork belly works as a great substitute. Even chicken would be a good alternative.

Nutrition