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How to Cook Pork Pata Hamonado

Pata Hamonado is a rich and savory Filipino dish featuring tender pork leg braised in a sweet and tangy sauce made with pineapple juice, soy sauce, and spices.
Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time1 hour 30 minutes
Course: Pork Recipe
Cuisine: Filipino
Keyword: pata hamonado, pork hocks hamonado, pork pata hamonado
Servings: 4 servings
Calories: 364kcal
Author: Manny

Ingredients

  • 1 whole Pork hock or pork pata
  • salt to taste (for rubbing the pork pata)
  • 4 cloves minced garlic
  • 1/4 cup minced onion
  • 3-4 pcs star anise
  • 3 pcs bay leaves or laurel leaves
  • 1 tsp whole black pepper or black peppercorns
  • 1 pc cinnamon stick (optional)
  • 2 Tbsp. cooking oil for sautéing
  • 2 cups pineapple juice
  • 4 cups water (or just enough to cover the pata)
  • 3 tbsp vinegar
  • 1/4 cup soy sauce
  • 1/4 cup tomato sauce
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • salt to taste
  • 1 cup pineapple chunks
  • 1/2 pc sliced red bell peppers
  • 1 Tbsp. cornstarch + 2 Tbsp. water slurry to thicken

Instructions

How to Cook Pata Hamonado

  • Remove hairs and nails of the whole pork pata. Wash and drain and let it dry. Rub with salt and let it stand for a few hours.
  • In a large pot, heat cooking oil and sauté onion, garlic, laurel leaves, star anise, black peppercorns and cinnamon sticks (optional).
  • Add the pork pata in the pot and sear the skin until slightly brown. Add pineapple juice, water, vinegar, soy sauce, tomato sauce and brown sugar.
  • Bring to a boil and simmer for an hour or until almost tender. Then add pineapples, bell pepper and cornstarch slurry.
  • Then simmer again until the pork is tender while basting the pata skin with the sauce.
  • When cooked, transfer to a serving dish and garnish with the pineapples and bell peppers on top while pouring the sauce on the pata. Serve hot.

Notes

Cooking Tips or Pork Pata Hamonado:

Fry the Pork for Deeper Flavours

What makes it special is that searing the pata before simmering helps lock in the flavor and beautifully brings a golden crust to the pork. The procedure enhances the general taste brought about by creating a deeper, richer flavor of the dish. So do not skip this part, because that is also what gives your Hamonado that additional layer of deliciousness.

Simmer Low and Slow for Tender Meat

And, the technique for fall-off-the-bone tenderness is to cook it at low heat for a very long time. That way, the meat would have taken on all the sweet and savory flavors of the sauce, yet remain juicy. Patience is the word-you'll ruin it by cooking it too fast to have tough, undercooked pork.

Thicken the Sauce Just right

To make a sauce even thicker and more luscious, it can be made from a slurry made of cornstarch in water. Add this towards the end of cooking and continuously stir out lumps. This helps your sauce adhere well to the pork with good texture.