Samgyupsal (aka Korean Pork Belly) is now a staple in the Filipino’s list of cravings. After all, who doesn’t love barbecued seasoned meat wrapped in crunchy lettuce that you dip in sauce? Plus, “samgyup” is a bonding habit.
You’ve probably been on the receiving end of a “Tara, samgyup tayo!” invite more than once before. You’ve also played Samgyup Bingo before, aka you’ve eaten at Premier Samgyupsal, Romantic Baboy and the likes.
Due to the pandemic, however, samgyup hangouts with friends and family are on an indefinite pause.
Since samgyupsal involves sharing a lot of utensils and cooking food for others, it increases your risk of infecting others or contracting COVID-19. During the early days of the ECQ, our fave samgyup places were shut down. When they started opening up, not everyone immediately resumed their samgyup habit to stay safe.
But the cravings are still there!
So what do you do if you want to enjoy samgyupsal and stay safe while you’re at it? Learn how to cook sampgyupsal at home, of course!
How to Marinate Pork for Samgyupsal
The first order of business is the samgyupsal marinade. When you marinate the meat, you have two steps to follow.
- In a dish or a bowl, generously cover your sliced-think pork belly in your samgyupsal sauce. Typical samgyupsal marinade uses lemon and oyster sauce plus salt and pepper to taste.
- Allow it to marinate for at least an hour or two. If you want maximum flavor absorption, marinate it overnight.
Note about the marinade: The great thing about the marinade is its potent flavor matched with savory sweetness. You can also use the marinade as a dipping samgyupsal sauce for the cooked meat.
How to Cook Samgyupsal
After marinating your pork belly, you can move on to the fun part — grilling!
An indoor grill is a more convenient option since you can put it on the dining table and eat while you grill. An outdoor grill can also grill your meat. If you don’t have any grills at home, it’s OK. An ordinary pan can still cook your samgyupsal.
So here’s how to cook your samgyupsal:
- Heat your grill and place the marinated pork belly strips on the heated surface.
- Depending on how thin your pork belly strips are, it takes up to three minutes to cook them (using an indoor grill). You’ll know the meat is cooked once it’s golden brown.
Serve and Enjoy!
The last step of your DIY samgyupsal recipe is the best part: serve and enjoy the grilled pork belly. Samgyupsal is best served with dipping sauce and lettuce. The typical sauce for samgyupsal is Ssamjang. You can buy them in your local grocery or make one from scratch.
Should you want to mix your own sauce, you’ll need the following:
- 1 tsp. Gochujang (hot pepper paste)
- 1/8 cup Doenjang (fermented soybean paste)
- 2 tsp. of sesame oil
- 1 tsp. of sugar or honey
- Minced garlic (1 clove)
- 1/8 cup of minced onion
You can also serve some melted cheese to add cheesy goodness to your samgyupsal!
It may take a while before everyone can enjoy samgyupsal outside, squished together in a small booth and feeding one another with pork belly. But you can still do the recipe at home.
Enjoy DIY samgyupsal!