Chifrijo
Chifrijo
Chifrijo is a popular Costa Rican bar snack consisting roasted and fried pork belly over black beans and rice. It’s topped with pico de gallo, diced avocado, and salsa Lizano. Even better, it is scooped up with tortilla chips. This recipe has a lot of steps; all which are fairly easy. When preparing for a recipe that has multiple things going on at once like Chifrijo, the best thing you can do is first gather all of the ingredients for each thing you are making. This will cut down time running back and forth looking for things. Know how long it will take to make what you’re cooking. In the chifrijo’s case, the pork belly takes the longest: 100 minutes for roasting and 5 minutes for frying. While the belly is roasting, you can prepare the beans, rice, and pico de gallo. Lastly, but also firstly: pack a bowl and relax.
Servings: 4
Ingredients
Pork Belly
- 2 lbs pork belly
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- cracked black pepper
- vegetable oil for frying
Pico de Gallo
- 2 medium tomatoes diced
- 1/4 large white onion diced
- 5 garlic cloves minced
- 1 jalapeño diced
- 1/4 cup cilantro chopped
- 1 lime juiced
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 tsp salt
Costa Rican Black Beans
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 stalk celery finely diced
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 2 tbsp Salsa Lizano
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 14 oz canned black beans with it’s juices
The Rest
- 2 cups white rice steamed
- 1 avocado diced
- tortilla chips
- Salsa Lizano
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 500 degrees. Season the pork belly with soy sauce and cracked black pepper. Place the pork belly on a rack on a baking sheet lined in foil. Poor some water in the bottom of the pan.
- Roast the pork belly for 10 minutes. Turn the heat down to 325 degrees. Roast for 90 minutes. Let cool completely.
- Chop into bite size pieces.
- Heat up 1/4” deep of vegetable oil in a large sauté pan over medium high heat. Fry the pork belly until it is browned, about 4-5 minutes.
- Drain on paper towel.
- While the pork belly is roasting, combine all of the pico de gallo ingredients in a bowl. Refrigerate until ready for use.
- Also, while the pork belly is roasting, heat up olive oil in a pot over medium heat. Sauté the the celery and garlic for 5 minutes.
- Add in the cumin, salsa Lizano, and black beans.
- Cover and simmer over medium low heat for 20 minutes.
Assembly
- Place a scoop of rice in the center of a bowl. Scoop a ladle of beans over the rice. Place a scoop of the fried pork belly in the center. Distribute a scoop of pico de gallo over the pork belly. Add some diced avocado. Drizzle some more salsa Lizano. Serve with tortilla chips.
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