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Feasting: Chef Miguel Trinidad Shares His Favorite Filipino Dishes for Super Bowl

Ribs
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Feasting is our column dedicated to cooking, grilling, eating and discovering what’s on the menu across America and the world.

We love a traditional Super Bowl dish as much as the next person. Give us nachos, wings and buffalo chicken dip on Sunday, and you won’t hear us complaining. But there’s something to be said for switching things up, especially in this milestone year as the big game celebrates its 50th birthday. So we asked Chef Miguel Trinidad of NYC’s Filipino spots Maharlika and Jeepney for a little help shaking things up.

Maharlika opened its doors as a pop-up back in the winter of 2011, and it’s become a neighborhood restaurant with some of the most authentic Filipino cuisine you’re going to find in NYC, featuring classic dishes like Pampangan-style sizzling sisig and Oxtail Kare Kare. Jeepney is just across the neighborhood and serves delicious Filipino dishes with their own personal twists like banana ketchup ribs and mussels in one of the tastiest, most savory broths we’ve ever had. Chef Miguel heads up both kitchens, so we enlisted his expertise on how to make our Super Bowl Sunday extra special. Check out his three amazing recipes below and impress your guests (and yourself) this weekend.

Ribs

Banana BBQ Baby Back Ribs

Ingredients
Baby back ribs (as much as you want)
Rib rub, not redrum (recipe below)
Banana BBQ sauce (recipe below)
Aluminum foil

Rib Rub
1 qt garlic powder
1 qt onion powder
1 qt sugar
1 qt ginger
3 cups smoked paprika
1 qt salt
2 cups black pepper

Combine all spices and mix well.

BBQ Sauce (Maharlika)

Prep: 5 min

Suggested Hardware:
2 Bowls
Spatula
Whisk
Scale
Measuring Cups

Ingredients:
114 oz Banana Ketchup or Regular Ketchup (Heinz preferably)
5 c Silver swan Soy
5 c Sugar
1 c Minced Garlic
1.5 c White wine

Procedure:

Combine all ingredients and mix thoroughly.

Special Notes:
Can use for marinade as well as sauce
Marinate for 24 hours
Marinates 40 lbs of chicken thighs boneless and skinless

For the ribs

Rub the rub onto the ribs. Place on aluminum foil and brush BBQ sauce over the ribs. Fold the aluminum foil into an envelope making sure all edges are sealed tight. Bake at 350 for 2.5 hours (oven may vary) or until a single rib can be pulled out of the meat. Brush more BBQ sauce on the ribs and place under the broiler for 2 minutes. Eat.

Chicharron

Chicharon de Pollo

Ingredients

2 1/2 pounds boneless chicken strips (breasts, thighs or mixed)

Marinade:
1 cup lime juice
4 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
4 cloves garlic (minced)

Seasoned Flour Coating:
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons Spanish paprika
1 1/2 teaspoons black pepper (or to taste)
1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
Vegetable oil for frying

Preparation

Combine marinade ingredients in a large plastic bowl or zipper bag. Add chicken and marinate for 30 minutes or up to 3 hours. Combine flour, Spanish paprika, pepper and salt in a separate plastic bowl or zipper bag. Coat the marinated chicken with the seasoned flour mixture.

Place vegetable oil for frying in a deep frying pan, or use a deep fryer. Heat the oil over medium-high heat to 360 degrees Fahrenheit. Fry chicken in batches until golden brown outside and completely cooked inside.

Related: Feasting: Killer Super Bowl Recipes

Humba Baos

Ingredients

10 lbs whole pork belly
20 garlic cloves
2 tsp ground black pepper
1 1/4 cup soy sauce
2 1/4 cup vinegar
4 1/2 tbsp salted black beans
4 1/2 tbsp red soybean paste
2 1/4 cup brown sugar
5 bay leaves
5 star anise
1 1/2 cup raw peanuts with skin + more for topping
Baos (can be found in the freezer section of Asian markets)
Cilantro

Preparation

Boil meat for 15 minutes then set aside to cool. Trim meat and score crisscross. Combine anise, black pepper, brown sugar, soy sauce, vinegar, bean paste, black beans and peanut and stir well. Place in marinade and store for 24 hours.

Next day, place pork belly and marinade in a large pot and cover with pork stock. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to a simmer. Cook for 2.5 hours or until fork tender. Remove meat from sauce, place it between two sheet pans and with a weight on top. Cook the sauce until it’s reduced by half. Once the meat has cooled, cut it into slices and bring up to heat in a skillet to get it crispy.

Steam baos according to package directions (if you can’t find bao buns, heroes work just as well). Place pork belly in the bao and top with cilantro, crushed peanuts and sauce.

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Amanda Gabriele
Amanda Gabriele is a food and travel writer at The Manual and the former senior editor at Supercall. She can’t live without…
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