PINAUPONG MANOK

Pinaupong manok is a chicken dish dry cooked in a palayok (earthenware pot) set on a sitting position placed on a bed of rock salt lined with banana leaf.  This process makes the pot acts like and oven and cooks the chicken using its own juices, the salt in the bottom prevents the chicken from burning while the banana leaf gives it a different aroma.
This was the most common way of baking chicken in the Philippines during the early days when gas ovens was not yet invented.  A really simple way of preparing chicken as traditional recipes only calls for chicken, salt, lemon grass and lots of patience as cooking this dish would take at least an hour per kilo of chicken.
For this post I will be making some slight revisions to the traditional recipe hence I will be adding onions, spring onions, ginger, garlic and pepper to give it more flavour.

My friend has heard of pinaupong manok (sitting chicken) several times but never had a chance to try it. He thought it was something complicated to prepare and, hence, only for special occasions. I thought that was really funny. I have been making pinaupong manok since high school. I told him it was the easiest thing to make.
Pinaupong manok is so named because the chicken is made to sit on a bed of rock salt. No liquid is added; the chicken cooks in the combined steam generated from the water content of the salt as well as its own. It absorbs all the natural flavor of the rock salt. Traditionally, the dish is served with a dunking sauce made with toyo (soy sauce) and kalamansi (native lemon) juice.

The traditional way of cooking pinaupong manok is to cook it in a palayok, the native earthenware pot. But, there’s nothing wrong with using any large, thick stainless steel casserole. When I was first taught to cook this dish, I was told that it was very important that no part of the chicken should touch the metal. Hence, a large and deep casserole. Cooking time is one hour for every kilo of chicken.
I used a pressure cooker. Cooking time was 20 minutes counting from the time the valve started to whistle.

 Ingredients:

3 tbsp melted butter
3 tbsp lemon juice
3 tbsp chicken drippings (you get this when you rest the chicken, don’t use the one from the bottom of the pot)
1 tsp ginger paste
3 cloves garlic, minced
salt

Procedure

1. Generously rub chicken with salt, garlic and freshly ground black pepper inside the cavity and outside.
2. Stuff the cavity with onions, lemon grass, garlic and ginger.
3. Place 3 cups of rock salt in the bottom of an earthenware pot then line the top with banana leaves.  Place chicken in a sitting position then place in an open flame over stove or fire burner, make sure the rest of the chicken would not touch the sides of the pot.  Cook for 2 to 2 1/2 two hours or until chicken is tender.
4. Once cooked, place chicken in a wire rack to cool, let the juices run in a container.
5. Place all sauce ingredients together in a sauce pan and simmer in low heat for 5 minutes.
6. Place chicken in a serving plate then serve with dipping sauce.
7. Enjoy PINOY DELICACY FOOD!