Chicharrones
Encyclopedia
Chicharrón is a dish made of fried pork rind
s. It is sometimes made from chicken, mutton, or beef.
Chicharrón is popular in Andalucia, Spain
, and in Latin America
and other countries with Spanish influence, it is part of the traditional cuisines of Argentina, Bolivia
, Brazil
(where it is called torresmo), Colombia
, Cuba
, Dominican Republic
, Guatemala
, Honduras
, El Salvador
, Mexico
, Nicaragua
, Panama
, Peru
, the Philippines
, Puerto Rico
, Venezuela
, and others. The singular form, chicharrón, is also used as a mass noun
, especially in Filipino
, where words do not have a pluralized form. They are usually made with different cuts of pork
, but sometimes made with mutton, or with beef in Argentina
. In Costa Rica
, they are usually made from pork ribs or similar cuts; rinds are rarely used.
The pork rind
type is the skin of the pork
after it has been seasoned and deep fried. In Mexico, they are eaten in a taco
or gordita
with salsa verde. In Latin America, they are eaten alone as a snack, with cachapa
s, as a stuffing in arepa
s or Salvadoran pupusa
s, or as the meat portion of various stews and soups.
Bolivia - chicharrón is made out of pork ribs seasoned with garlic, oregano and lemon. It is boiled then cooked in its own fat, adding beer or chicha
to the pot for more flavor. Pork chicharrón is normally served only on Sundays and is eaten with llajwa
, a tomato salsa, and mote, a type of corn. There are other variations of chicharrón made with chicken and fish.
Chile - chicharrones are made out from meat fat, and are typically served with home-made bread.
Dominican Republic - chicharrones, especially chicken chicharrón (also known as pica-pollo), are usually eaten with tostones. The way to prepare it is by washing and drying chicken and cutting it into small pieces, which are seasoned with a mix of lemon juice, soy sauce and salt. The batter is made from flour, pepper, paprika and salt in plastic bag, in which the seasoned meat is then placed and shaken. Pieces are deep-fried (without removing excess flour) until crisp and golden.
Mexico - snack-food company Barcel
has commercialized a vegetarian version with chile and lime
flavorings since the 1980s. Chicharrón de Puerco and chicharrón de cerdo are distributed by many salty snack companies in Mexico.
Peru - chicharrones can be eaten as an appetizer or snack, and the chicken variant can taste like fried chicken found in the United States. Sides include a kind of red onion
relish
, fried yuca
, and other regional variants. Chicharrones can also be prepared with fish rather than pork.
Philippines - tsitsaron (a derivative of the Spanish
word chicharrón), as it is spelled in Filipino
. This dish is usually bought from balut vendors as pulutan. It is prepared by deep-frying the dried pork rind with a little salt. It is sometimes eaten with vinegar, chopped chilis in vinegar or with bagoong
, lechón
liver sauce, or pickled papaya called atsara. Tsitsarong manok, which is made from chicken skin, and tsitsarong bulaklak, which is deep-fried pig intestines (literally 'flower chicharrón', from its distinctive shape), are also popular.
Puerto Rico - chicharrones are also made with chicken. There are two well known preparations to making chicken chicharrón in Puerto Rico. One way is to marinade the chicken in dark rum
, lemon
juice or zest, salt, and cracked fresh garlic over night. When ready to fry the chicken is pat dry and tossed in flour that has been seasoned with adobo seco
and paprika
. The second way to prepare chicken chicharrón is to dip the chicken in an egg and Tabasco mix then in to seasoned flour with adobo seco, paprika, and maybe cayenne pepper
. Pork chicharrón is usually mashed and stuffed into mofongo
.
United States - Chicharrón are usually made from pig skin. They are usually sold in plastic bags as a snack food item and generically referred to as "pork rind
s." They are made in a two-step process: the pork skin is first rendered and dried, and then fried and puffed. In New Mexico
, the term is often taken to mean just fried pork fat, sometimes with incidental bits of lean meat.
Venezuela - In central Venezuela, chicharrones are commonly sold alongside main highways as snacks. The recipe usually produces crispy sizeable portions of pork skin with the underlying meat.
The cueritos type are also made with pork skin and marinated in vinegar instead of deep fried. They are eaten as a snack.
Pork rind
Pork rind , is the fried or roasted skin of a pig. Frying melts most of the fat from the pork rind...
s. It is sometimes made from chicken, mutton, or beef.
Chicharrón is popular in Andalucia, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, and in Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
and other countries with Spanish influence, it is part of the traditional cuisines of Argentina, Bolivia
Bolivia
Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...
, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
(where it is called torresmo), Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
, Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
, Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
, Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
, Honduras
Honduras
Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...
, El Salvador
El Salvador
El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
, Panama
Panama
Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
, Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
, the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
, Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
, and others. The singular form, chicharrón, is also used as a mass noun
Mass noun
In linguistics, a mass noun is a noun that refers to some entity as an undifferentiated unit rather than as something with discrete subsets. Non-count nouns are best identified by their syntactic properties, and especially in contrast with count nouns. The semantics of mass nouns are highly...
, especially in Filipino
Filipino language
This move has drawn much criticism from other regional groups.In 1987, a new constitution introduced many provisions for the language.Article XIV, Section 6, omits any mention of Tagalog as the basis for Filipino, and states that:...
, where words do not have a pluralized form. They are usually made with different cuts of pork
Pork
Pork is the culinary name for meat from the domestic pig , which is eaten in many countries. It is one of the most commonly consumed meats worldwide, with evidence of pig husbandry dating back to 5000 BC....
, but sometimes made with mutton, or with beef in Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
. In Costa Rica
Costa Rica
Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....
, they are usually made from pork ribs or similar cuts; rinds are rarely used.
The pork rind
Pork rind
Pork rind , is the fried or roasted skin of a pig. Frying melts most of the fat from the pork rind...
type is the skin of the pork
Pork
Pork is the culinary name for meat from the domestic pig , which is eaten in many countries. It is one of the most commonly consumed meats worldwide, with evidence of pig husbandry dating back to 5000 BC....
after it has been seasoned and deep fried. In Mexico, they are eaten in a taco
Taco
A taco is a traditional Mexican dish composed of a corn or wheat tortilla folded or rolled around a filling. A taco can be made with a variety of fillings, including beef, chicken, seafood, vegetables and cheese, allowing for great versatility and variety...
or gordita
Gordita
A gordita in Mexican cuisine is a corn cake made with masa harina and stuffed with cheese, meat or other fillings. It is similar to a pasty and to the Colombian/Venezuelan arepa. Gordita means "little fat one" in Spanish. A gordita is typically fried in a deep wok-shaped comal or baked on a...
with salsa verde. In Latin America, they are eaten alone as a snack, with cachapa
Cachapa
Cachapas are a traditional Venezuelan dish made from corn. Like arepas, they are popular at roadside stands. They can be made like pancakes of fresh corn dough, or wrapped in dry corn leaves and boiled...
s, as a stuffing in arepa
Arepa
An arepa is a dish made of ground corn dough or cooked flour, popular in Colombia, Venezuela and other Spanish-speaking countries. It is similar in shape to the Salvadoran pupusa...
s or Salvadoran pupusa
Pupusa
A pupusa is a traditional Salvadoran dish made of thick, hand-made corn tortilla that is usually filled with a blend of the following: cheese , cooked pork meat ground to a paste consistency...
s, or as the meat portion of various stews and soups.
Bolivia - chicharrón is made out of pork ribs seasoned with garlic, oregano and lemon. It is boiled then cooked in its own fat, adding beer or chichaChicha
For the musical genre, see Peruvian cumbiaChicha is a term used in some regions of Latin America for several varieties of fermented and non-fermented beverages, rather often to those derived from maize and similar non-alcoholic beverages...
to the pot for more flavor. Pork chicharrón is normally served only on Sundays and is eaten with llajwa
Llajwa
Llajua or llajwa is a hot sauce prepared from hot chili peppers called locotos and tomato. Sometimes onions are added, and one of two seasoning herbs cultivated especially for this purpose: kilkiña in Cochabamba and wakataya in the Altiplano and other valleys of Bolivia...
, a tomato salsa, and mote, a type of corn. There are other variations of chicharrón made with chicken and fish.
Chile - chicharrones are made out from meat fat, and are typically served with home-made bread. Dominican Republic - chicharrones, especially chicken chicharrón (also known as pica-pollo), are usually eaten with tostones. The way to prepare it is by washing and drying chicken and cutting it into small pieces, which are seasoned with a mix of lemon juice, soy sauce and salt. The batter is made from flour, pepper, paprika and salt in plastic bag, in which the seasoned meat is then placed and shaken. Pieces are deep-fried (without removing excess flour) until crisp and golden. Mexico - snack-food company BarcelBarcel
Barcel is a maker of tortilla, potato chips and other confectionery and snack foods. It is a unit of Grupo Bimbo created in 1950. A different company with the same name, but operating in Chile, was acquired by PepsiCo in 1998.-External links: * *...
has commercialized a vegetarian version with chile and lime
Lime (fruit)
Lime is a term referring to a number of different citrus fruits, both species and hybrids, which are typically round, green to yellow in color, 3–6 cm in diameter, and containing sour and acidic pulp. Limes are a good source of vitamin C. Limes are often used to accent the flavors of foods and...
flavorings since the 1980s. Chicharrón de Puerco and chicharrón de cerdo are distributed by many salty snack companies in Mexico.
Peru - chicharrones can be eaten as an appetizer or snack, and the chicken variant can taste like fried chicken found in the United States. Sides include a kind of red onionRed onion
Red onions, sometimes called purple onions, are cultivars of the onion with purplish red skin and white flesh tinged with red.These onions tend to be medium to large in size and have a mild to sweet flavor. They are often consumed raw, grilled or lightly cooked with other foods, or added as color...
relish
Relish
A relish is a cooked, pickled, or chopped vegetable or fruit food item which is typically used as a condiment.In North America, relish commonly alludes to sweet pickle relish-like sauce that often condiments hot dogs, hamburgers and other types of fast food.-Description and ingredients:The item...
, fried yuca
Cassava
Cassava , also called yuca or manioc, a woody shrub of the Euphorbiaceae native to South America, is extensively cultivated as an annual crop in tropical and subtropical regions for its edible starchy tuberous root, a major source of carbohydrates...
, and other regional variants. Chicharrones can also be prepared with fish rather than pork.
Philippines - tsitsaron (a derivative of the SpanishSpanish in the Philippines
Spanish was imposed as an official language of the Philippines from the beginning of Spanish rule since the times of Miguel López de Legazpi in the late 16th century, through American rule and independence, until the change of Constitution in 1973...
word chicharrón), as it is spelled in Filipino
Filipino language
This move has drawn much criticism from other regional groups.In 1987, a new constitution introduced many provisions for the language.Article XIV, Section 6, omits any mention of Tagalog as the basis for Filipino, and states that:...
. This dish is usually bought from balut vendors as pulutan. It is prepared by deep-frying the dried pork rind with a little salt. It is sometimes eaten with vinegar, chopped chilis in vinegar or with bagoong
Bagoong
Bagoong is a Philippine condiment made of partially or completely fermented fish or shrimps and salt. The fermentation process also results in fish sauce .The preparation of bagoong can vary regionally in the Philippines....
, lechón
Lechon
Lechón is a pork dish in several regions of the world, most specifically Spain and its former colonial possessions throughout the world. The word lechón originated from the Spanish term leche ; thus lechón refers to a suckling pig that is roasted...
liver sauce, or pickled papaya called atsara. Tsitsarong manok, which is made from chicken skin, and tsitsarong bulaklak, which is deep-fried pig intestines (literally 'flower chicharrón', from its distinctive shape), are also popular.
Puerto Rico - chicharrones are also made with chicken. There are two well known preparations to making chicken chicharrón in Puerto Rico. One way is to marinade the chicken in dark rumRum
Rum is a distilled alcoholic beverage made from sugarcane by-products such as molasses, or directly from sugarcane juice, by a process of fermentation and distillation. The distillate, a clear liquid, is then usually aged in oak barrels...
, lemon
Lemon
The lemon is both a small evergreen tree native to Asia, and the tree's ellipsoidal yellow fruit. The fruit is used for culinary and non-culinary purposes throughout the world – primarily for its juice, though the pulp and rind are also used, mainly in cooking and baking...
juice or zest, salt, and cracked fresh garlic over night. When ready to fry the chicken is pat dry and tossed in flour that has been seasoned with adobo seco
Adobo
Adobo is the immersion of raw food into a preparation, in the form of a stock , of different components, including paprika , oregano, salt, garlic, and vinegar — mixed according to the place of origin and the food with which it is intended to be used—primarily to preserve and enhance the flavor of...
and paprika
Paprika
Paprika is a spice made from the grinding of dried fruits of Capsicum annuum . In many European languages, the word paprika refers to bell peppers themselves. The seasoning is used in many cuisines to add color and flavor to dishes. Paprika can range from mild to hot...
. The second way to prepare chicken chicharrón is to dip the chicken in an egg and Tabasco mix then in to seasoned flour with adobo seco, paprika, and maybe cayenne pepper
Cayenne pepper
The cayenne pepper—also known as the Guinea spice,cow-horn pepper, aleva, bird pepper,or, especially in its powdered form, red pepper—is a red, hot chili pepper used to flavor dishes and for medicinal purposes. Named for the city of Cayenne in French Guiana, it is a cultivar of Capsicum annuum...
. Pork chicharrón is usually mashed and stuffed into mofongo
Mofongo
Mofongo is a fried plantain-based dish from Puerto Rico. There are also similar dishes, made by boiling and mashing plantains, known as fufu de plátano in Cuban cuisine and Mangú in the Dominican Republic.-Description:...
.
United States - Chicharrón are usually made from pig skin. They are usually sold in plastic bags as a snack food item and generically referred to as "pork rindPork rind
Pork rind , is the fried or roasted skin of a pig. Frying melts most of the fat from the pork rind...
s." They are made in a two-step process: the pork skin is first rendered and dried, and then fried and puffed. In New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
, the term is often taken to mean just fried pork fat, sometimes with incidental bits of lean meat.
Venezuela - In central Venezuela, chicharrones are commonly sold alongside main highways as snacks. The recipe usually produces crispy sizeable portions of pork skin with the underlying meat.The cueritos type are also made with pork skin and marinated in vinegar instead of deep fried. They are eaten as a snack.
See also
- Pork rindPork rindPork rind , is the fried or roasted skin of a pig. Frying melts most of the fat from the pork rind...
- DurosDuros (food)Duros are a popular Mexican snack food made of puffed wheat, often flavored with chilli and lime....
- Latin American cuisineLatin American cuisineLatin American Cuisine refers to typical foods, beverages, and cooking styles common to many of the countries and cultures in Latin America...
- Philippine cuisine