#3 Chicken embutido recipe

Despite its name and shape, Filipino embutido is more American meatloaf than Spanish sausage.

Embutido, a steamed-and-fried ground pork dish popularly served on special occasions (yes, especially during Christmas!), was traditionally wrapped in sinsal (caul fat). But the rarity of fresh caul fat (and the work it entails to clean it) has led to the simplification of embutido.

Over the decades, it took on a new form. It has retained its shape but the cooking procedure and the final texture of the dish has changed. Because the meatloaf is no longer covered with caul fat, frying after steaming to brown the caul fat until it turns lightly crisp is done away with. The meatloaf is simply steamed, cooled, sliced and served.

Some cooks stuff their embutido with hardboiled eggs, sausages, carrot, pickles… I don’t. That’s something I do with morcon but not with embutido.

In this recipe, ground chicken is used in place of ground pork. I suggest you use skin-on thigh meat.

Chicken embutido

Prep time: 15 minutes | Cook time: 30 minutes | Yield: 2 chicken embutido

Ingredients

• 200 to 300 grams ground chicken

• 2 slices day old bread

• 3 tablespoons milk

• 1 small carrot - peeled and chopped

• 2 small - (or 1 big) green bell pepper, cored, seeds removed and chopped

• 1 small onion - peeled and finely chopped

• 2 tablespoons sweet pickle relish - drained well

• 4 eggs - beaten

• salt

• pepper

Instructions

1. Tear the bread into small pieces, place in a bowl and pour in the milk. Mix and soak for about 10 minutes. Squeeze out the excess milk.

2. Mix the bread with the rest of the ingredients. Season with about a teaspoonful and a half of salt and half a teaspoonful of pepper.

3. (You may optionally spray or brush the inside of the tin cans with a little oil. The oil will make it easier to remove the chicken meatloaf after it has cooled.)

4. Stand the prepared tin cans on a baking tray. Stuff them with the meatloaf mixture, pressing down with a spoon to make sure the mixture is compact. Cover the top of the cans with pieces of aluminum foil. Bake in a 180C oven for 30 minutes. Cool before removing from the cans.

5. To remove, run a long thin knife around the cans and lightly push one end of the meatloaf with the back of a spoon.

6. You can steam your meatloaf instead of baking them but you may need to cover BOTH ends of the cans with aluminum foil.