If you’re wondering what “Filipino asado sauce” is, it’s a sweet-salty sauce made with soy sauce, sugar and spices. It mimics the soaking liquid of Chinese roast pork tenderloin but it is prepared and served differently.

Beef tongueis more well-known but because of the high price that it commands, beef tongue dishes are often considered “for special occasions” only.

But did you know that pork tongue is also delicious but costs much less? It’s true. But because they are much smaller, there’s more preparation involved.

The basic steps are the same — remove the slimy film that often coats the skin, trim off everything that isn’t edible, boil and remove the skin. Unlike beef tongue, however, the skin of the pig’s tongue cannot be peeled off. Rather, it has to be scraped off. The details are outlined in the recipe.

Pork tongue with asado sauce

We love offal (organ meats) at home and tongue is among our favorites. While it is quite alright to simmer the tongues on the stovetop using a regular pot, the convenience of tenderizing the meat in the slow cooker dispenses with the need to check if the cooking liquid has dried out before the tongues are fully cooked.

Filipino pork tongue asado in bowl with vegetables over rice

Prep: 15

Cook: 6 10

Cooling time 2

Total: 6 27

Servings: 4 people

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Filipino

Label: Offal (Organ Meats), Pork Tongue

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Connie’s notes

This is an updated version of the pork tongue asado recipe originally published on April 28, 2003.

Equipment

Slow cooker

Ingredients

4 pork tongues
1 cup strong vinegar
rock salt
1 onion peeled and thinly sliced
2 cups bone broth
½ cup soy sauce more or less, depending on the saltiness of your brand of soy sauce or whether you’re using light or dark soy sauce
2 star anise
2 bay leaves
12 peppercorns
¼ cup sugar
6 cloves garlic
2 to 3 tablespoons tapioca starch or corn or potato starch

Instructions

Clean the pork tongues

Place the pork tongues in a bowl, pour in the vinegar and rinse the tongues in it. Rub the vinegar on the skin several times and drain. Rinse under the tap several times.
Take a handful of rock salt and rub all over the tongues. Rinse. Repeat until the skin no longer feels slimy.

Cook the pork tongues

Spread the onion slices on the bottom of the slow cooker.
Arrange the tongues on top of the onion slices.
Add the rest of the ingredients except the starch.
Set the slow cooker to LOW and cook the pork tongues for six hours.
Scoop out the tongues and cool.
With a blunt knife, scrape the skins off the tongues and discard.
Slice the pork tongues. Thickly or thinly, it’s up to you.

Make the asado sauce

Strain the cooking liquid into a pan. Reserve half a cup. Boil the rest until reduced by half.
Disperse the starch in the reserved cooking liquid.
Pour half of the starch solution into the boiling liquid and stir until no longer cloudy. If the sauce is still too thin, add the rest of the starch. Lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
Taste the sauce and adjust the seasonings.