How to Cook Pinikpikan

When you hear the word, Igorot, you will always associate it to the pinikpikan food.  This is perhaps the most delicious food that the Igorots could offer to other people of different race.  Most people who have tried this love the taste and aroma of the food.  It has a smoky taste that makes it different from other chicken dishes because of the way it is prepared.

Here’s how to do pinikpikan:

Ingredients:

Live chicken

salted pork (optional)

salt to taste

NOTE:

You will be surprised that there are no other ingredients.  This is because cooking the Igorot way does not need all the food enhancers and additives that are common in commercial cooking.  We love healthy cooking so we are against food enhancers and food additives.  This is the reason why our forefathers had lived very long lives.

Procedure.

Hold the legs of the chicken firmly including the neck to avoid the chicken from moving and creating noise.  Slowly beat the chicken wings lightly with a piece of stick.  This will take a few minutes until the chicken dies.  The purpose of this beating is to allow for blood coagulation in the wings.  This provides for the different taste of the chicken.  This is why it is called pinikpikan because the chicken is beaten. 

Remove the big feathers before burning the chicken on fire.  This method of burning the feathers will give the smoky taste of the chicken.  This is what makes the pinikpikan different from other chicken menus.  Make sure that the feathers are well burned but not the skin.  When the feathers are burned, clean the burned feathers well then singed the skin until it is light brown to give the smoky aroma to the dish.  Wash the chicken very well to remove the burned skin so as not to make the dish bitter in taste.  Then cut the chicken to serving pieces and set aside.

Prepare a boiling pot of water with a little salt.  If you are adding salted pork then you have to control the salt you add.  Remember also that pork is harder to cook so you have to pre-cook the pork before adding the chicken meat.

Simmer then put off fire and serve hot.

Igorot dishes are that simple to cook.  They don’t need so many additives because just like a simple life, Igorots also have simple dishes.