Lechona is a Colombian dish made from a whole pig stuffed with rice, onions, peas, and pork fat. It is cooked for up to 12 hours in an oven and served with traditional Colombian side dishes. The pig is boned and stripped of its meat, then filled with cooked rice, peas, onions, spices, and pork meat. The filling is moistened with pork fat or lard, and the pig is sealed and brushed with sour orange juice before being cooked. The dish is served with crispy, mahogany-colored skin.
Lechona is a dish originating in Colombia, South America. It consists of a whole pig that has been stuffed with a number of ingredients, including rice, onions, peas, and pork fat. The whole stuffed pork is dunked in sour orange juice before being sealed and prepared for cooking. The cooking process of the lechona involves the pig spending up to 12 hours in an oven, though authentic preparation is done in an open oven for the same amount of time. Once complete, the crispy skin and moist filling are served with traditional Colombian side dishes such as thick tortilla chips called arepas and sweet corn tamales called insulsos.
Making lechona starts with a whole pig. The meat is removed from the bones of the pig leaving the skin and some of the underlying meat intact so it can be stuffed. After that, the bones are carefully removed from the skin of the pig. This involves all bones – including the skull – except the legs, which are left intact and will roast on their own in the oven.
Once the shell of the pig is boned and stripped of its meat, it is cleaned and dried. Filling is done later. There will be little water inside the pork during roasting, so most of the filling ingredients need to be cooked ahead of time. For a very large pig, this can mean a significant amount of cooking in batches to make enough to fill the cavity.
The lechona filling starts with cooked white rice. Peas are also added, although the specific type varies. Yellow snap peas, chickpeas, or even peas can be used as long as they are not dried when added to the mixture. Raw onions are diced and included, as are spices to the cook’s taste. Potatoes, salt and pepper are mixed before the final ingredient.
At this point, all the boneless pork meat is cut into pieces and added to the stuffing. It doesn’t have to be cooked like the other ingredients. Sometimes additional pork cutlets are added to the mix to ensure an even distribution of the meat in the dish. Pork fat or lard is added to the filling to keep it moist.
The filling is stuffed into the hollow cavity of the boneless pig and the carcass is sealed by sewing or tying it tightly. Sour orange juice is brushed onto the skin and the whole pig is placed in an oven over medium heat. Once cooked, since the pork is boneless, the lechona can be cut like a roast and served. It’s traditional to include chunks of the crispy, mahogany-colored skin with each serving.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
