A Filipino pork stew of small diced pork and liver simmered in a tomato sauce with potato, carrot, and green peas. The meat is cut into bite-sized cubes rather than the large chunks of caldereta or mechado, which is what sets menudo apart. Soy sauce and a squeeze of calamansi round out the tomato base, and raisins or hot dog slices are common home additions. It is everyday fiesta food, eaten with rice.
Menudo descends from Spanish guisado cookery brought during the colonial centuries, though it shares little with the Mexican menudo (a tripe soup) beyond the name. The Filipino dish is a tomato-sauced pork stew; the diced liver, a colonial-era habit of stretching meat with offal, is its defining touch. It belongs to the same family of localized Spanish stews as afritada and caldereta, and appears across the islands at celebrations.
Cubes of pork and liver in a glossy red tomato sauce, with potato and carrot softened to the same bite-size and green peas dotted through. The liver thickens the sauce slightly and gives it a faint mineral depth; raisins, when added, leave small sweet pockets. Each spoonful lands on rice that soaks up the sauce.
Browning the pork first builds a fond that deepens the sauce; the liver is added late and cooked only briefly, since overcooking turns it grainy and bitter. Tomato sauce supplies acidity and the glutamate that lengthens the savory note, while the long, gentle simmer breaks down the pork's collagen so the small cubes stay tender rather than drying out.
Variations
Pork menudo is the standard; some cooks add raisins for a sweet note, others slice in red hot dogs for color and a salty-sweet hit. A leaner everyday version skips the liver, while a richer fiesta version adds chickpeas. The dish overlaps with afritada and caldereta, the main difference being the small dice and the inclusion of liver.
On the Palate
Where Menudo sits in the Filipino flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 6
How it's made
7 steps · 25 min
- 125 min
Cube the pork into small bite-sized pieces and season with soy sauce, calamansi, and pepper; set the liver aside, cubed.
- 28 min
Saute garlic and onion until soft, then brown the pork cubes in batches to build a fond.
Watch outBrown the pork cubes in batches to build a fond — that browned residue is the savory backbone of the sauce.
- 325 min
Add tomato sauce and a little water, bring to a simmer, and braise gently until the pork begins to soften.
- 415 min
Add the potato and carrot and continue simmering until they are nearly tender.
- 55 min
Stir in the liver and green peas and cook only a few minutes more so the liver stays smooth.
Watch outAdd the liver late and cook only a few minutes — overcooked it turns grainy and bitter, so it goes in near the end.
- 610 min
Add raisins or sliced hot dog if using, adjust the seasoning, and simmer to a sauce that coats a spoon.
- 75 min
Rest off the heat for a few minutes and serve hot over rice.
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