Hamonado

Hamonado is a Filipino dish consisting of meat marinated and cooked in a sweet pineapple sauce. It is also a general term for savory dishes marinated or cooked with pineapple in the Philippines.

The name hamonado is the Tagalized spelling of Spanish jamónado, meaning “[prepared] like hamon (ham)”. This is distinct from hamon (jamón), which is ham also commonly cooked in the Philippines during the Christmas holiday season. Hamonado is also known as endulsado (Spanish: endulzado, “sweetened” or “glazed”) in Zamboanga.

Further, hamonado or hamonada is also a colloquial term for the sweet variant of the Filipino longganisa sausages (properly longganisang hamonada).

Hamonado is similar to pininyahang manok, which is braised chicken made with pineapple. The difference is the latter does not use soy sauce and is cooked in a milk base.

How to Cook Hamonado

Meat (usually fatty cuts of pork, but can also be chicken or beef) is marinated overnight in a sweet sauce made with pineapple juice, brown sugar, soy sauce, and various spices. It is then pan-fried until the meat is browned. The meat is then simmered in stock and the marinade with added pineapple chunks until the meat is very tender. It is served with steamed white rice.

Variations of the dish sometimes does not include a marinating period, and instead slow cooks the pork until very tender, especially when using cuts with tough meat like pata (ham hock) or beef sirloin. Calamansi juice, carrots, raisins, pickles, longganisa, and hotdogs may also be added in some family recipes. Some hamonado variants may be cooked afritada-style, using tomato sauce or banana ketchup.