Easy Bicol Express Recipe for 6 | Pork Stew in Coconut Milk

Make Easy Bicol Express at home with pork, coconut milk, shrimp paste, and chilies. A creamy, spicy Filipino stew for 6, packed for rice, garlic rice, or work lunch.

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Bicol Express always brings back warm memories of the Philippines for me. This Easy Bicol Express is my home-kitchen version of the creamy, spicy Filipino pork dish I remember from Manila. It has tender pork, coconut milk, coconut cream, chilies, and bagoong, with a few practical substitutions based on what I can actually find here in Denver.

In my 20s in Manila, I barely cooked. I worked all the time and usually bought ulam (viand) from carinderias. Bicol Express was one of the viands I would pick, along with adobo, menudo, tinola and sinigang.

I especially love coconut milk. I use it in my cooking experiments all the time, and it never fails to remind me of home. That’s probably one reason I keep coming back to Easy Bicol Express whenever I want something comforting, spicy, and very Filipino.

I don’t have access to a palengke anymore where I can pick up fresh coconut milk and coconut cream, so I look for products with the fewest, cleanest ingredients I can find. For this Bicol Express, I used Native Forest Organic Unsweetened Coconut Milk, 13.5 fl oz, and Native Forest Organic Unsweetened Coconut Cream, 5.4 fl oz. You can find ingredients like these in my Amazon and Walmart storefronts.

For the pork, I used pork shoulder and substituted pickled jalapeños for the siling berde/haba, while the Thai chilies came from Great Wall Supermarket.

I brined the pork the night before, then marinated it with cooking sake while I prepped the other ingredients. That isn’t traditional Bicol Express, so feel free to skip it if you don’t have those ingredients. It’s simply a habit I picked up from Japanese and Italian cooking, and one I’m happy to bring into my own kitchen.

For serving, I made my husband garlic rice and packed some kimchi with his work lunch. In the Philippines, we mostly eat Bicol Express with plain rice, so you can absolutely do that if you want. If you like experimenting, serve it with any side you prefer. The kitchen is yours, and your family is the one eating it. My principle is simple: if my husband loves it, it’s the perfect side.😄

Pickled jalapeños make everything better for me, so I added them to this recipe.

Why You’ll Love This Easy Bicol Express

• Creamy gata, salty bagoong, and chili heat in one pot
• Uses two clean coconut products instead of a palengke run
• Pork shoulder stays rich enough without requiring belly
• Makes 6 servings for dinner plus lunch boxes
• Heat is adjustable: Thai chilies for fire, pickled jalapeños for tang
• Leftovers reheat gently and taste even deeper the next day

Easy Bicol Express Ingredients

Classic Bicol Express is pork simmered in coconut milk with shrimp paste and a lot of chilies. The name comes from the old Manila-to-Bicol train. You know it is ready when the sauce turns nagmamantika — that orange-tinted oil on top.

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What I used vs the usual

• Pork shoulder instead of pork belly
• 3 whole pickled jalapeños instead of 2 cups siling haba
• Frozen Thai chilies instead of fresh ones — I freeze my ginger, garlic, and Thai chilies, so I always have them ready to use.
• Native Forest coconut milk + a small can of coconut cream
• Optional sake marinade or use it when sauteing the pork

Smart swaps

• Pork belly if you want it richer
• Fresh finger chilies if you have them
• Bottled bagoong, rinsed if it is very salty
• Plain rice, garlic rice, cucumber, or kimchi on the side

Tips for the Easy Bicol Express

• Do not skip the bagoong. That is the savory backbone.
• A hard boil can make coconut milk split the wrong way. Gentle heat gives you that clean nagmamantika top.
• Authentic versions can be hotter than the pork. Reduce Thai chilies or seed them if you need it milder.
• Pickled jalapeños are not siling haba. They add tang and heat, and they are what I had.
• The sake marinade is extra. The stew still works without it.
• Leftovers keep 3 days. Reheat slowly so the gata does not scorch.

Make-ahead: Cook the day before work lunches. Pack rice separate from the stew if you can.

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Bicol Express Recipe

Pork shoulder simmered in coconut milk with shrimp paste and a lot of chilies until the sauce thickens and the orange oil rises to the top. Serve with rice.

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Prep15 min

Cook50 min

Total1 hr 5 min

CourseDinner

CuisineFilipino

Calories~700

Servings − +

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp neutral oil
• 1 onion, thinly sliced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 lb pork belly, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 2 tbsp fresh shrimp paste (bagoong alamang)
• 1 can (13.5 oz) coconut milk
• 1 cup water
• 14 Thai chili peppers (siling labuyo), stemmed and minced
• 2 cups finger chilies (siling haba), sliced
• 1 cup coconut cream (kakang gata)
• Salt and pepper to taste

How to make it

1. Heat the oil in a wide pot over medium heat. Sauté the onion and garlic until softened.
2. Add the pork and cook until lightly browned.
3. Stir in the shrimp paste and cook 1–2 minutes.
4. Pour in the coconut milk, water, and minced Thai chilies. Bring to a gentle simmer — do not boil hard or the coconut milk can split. Cook 35–40 minutes, stirring now and then, until the pork is tender and the liquid has reduced and started to render fat.
5. Add the sliced finger chilies and cook 1–2 minutes.
6. Stir in the coconut cream and simmer until the sauce thickens and oil separates on top. Season with salt and pepper.
7. Serve hot with steamed white rice. Cucumber slices on the side help with the heat.

Notes

• Pork belly gives you that rich nagmamantika top. Pork shoulder works if you want it leaner.
• Rinse bottled bagoong if it is very salty or dyed bright pink. Do not skip the shrimp paste.
• This is a spicy dish. Use fewer Thai chilies, or seed the finger chilies, if you want it milder.
• Calories are an estimate for 1 of 6 servings without rice.

Your Turn in the Kitchen

If Bicol Express is one of those dishes that takes you back—carinderia lunches, creamy gata in the sauce, and rice underneath—make this Easy Bicol Express with what you can actually find and enjoy.

Keep the bagoong, adjust the chilies to your liking, and add an ingredient that makes you happy. That’s the beauty of cooking at home: you can make the dish work for you and your family.

Then pack the leftovers for tomorrow. Because sometimes, the best part of cooking dinner is already taken care of the next day. 🍚

If you try this Bicol Express, tell me if you served it with plain rice, garlic rice, or something else entirely.

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You can find the ingredients for this recipe in my Amazon and Walmart storefronts.