Pinikpikan Festival of Rizal Kalinga (Intern: Jane Olao)

Cooked Pinikpikan recipe

Like other places here in the Philippines, municipalities of Kalinga has also festivals that they  celebrates annually and one of this is the municipality of  Rizal which celebrates Pinikpikan festival. They mostly celebrate this on the month of March.  Pinikpikan is one of the native dish of the Cordillerans. They derived its name in the process of light beating and we called this “pikpik”.

Finished burned chicken

The process of cooking or the preparation is not easy for those who are not expert. Here is the way they prepare the pinikpikan, first do not dress the chicken and using a stick, beat the wing from the inside, not too soft and not too hard that it will break bones and the skin of the chicken.  Beat it from the tip of the wing to the side then back and repeat it again and you will also do to the other wing and lay the neck of the chicken sideways on a flat surface and you can beat the neck from end to end .  The reason why they do this light beating  is to give bruises to the chicken’s flesh bringing blood to its surface which is said to improve the flavor after cooking. Afterwards, burn all the feathers of the chicken on the fire you made. You can burn it using gas range but better to burn outside fire.

Map of Kalinga

After you burn it remove excess charred feathers from the chicken and remember you can removed the beak, tongue, crest and feet coverings. Now, butcher the chicken, slice it into manageable pieces and wash it then put the pieces into a container and in a pot with water put the meat then add ginger then cook it. When the meat is almost cooked, add papaya or etag. Etag is a smoked pork , chop, cured in salt or sometime sun dried meat. If you don’t have etag just adjust the seasoning by adding salt or fish sauce. Then let it boil until meat and vegetables are tender and when it is cooked turn off the heat immediately and serve while hot. This native dish is cooked just like the regular tinolang manok with sayote, vegetables and ginger.

Burning the chicken

Pinikpikan festival in Rizal was launched in March 24, 2007 as the official festival of the municipality. It took a week to celebrate this festival. The main attractions or activities that they are doing are the Pinikpikan ritual, street dance exhibitions, field demonstrations and band exhibitions. Each barangay has to participate in the event. No one is exempted.  They also have the search for miss and mister Rizal or can be miss and mister Pinikpikan.   The festival also became a venue to bring the people closer to renew their kinship and ties. Come one come all and let us enjoy the beauty of our heritage.

Street dnacers during Pinikpikan Festival