Melo Villareal
4th Bacolod Chicken Inasal Festival
Celebrating festivals is definitely part of Filipino culture. Be it religious, cultural, or anything unique to a place, each town or city can find a way to highlight it in the form of a yearly festival. One perfect example is the Chicken Inasal Festival of Bacolod City.
Recently, we were invited by the City of Bacolod, along with other travel journalists, to experience the festivities and the much-awaited grilling event featuring the iconic Chicken Inasal, a grilled food in the Philippines famed for its sweet, savory, smoky, and tangy flavor.
But why does Bacolod City celebrate the Chicken Inasal festival? And how do they celebrate this unique yet mouthwatering festival? Keep reading as we share how Bacolod celebrates the 4th Chicken Inasal Festival, a truly one-of-a-kind experience worth savoring.
About the Festival
While the Chicken Inasal can be found on almost all menus in the Philippines, this succulent comfort food originated in Bacolod’s Cuadra Street. Since 1976, the people of Bacolod have been savoring the dish where marinated chickens are grilled using charcoal.
“Inasal” is the cooking method of grilling meat, which means charcoal-grilled or roasted, hence the name. Also, Bacolod’s Chicken Inasal has a slightly tangy flavor since it’s marinated in a mixture of lime, vinegar, pepper, and annatto. Today, the Chicken Inasal vendors can be seen grilling in Manokan Country near SM Bacolod, attracting thousands of locals and tourists visiting the City of Smiles.
On May 5, 2018, the 1st Chicken Inasal Festival was held by the City of Bacolod to celebrate its 80th charter anniversary. During the first festival, various vendors in the city gathered and grilled over 3,000 chicken thighs, boasting the original recipe of Bacolod’s grilled food.
Held along the road from Bacolod Plaza to San Sebastian Street, the participating food establishments grilled sticks of chicken thighs on a 300-meter-long grill, aiming to create a new Guinness world record. But due to lack of time, the city failed to set a world record that year.
Meanwhile, the 4th Chicken Inasal Festival, held on May 26-28, 2023, is livelier since it’s a three-day event involving grilling, a cook-off, and a Music Festival. The city allotted an initial budget of PHP1 million, and festivities were held at The Upper East Megaworld, showcasing 3,000 sticks of varying chicken parts.
Chicken Inasal is now a Bacolod cultural property.
Although other cities claimed the grilled dish origin, Chicken Inasal is now officially a cultural property of Bacolod. Last year, Councilor Em Ang proposed an ordinance approved by the city council wherein Chicken Inasal is declared Bacolod’s cultural property.
Based on the Republic Act No. 10066 or the National Cultural Heritage Act, a “cultural property” is defined as any product of human creativity, revealing the identity of a nation and people, such as natural history sites and specimens, schools, mosques, churches, and other religious worships, whether privately-owned or public, intangible or tangible, and immovable or movable.
In addition, the Bacolod City ordinance aims for the Chicken Inasal to be registered to the Philippine Registry of Cultural Properties (PRECUP), an archive with all details regarding cultural properties considered notable to heritage.
TasteAtlas, an experiential travel guide, also included the Inasal na Manok in their list of the 50 Best Chicken Dishes in the World, receiving a 4.6 out of 5 stars. According to TasteAtlas, Bacolod’s Chicken Inasal is a unique Filipino grilled chicken dish, the Visayas region’s signature dish.
Moreover, an existing ordinance relevant to this one designates every 4th week of May as Bacolod Chicken Inasal Festival, succeeding the revision of the Manokan Country Inasal Festival. As stated in the revised ordinance, the festival goal was to establish the ownership of Chicken Inasal, an intangible cultural heritage originating in Bacolod.
Bacolod sets record for longest Chicken Inasal grilling
Despite not making a world record, Bacolod City set a record for having the longest Chicken Inasal grilling in the Philippines. During the 4th Chicken Inasal Festival, Bacolod has set up a 320-meter-long grill along the main road to celebrate the return of this event.
The three-day grilling event features 3,000 sticks of Chicken Inasal, consisting of various parts cooked by around 70 vendors. Also, the Chicken Inasal Festival grilling event was held at The Upper East Megaworld to make the event even more exciting.
According to Councilor Jason Villarosa, chair of the tourism committee, Bacolod’s city government can apply for a world record of the longes Chicken Inasal grilling. But since it requires a PHP1 million initial fee to invite the Guinness World Records team to Bacolod, the festival was only showcased locally.
A day before the event, the city government of Bacolod also handed out 1,600 Chicken Inasal meals to non-government organizations and charitable institutions, including Alaga BCD animal welfare advocates, Bacolod Girls’ Home Foundation, Bacolod Boys’ Home Foundation, Social Development Center, St. Ezekiel Moreno Monastery, and St. Vincent’s Home for the Aged.
Apart from that, the first-ever Barangay Inasal Cook-off was held on Saturday afternoon at the Manokan Country, wherein restaurants offer the prominent grilled chicken marinated in lemon herbs, spices, vinegar, and lemon or calamansi.
Nine villages participated in the cook-off, competing for the tastiest and juiciest charcoal-grilled chicken. But among the contests, Barangay Mandalagan luckily bagged the “Best Barangal Inasal” award. The second place is Barangay Singcang-Airport, and the third runner-up is Barangay 29.
Chicken Inasal Awards
On the second day of the event (May 27), the city government of Bacolod acknowledges the key players in offering domestic and foreign tourists the best-grilled Chicken Inasal. As grilled charcoal chicken is concerned, these pioneer and legendary enterprises help sustain the image of Bacolod as the home of the famous Chicken Inasal.
Thus, Mayor Alfredo Abelardo “Albee” Benitez led the recognition of Bacolodnons with the longest participation in the Chicken Inasal enterprise and social media influencers. Bacolod City awarded them with the Chicken Inasal Awards in various categories.
One of the lucky awardees of the Coast to Coast Award is the multi-awarded Bacolodnon actor Joel Torre who owns JT’s Manukan. The Chicken Deli of the Ciocon family also bagged the Coast to Coast Award. Meanwhile, the Pioneer Award was given to Bernadette Posadas of Bernadette’s, Neda Velez of Velez’s, and Francisco Bolonia of Nena’s 1.
Nena’s Rose received the Local Choice Award, the Cajili family’s Bacolod Chicken House was awarded the Family’s Choice Award, and Aida’s Chicken the Tourist’s Choice Award. Based on the online votes, the “Inasal sang Masa” is Galpad’s Inasal, while Aida’s Chicken was named the Vloggers Choice.
For the Chicken Inasal Reel contest, the champion was Terence Mitchao, 1st runner-up was Bright Peñaroyo, and the 2nd runner-up was 2M Journey. The Chicken Inasal Vlog contest champion was Xhiel Macalalag, 1st runner-up was Tia Lacson, and 2nd runner-up was Uaekabayan Souq.
Bacolod’s Chicken Inasal is undeniably one of the most popular dishes in the Philippines, intriguing the palate of local and foreign diners. While there are many variations of grilled charcoal chicken in the country, trying Bacolod’s original Chicken Inasal is a taste you will surely remember for life. So next time you visit Bacolod, add to your things to do the Chicken Inasal Festival.
We would like to thank Ms. Cristina Mansinares, special adviser for Bacolod City’s tourism affairs for inviting us and to the staff of Bacolod City Tourism Office for taking care of us.
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Read: Ultimate List of the Best Hotels in Bacolod City
