Lechon is a cooking term. The Filipino way of naming food is that the dish is to be identified by the cooking term and then followed by a noun, which is the main ingredient.

The process of cooking meat and poultry by placing it on a spit over hot coals or other forms of heat such as that of the heating elements in an oven, and continuously turning meat or poultry until it is cooked. Before cooking, the main ingredient may be marinated, rubbed, and may have an herb-based stuffing. Fish and other seafood are grilled but these are not lechoned.

The most popular kind of lechon is that of lechon baboy (roasted pig). This is presented as a whole pig with golden brown crispy skin. The dipping sauce is a gravy made from pork liver. Lechon baboy is the main dish of most festivities in the Philippines. There are different sizes and it may be bought as whole or in kilos.

There is also lechon de leche (roasted suckling pig) and lechon baka (roasted calf). The whole calf undergoes the same cooking process.

The most common main ingredient that become lechoned is chicken. There are lechon manok (roasted chicken) stalls in many areas of the main city and in the provinces. These are bought whole. Often, there are roasted slabs of pork offered by the same stalls but these are called “liempo” to identify the pork cut and are not called lechon, as the cooking term only applies to the meat or poultry being cooked as a whole.