Lets not beat around the saltbush like most roast pork belly recipes do and get down to business.
I will show you my tried and proven method to cook the perfect roast pork wether you are cooking in an oven, gas barbecue or charcoal barbecue.
Cooking a melt in the mouth pork belly with crispy skin
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Category
Mains
Cuisine
Western
Servings
4
Prep Time
10 minutes
Cook Time
150 minutes
Calories
585
Let's bang straight into my go to method that I have repeated hundreds of times!!
The perfect roast pork in 5 steps:
1) Dry the skin by placing the pork in the fridge uncovered for three days (there is other methods, but this is the most effective with no fuss). You can go less time uncovered, but 3 days has been the magic number for me. If you are time poor flood the skin with salt to draw some moisture out.
2) Season meat side only with your fave BBQ rub and season skin with coarse salt, kosher salt or flakey salt
3) Place into baking tray with rolled alfoil at one end to angle the belly and assist in rendered fat to drain into the baking tray and not spoil the crispy skin
4) Bang the pork into your cooker at 150C for approx 2 hours. Key here is the feel of the pork. When you can push a skewer through the meat with little resistance you can move to the next step
5) Crank the heat to approx 250C as this is when you will see the skin puff and crisp up. WATCH IT LIKE A HAWK! this will take approx 10-20 mins. When you run a knife across the skin and you're happy its suitably crispy pull it off for resting.
PRO TIP So you don't have burnt skin: place small pieces of foil over areas that are crisping up a lot faster so it doesn't burn.
In total it will take 2 hours and 30 minutes for that perfect roast pork. (approximately)
Ingredients
-
1kg pork belly
-
HealthIER rub
-
Coarse salt like flakey or kosher salt
Directions
Use a Jaccarrd tool to prick small incisions all over pork skin. This allows the skin to puff up during the hight heat stage.
Bang pork into a container and place in the fridge uncovered for three days to dry the skin. It should resemble leather. Starting off with a dry skin will enhance the end product.
After the air drying stage in the fridge, you want to season the meat side of the pork. Seasoning the skin will cause it to burn when subjected to high heat. Lightly season the skin with salt only.
Bang pork into a pre-heated oven, or BBQ at 150-160C. Ensure you place the tray with pork indirect to the heat source. Optional step here is to add some stock and a dash of apple juice in the tray, ensuring it doesn’t touch the meat. This will reduce over the cook and can be used as a sauce.
After 2 hours or so, use a skewer or probe and test for tenderness. When the skewer slides through the meat with little resistance you are ready to crank the heat!
Crank the heat to 240-250C and watch the magic happen. Move and rotate the tray if the skin is crisping up unevenly. If it’s starting to get a hot spot, place foil over the effected area. Once you get an even coverage of crispy skin you area ready to remove from the cooker.
**If using a Weber to cook your pork belly, I work off adding ½ - ¾ of a chimney worth of lit charcoal to hit the 250C mark.
To rest the roast pork belly I remove from the tray, place on a cutting board then wrap the meat so just the skin is exposed. This rests the meat, retains heat in the belly but won’t steam the skin and cause it to lose that crunch you worked so hard for.
**If you have a super tender belly like I aim for, turn it upside down when slicing as it will reduce the chances of the crackling tearing. This is my fave knife to slice roasts with Suncraft Bread Knife
Using pork belly with crispy skin is amazing in Banh mi
Recipe Video
Recipe Note
HOT TIPS FOR YOUNG PLAYERS
1. Thickness Matters: Try your best to source a piece of pork belly that has an even thickness as this will add all parts being cooked at the same time to the same tenderness.
2. Uses of roast pork belly: Besides just drilling it on its own you can make banh mi, Sunday roast, roast pork and gravy rolls, pork belly burger and pork belly sausage rolls.
Nutrition
Nutrition
- Serving Size
- 1 serving (113g or 4 ounces)
- per serving
- Calories
- 585
- Protein
- 11 grams
- Fat
- 60 grams
- Saturated Fat
- 22 grams
- Sodium
- 36.2 milligrams