No fancy gimmicks, just a beautiful, slow-roasted, perfectly cooked piece of pork belly with the most amazing crispy crackling on top. Not to mention that this recipe is unbelievably easy and straight forward to prepare!
I am super happy and excited to bring you this recipe because pork belly is such an easy cut to work with! That lovely fat on the pork belly almost makes it difficult to dry out or overcook the meat.
Not that you should worry regardless, because the method in this recipe will leave you with amazing roasted pork belly for Christmas dinner, with incredible crackling on top. So let’s have a look at how we’re going to make this beauty!
How to make the crackling
So when buying the pork belly, you want to buy a cut with the fat on top. And we’re looking for that surface layer of skin over the fat. That is the part that will crackle and go nice and crispy.
We need to score that skin, (Pro tip: you can use a CLEAN stanley knife to make the scoring easier) and then rub salt over the skin, making sure you get it through all the cracks. Make sure you season the entire cut of meat too.
Now, to give the crackling a head start, I like to fry the skin in a pan first before roasting the pork belly in the oven. So pre-heat a frying pan over high heat, add some oil and then add the pork belly fat side down. From there, just leave the pork skin to fry for about 5 minutes.
After this, you need to cook the pork belly on a wire rack over a roasting tray in the oven for 2 hours at 170 degrees C (335 degrees F) to cook the pork beautifully. Be sure to put at least 3 cups of water in the tray, so that the bottom of the tray doesn’t burn. And then the final step is to cook the pork for 30 more minutes at 200 degrees C (400 degrees F), to make sure that the crackling is perfect.
And that’s how you make amazing crackling!
What pairs well with the pork?
We all know about apple sauce with pork, but I personally would rather pair the pork with these spiced apples! They taste amazing and they’re the perfect side.
This mushroom and pepper gravy would also be fantastic with the pork!
As would this turkey gravy.
The Most Flavoursome Homemade Turkey Gravy
If you want to spice things up
If you want to make things a bit more interesting and add more than just salt to flavour your pork, then you can check out this wonderful Festive Spice Blend over on BBC Good Food, created by Miriam Nice.
If you don’t want the crackling
If you’re not a fan of the pork crackling, you just have to trim the skin off. Although I recommend leaving at least a bit of the fat on because it does a great job at stopping the pork from drying out.
And when cooking the pork without the skin, you don’t need to pan-fry it first. Just season and roast the meat for about 2 hours at 170 degrees Celcius (335 degrees F). There is no need to cook it for any longer than that.
How long does the pork keep?
I recommend keeping the pork in the fridge for 3-4 days at the most. However, just remember that if you want to keep that crackling nice and crispy, a microwave won’t do the job. So instead I would re-heat the pork in a hot oven for 5-10 minutes.
And you can portion the pork before putting in the oven so it doesn’t take as long to heat up.
Other fantastic pork recipes
Thank you so much for reading through my recipe post and I hope that this pork belly recipe serves you well for Christmas or any other occasion you’re planning.
If you’d like to subscribe to this blog to stay updated for new recipe posts, feel free to do so.
Thanks again and have an amazing day!
Christmas Pork Belly with Crackling
Beautifully cooked slow roasted pork belly with crispy crackling. A feast that nobody is going to want to miss!
Ingredients
- 1.5-2 kg of pork belly
- A light oil such as vegetable oil or grape seed oil
- Salt and pepper for seasoning
Instructions
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Pre-heat your oven to 170 degrees Celsius (335 degrees F).
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Use kitchen paper to dry out any interfering moisture on the pork belly.
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Score the skin with a sharp knife or a stanley knife.
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Season the pork generously with salt all over, make sure you get the seasoning in the cracks of that scored fat.
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Pre-heat a large pan over high flame for 1-2 minutes. Add a touch of oil then add your pork fat side down. Sear that pork skin for about 3-5 minutes, turn the heat off, then transfer the pork back on your chopping board.
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Pour at least 3 cups of water in a deep roasting tray, place an oven proof wire rack over that roasting tray, place the pork on the wire rack, fate side up, then carefully place the pork in the oven and roast for 2 hours.
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Take the pork out of the oven, increase the heat to 200 degrees Celsius (400 degrees F), add another cup of water to the pan if needed, then place back in the oven for another 20-30 minutes to finish off that crackling.
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Once the pork belly is done, lightly cover with foil and leave the meat to rest for 10 minutes before serving.
Recipe Notes
- Chinese five spice is a wonderful spice for pork belly if you want to add another flavour. Feel free to try this Festive Spice Blend too.
- To make crackling you'll need to buy pork belly with the skin on top.
- This dish pairs well with these spiced apples, this mushroom and pepper gravy and this turkey gravy.
- If you don't want the crackling, you can trim off the skin, but don't worry about the pan-frying, and just season and roast the pork at 170 degrees C (335 degrees F) for 2 hours.
- Keep the pork in the fridge for no longer than 3-4 days.
- The microwave will make the crackling go soggy. So if you want to re-heat the pork but still have nice crispy crackling, heat it back up in a hot oven.
A_Boleyn
Looks very tasty. Nothing like that crispy crackling.
Blogtastic Food
I know right! thanks for the comment (:
charney van aardt
This sounds amazing perfect for a South African Christmas im definitely making this for the family !!!!!
Thanks for the recipe 😀
Nicolas
Awesome thanks so much! I hope you enjoy it!!
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Does the pork belly have rind (skin)? If so, do you leave it on or cut it off?
Nicolas
Hi! That leathery surface on top of the fat is the skin, which creates the crackling. So it’s very important to leave that skin on, no skin, no crackling. But it can be good to score the skin so that some of the fat renders out.
Pici
it looks like italian “porchetta”
Nicolas
Oh yer I suppose! (: