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.