Recipe: Crispy Chinese-Style Roast Pork Belly

• Place an oven rack in a foil-lined baking pan. Set aside.
• Rinse the pork belly under cold water and then pat dry thoroughly with kitchen paper.
• Place the pork belly on a cutting board, skin side down, and make 2–3 cuts, about 1 inch apart, cutting only halfway into the meat.
• Flip the pork belly, skin side up, and poke all over with the tip of a paring knife, skewer or toothpick, being sure not to poke any holes too far beyond the skin – you want holes that only just break the skin.
• Using a clean, sharp blade and a ruler or straight edge, score lines into the pork belly skin, about 1 inch apart. Again, be careful not to cut too far into the flesh.
• Mix all the marinade ingredients together in a bowl.
• Flip the pork belly back over, skin side down, and rub the marinade all over the meat, being careful not to get any marinade on the skin.
• Place the pork belly, skin side up, onto the rack in the pan.
• Evenly sprinkle 1 tsp salt over the skin, gently rubbing the salt in with your fingers.
• Let the pork belly sit for about 20 minutes. Blot away any accumulated moisture/water from the skin using kitchen paper.
• Place the pork belly in the pan into the fridge overnight or for at least 8 hours.

Roasting the pork belly:

• Preheat oven to 180°C and place the oven rack in the middle of the oven.
• Use kitchen paper to wipe off all the salt and thoroughly dry the pork belly skin.
• Roast the pork belly, uncovered, for 1 hour.
• Remove the pork belly from the oven and turn the temperature up to 230°C. Blot the pork skin with kitchen paper to soak up any moisture that may have accumulated.
• Put the pork belly back into the oven and roast for 10 minutes, or until the skin is puffy and crisp, checking every 5 minutes.
• Let the pork belly rest, uncovered, for 15 minutes.
• Place the pork belly, skin side down, on a cutting board and cut into strips, using the cuts you made in the flesh. Saw through the meat and then press down hard with the knife through the crispy crackling.
• Chop each strip into chunks, using the score marks you made in the skin as a guide.
• Serve with hot yellow mustard.
  
  

• I place the entire baking pan with the pork on the rack in the fridge to dry so that I can transfer the whole thing to the oven. If you do not have enough space in your fridge, simply place the pork belly on a dish and then transfer it to a rack in a pan when you are ready to roast.
• You do not have to poke the pork skin to get crispy crackling, but it will not bake up as much with a “bubbly” texture.
• Making the pre-cuts in the meat and the scores in the skin are completely optional steps and do not affect the overall results once the pork belly is cooked.
• The pork is best eaten on the day it is made. The texture of the meat will not be as good when leftovers are reheated and the crackling will be soft and chewy.
• This recipe was developed/inspired/adapted from several sources, including (but not limited to) RecipeTin Eats, Marion’s Kitchen, Hot Thai Kitchen, The Woks of Life and numerous cooking videos.
• For more details and instructional photos, visit the recipe on my website.