How would you like to prepare a crispy, crunchy, roasted pork belly for your family? That would be divine! And it’s very doable. …And oh! so worth the try!
Hubby and I used to go to Baliwag Lechon (Manok/Liempo) for our fix of some tasty, juicy pork liempo, especially when we just want to eat at home and watch good TV. This was years and years ago back in the Philippines. Recently, we tried to recreate Baliway Lechon-style with pork belly just because. We used lemongrass and bay leaf to give our pork belly the aroma and flavor that we want in our pork. More so, we cooked Crispy Pork Belly Roast in such a way that we’d be crunching on the skin like that of a lechon’s so we get the best of all the worlds.
I am not so good in plating, obviously. But here’s what we made. When the food’s beckoning to you like “crazy eat me up now!!”, you just have to take a shot of what on the plate so you could munch on the the quickest. Well, that’s what happened here. I hope you appreciate that moist tender meat on that crunchy skin from my phone camera’s point of view.
Going back to the recipe, this crispy pork belly roast is very easy to do. It does take some time to cook in the oven. The good news is that the directions on how to do it and the ingredients needed to make it are all so simple. If you’re up to it, gear up your oven and let’s make some crispy roast.
Crispy Pork Belly Roast recipe
Ingredients
- 1 kh Pork belly (about 45mins additional cooking for every kilo)
- 8 cloves Garlic crushed
- 1 tbsp Raw sugar
- 1 tbsp Paprika powder
- 1 tbsp Garlic powder
- 1 tbsp Cracked pepper
- 1 tbsp Salt
- 2 stalks Lemongrass
- 46 pieces Bay leaf
- ½ 1 cup Salt enough to cover the skin of the pork belly
- Water
Instructions
- Pre heat oven at 180-185 c (depending on the oven).
- Prepare the rub. Mix the sugar, paprika, garlic powder, pepper and salt in a dry bowl. Set aside.
- Place some water on the oven pan and put it on the bottom part of the oven. The pork should be roasted above the tray with water.
- Dry the pork with paper towel.
- With a help of a skewer, insert the lemon grass stalks in the body of the meat. See how we did it in the photo below.
- Insert the crushed garlic and bay leaves. Make sure that you make it deep enough so that the garlic will not be pushed out while the pork is cooking.
- Massage the pork belly with the rub prepared in Step 2.
- Layer the skin of the pork with salt. Make sure it is evenly placed.
- Place the pork belly on the wire rack and put on the middle rack of the oven.
- Place the remaining lemongrass stalks, if any, on the tray with water.
- Wait for 1 hour. The salt will form into a crust. Once crusted, remove the salt and turn up the oven to 240-245C. Also, check if you need to add water in the pan.
- Roast the pork for another 35-40 mins until the crackling is formed.
- Remove the pork and sit for 5 mins.
- Cut into desired size and serve.
Video
Notes
Tips and Tricks to making Crispy Pork Belly Roast
To achieve the crispy skin, you must first prepare the meat. To do this, you should score the skin in diamond shapes. This will help the salt penetrate into the meat. After that, you should combine 4 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar with boiling water. Pour this mixture over the pork belly. Let it sit until the skin turns pink. Then, rub half of the Five Spice powder over the meat and sprinkle the rest of the salt over the top.
Then, preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. Place the meat in the oven for about 40 minutes, or until golden and crisp. The meat should be tender when it is done and have a crispy skin. This pork belly recipe uses a skewer for easier cooking. While you’re preparing it, you should keep the oven temperature at that level until the pork is tender. This recipe is best for a low-fat diet.
For this recipe, you will need a heavy-bottomed pan. Put 2 Tbs of olive oil in it and heat over medium heat. When you press a wooden spoon into the oil, it should bubble up. After that, place the pork belly skin side down in the oil. Continue cooking until the pork belly is crispy. After a few hours, you should be able to remove the skewer.
The crispy skin of a pork belly is a mouthwatering treat. To make a pork belly with a crispy skin, you should first prick the skin of the pork with a knife. Then, add the salt to the skin and allow it to sit for 15 minutes. The skin should crack and bubble, but it should not be rubbery. If the skin is too thick, you should remove it and cook it on a grill.
Before roasting the pork belly, you should prepare the ingredients. Start with the pork belly. To get the crispy crackling, you should dry the pork belly slices thoroughly. You can use smoked salt to enhance the flavor of the pork. To get the skin to become crispy, you can place the skin side up on the belly. Then, flip the pork belly over and rub the seasoning onto the flesh. When the skin is crispy, the meat is tender and juicy.
For a crispier pork belly, you should start by preparing the pork belly by roasting it on a grill. In the same way, you should preheat the oven. In the oven, you should use a heavy bottom pan and heat two Tbsp of olive oil. After preparing the ingredients, wait for the pork belly to bake for about 40 minutes. Then, you can use it for other dishes.
The crispy crackling comes from the crackling. To get the crispiest pork belly, you should leave the skin on or remove it. The skin of the pork is quite thick and will turn into a crunchy crackling when cooked. However, you can also opt to remove the skin if you prefer. The fat will also get crispy when the pork is roasted with the skin. In this case, the skin of the pork should be removed to get the best results.
The next step in this recipe is to remove the skin from the pork belly. You can either leave the skin on or remove it. Then, you can choose whether or not to remove the skin. The fat will remain crispy when roasted, so you can choose to keep it on or off. The choice is up to you. But in both cases, the skin is a key element of any pork dish. If you’re planning to make a crispy roast, it should be coated with salt.
