INGREDIENTS 1x2x3x
- 635gr pork belly strips with a thick top skin and a meaty underside
- ¼ teaspoon white vinegar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon vegetable oil or any neutral oil
Dry Rub Mixture:
- ½ teaspoon Chinese five spice
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
INSTRUCTIONS
- Pre heat oven to 225 degrees Fahrenheit.
- In a small bowl, combine Dry rub ingredients as listed.
- If needed, cut pork belly into 1.5 to 2 inch wide strips. Remove any bones and trim off any uneven meat to create a levelled strip. Pluck out any hairs on the skin with clean tweezers.
- On a clean working surface, turn pork belly strip skin side down, so the meaty side is facing upwards. Season meat side with Dry Rub mixture patting it into the meaty side.
- Turn pork belly over skin side up. If there is dry rub on the skin, wipe off with a clean paper towel. Pat the skin dry with paper towel if there’s any moisture. It should be very dry.
- With the tip of a sharp paring knife or a clean scoring blade, carefully and lightly score as many tiny cross hatches into the thick skin. Do not pierce past the skin into the meat part. This is my recommendation for the best crackling. (See blog post for visuals)
- Place each pork belly strip onto their individual sheets of aluminum foil (see blog post for visuals). Wrap the foil around the pork belly strip to create a rectangular box, leaving the skin exposed. Avoid creating tall walls for the box as the walls will block the heat.
- Lightly brush the skin with vinegar. Do not drench. The vinegar helps remove any moisture.
- Generously sprinkle salt on top of the skin.
- Transfer both strips in their aluminum foil boxes onto a small 7 x 12 inch baking sheet.
- Bake in a conventional oven on the second lowest oven rack for 60 minutes, until skin is dry and slightly hard to touch.
- Remove pork belly from oven. Lightly brush the skin only with vegetable oil.
- In a preheated oven at 500 degrees F or broiling point, place pork belly back into the oven on lowest rack.
- If you scored cross hatches into the skin, roast for 12-15 minutesuntil the skin is golden brown, cracked and bubbly.
- Remove from oven. Let it rest for 10-15 minutes for juices to reabsorb into meat before slicing.
- To slice
- Turn the pork belly skin side down on a cutting board. With a sharp knife, slice into the meaty side in a sawing motion. Then when you reach the skin, slice down with one swift motion.
How to Cook Chinese Roast Pork Belly
Below are steps with visuals on how to make Chinese Roast Pork Belly:
Then pre heat oven to 225 degrees Fahrenheit.
Next in a small bowl, combine Dry rub ingredients as listed.
If needed, cut pork belly into 1.5 to 2 inch wide strips. Remove any bones and trim off any uneven meat to create a levelled strip. Pluck out any hairs on the skin with clean tweezers.
On a clean working surface, turn pork belly strip skin side down, so the meaty side is facing upwards. Season meat side with dry rub patting it into the meaty side.
Then turn pork belly over skin side up. If there is dry rub on the skin, wipe off with a clean paper towel. Pat the skin dry with paper towel if there’s any moisture. More importantly, it should be very dry.
With the tip of a sharp paring knife or a clean scoring blade, carefully and lightly score as many tiny cross hatches into the thick skin. Do not pierce past the skin into the meat part. This is my recommendation for the best crackling.
Then place pork belly strips onto a large rectangular sheet of aluminum foil. Wrap the foil around the pork belly strip to create a rectangular box for it. Furthermore, make sure the skin is exposed and avoid creating tall walls for the box as the walls will block the heat.
Lightly brush the skin with white vinegar. Do not drench in vinegar. This will help remove any moisture.
Next generously sprinkle salt on top of the skin.
Transfer both strips in their aluminum foil boxes onto a small baking sheet.
Bake in the oven on the second lowest oven rack for 60 minutes, until skin is dry and slightly hard to touch.
Remove pork belly from oven. Lightly brush the skin only with vegetable oil.
In a preheated oven at 500 F or broiling point, place pork belly back into the oven on lowest roasting rack.
If you scored cross hatches into the skin, roast for 20-25 minutes until the skin is golden brown, cracked and bubbly. Alternatively, if you used the hole-pi
Finally remove from oven. Let it rest for 10-15 minutes inside the aluminum boxes for juices to reabsorb into meat before slicing.
To slice into small pieces
Turn the pork belly skin side down on a cutting board. With a sharp knife, slice into the meaty side in a sawing motion. Then when you reach the skin, slice down with one swift motion.
- Source quality pork belly strips with a thick top layer of skin. I would suggest using the pre-cut strips to make slicing the pork easiest. If you can only find a large slab of it, use that but slice it into strips that 2 inches wide before you prepare it.
- Rub the dry seasoning into the base of the meat only (the meaty side not the skin side!). Make sure to wipe off any dry rub from the skin
- Dry the top layer of the skin as much as possible with a clean towel.
- Wrap a large piece of aluminum foil only around the base and the sides of the pork belly but do not create a tall edge. In fact, create a short edge enough that you can pick up the sides. If you create tall edge the oven heat will not reach the skin evenly, resulting in a non crispy skin
- Roast the pork on the second lowest wire rack for the first roasting process. Then move it down to the very lowest position away from the heat for the crackling process.
