Pork Belly Recipe
Pork belly with crispy crackling, slow roasted to perfection with roasted mixed vegetables allowing the pork belly fat to roast and drip over the veggies! Prepared and cooked in simple spices, olive oil and in the oven to crisp the fat because that’s just the beginning of an absolutely wonderful crispy belly roast.
A crunchy crackling is the ultimate sound at the table when you’ve made pork belly because it’s confirmation that you’ve made the perfect crackling! What about the meat? How tender is the meat? Is too tender fall-apart meat the idea or do you want to be able to slice the meat at the table? Read on as I share some of my own pork belly cooking experiences with you.
Pork Belly
Pork belly needs a simple seasoning and that’s salt and pepper but you can add your own spice and herb blends as I’ve done here. The only thing to remember is that the spices should go onto the flesh and not the skin. Unless you (or your butcher) has scored the skin, then add the salt, pepper and spice into the crevices of the skin as I have done in this recipe.
How Long Do You Cook Pork Belly For?
Both high and low heat is required to achieve the best results. The guide is 180°C (356°F) 160°C fan (320°F) then a further 30 mins or so on high heat to crisp the skin. Roasting on 180°C /356°F is a safe way to roast pork belly because you can either follow the rule of thumb or you can roast it for 2 to 2 1/2 hours before cranking the heat up for the rind. The rule of thumb is 20 minutes per 500g/1lb or until it reaches an internal temperature of 62°C/145°F. In this recipe we start roasting on high and then drop the heat, no rule of thumb followed, but as I said, you will find your happy medium. Full recipe below in the recipe card.
How Do I Get Crackling On My Pork Belly?
Dry the skin: It all starts with what to look for when buying pork belly but no matter which pork belly you have, the skin must be dry. If you’ve bought a belly that’s wrapped and sealed then you must dry it out overnight or it will not crisp. There is a lot of water (and brine) retained under that plastic and who knows for how long? Unwrap it, use a kitchen towel to dry it properly and then pop into the fridge on a rack the air dry overnight.
No time to leave it overnight? Dry it really well, leave it in the fridge for an hour and keep your fingers crossed 🙂 You may be able to get away with this using my Easy Air Fryer Pork Belly because it’s less hands on than oven roasting but still, the best outcomes in both is overnight drying.
Should I Score Pork Belly Skin?
Perhaps the question should be why should I score the skin? The short answer is you don’t have to. You can still get a crispy crackling with no scoring. Just take a look at my Easy Air Fryer Pork Belly that has the best crackling ever and no scored fat. But that’s the air fryer and even though you can get the same results with the oven, you need to follow a few simple techniques
- Buying the right pork belly
- Drying the pork belly
- Using both slow and low oven temperatures
Scoring The Skin Has A Few More Advantages
It’s not just for presentation but if you are using spices, you typically should only be adding them to the meat and not on the skin. With the skin being scored, it allows you to rub the spices into the crevices for more flavor and aroma. With a little olive oil, it helps the spices stick to the belly. Scoring the skin also allows the heat to penetrate the skin (fat) as it bubbles through the slits while cooking and this bastes the skin and tenderises the meat.
How To Score Pork Belly?
Use a small sharp knife to insert slits into the skin about a finger width apart. Cut carefully and try to avoid cutting into the meat which is actually more of a challenge that you may think. For this reason I always either ask the butcher to score for me, buy it already scored or I don’t score. I used to always score my own pork belly but I don’t anymore. Here’s what I’ve learnt about incorrect scoring.
What To Consider When Scoring Pork Belly At Home
You can hurt yourself, that’s number one, so be cautious. The skin must be very dry and the knife very sharp for this excercise to be effective. If those two criteria are not met, you’re wasting your time, the rind of pork belly is tough! You should try not to cut through to the meat when scoring and unless you’re a professional, the chances of cutting through to the meat are plenty. When you cut through the fat and onto the skin, as the belly cooks, the juices from the meat will bubble up on the skin and you’ll end up with uneven crackling. Why, because pork belly rind needs to be dry for a crackling and even it’s own juices from the meat will spoil all your hard work.
How To Get Even Crackling?
The pork belly should lay flat not lopsided. It’s important to try to get the veggies that you use to act as a “bed” the same size (more or less). You shouldn’t have a very large onion and then nothing and then a carrot (for example), this will cause the belly to collapse in the middle and not creat a good crackling surface.
Use the same size onions and carrots, cut in half and turn them cut side down onto the tray. Place the belly over and if it’s sinking in some places, either add a veg or squash up a piece of aluminum foil to hold the belly. Once done correctly, the surface will look straight. Hope that makes sense.
Do You Add Water Into The Tray? In this recipe we don’t add any liquid.
How to Raise A Roast Up Without A Rack?
If you don’t have a rack to roast the pork belly on, simply use something to lift it into mid air like squashed pieces of foil on the four ends to give it a lift. If you must, you can use onions and garlic to place under the belly but unless you’re going to be using the veggies for a gravy, it’s a waste of good vegetables!
Why Does The Pork Belly Need To Be Lifted While Cooking?
Because it’s much like the mechanism in an air fryer that pushes the air all around the meat but even better! Here you don’t have to shake the basket for the hot air to cook the meat all round. It cooks all round because it’s holsted in mid air so it cooks all round.
When the pork has a beautiful crispy skin and has browned to a light color, it’s time to add the vegetables. Full recipe card below.
What Spices To Use For Pork Roast?
There’s a wide variety to choose from of your favorite spices! The one’s that best complement pork meat are: rosemary, fennel, coriander, sea salt, thyme, star anise and cardamom seeds. We are going with salt, pepper, coriander spice (ground coriander seeds) and fennel.
How To Check if Pork Belly is Cooked?
When you give your pork a gentle press and the juices run clear, it’s done. The internal temperature should be 74°C (165°F) with a probe or an instant read thermometer.
Pork Belly Roasting Process
- The pork belly can be roasted two ways: a) with onions and carrots underneath and these vegetables can be used to make the gravy later on or b) If you are not making gravy, roast the belly on a rack in an oven tray (no veggies)
- The first roast is to start the crackling process so we roast on high heat 230°C / 446°F
- The second roast is to cook tender meat so we lower the heat and slow roast.
Pork Belly Recipe Ingredients
There are very few ingredients needed to make a basic pork belly which is salt, pepper and little oil. In this recipe we two sets of vegetables. A ‘bed’ for the pork roast using onions and carrots and the more roasted veg for serving.
Pork Belly: The pork belly should be a good fat to meat ratio (at least 50/50). Preferably a good clean belly and not one that’s been packaged for who knows how long. You don’t want pork belly with a damp rind that proves to be a challenge to dry out.
Salt and pepper: A light seasoning of salt and pepper for the flesh of the belly and a generous coating of just salt for the skin.
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Olive oil: A little oil to help blend in with the spices and more over the skin.
Vegetable Ingredients
These are the vegetables used but feel free to tweak according to what you prefer. The cooking time doesn’t make a big difference since we are slow roasting them. This slow roast, which is the 2nd part of roasting the pork, helps to cook them evenly.
Garlic: One whole head of fresh garlic cloves, inner leaves on and remove the outer ones that are sort of falling off. Break the head of garlic up or leave it whole, nothing specific we want to roast it along with the other vegetables.
Eggplant: Rinsed, slice the tops off, cut into fairly large cubes and in they go. The idea with the veggies is just try and get them all more or less the same size. Not for perfection but because they can all cook evenly.
Carrots: Tips on the ends off, rinsed and roughly chopped.
Potatoes: Washed/rinsed, peels on and roughly chopped.
Bell Peppers: Bell peppers are always delicious when roasted! Actually all veggies are good when roasted! Remove the core (and seeds) and cut into cubes.
Fresh Fennel: Slice the bulbs in half quartered for a more equal size to the other veggies.
How To Roast Pork Belly
These steps are a guideline, please check the full recipe in the recipe card below.
Prepare the belly: Dry the skin overnight. Make sure that it’s uncovered, dry it with a kitchen towel and place it on a rack and into the fridge overnight. The rack is to ensure that air can flow over, around and under the belly. If you don’t have time to leave it in the fridge overnight, make sure that it’s as dry as you can get it before cooking. Drying the skin is a sure way to crackling crispy skin.
Prep and season the vegetables: Clean and chop all the veggies of which most the veg skin remains on. Add the cleaned and chopped vegetables to a large bowl or tray. Toss them with a light sprinkle of salt, pepper, spice and a little olive oil. Set aside. Cut the onions and carrot in half for the 1st roast.
Season the pork belly: Season and oil the pork belly making sure to seal the spices into the slits if scored.
1st Pork Belly Roast: Roast on a rack in an oven tray or with the onions and carrots underneath for 45 minutes to an hour on 230°C / 446°F.
Do all the the Vegetables go in now?
Just the onions and carrots for now. These vegetables are placed into the roasting tray first and then you lay the pork belly over the vegetables. If you like you can use just onions that’s also fine. Side Note: Remember that the vegetables are to help make a flavorful gravy later on but if you are not making gravy, place the belly over a rack in an oven tray and roast.
2nd Pork Belly Roast: Remove the roast from the oven. Take the veggies out and either discard or use them for a stock or gravy. Lower the heat in preparation for the slow roast / 150°C (302°F). Add the remaining uncooked veggies – eggplant, potatoes etc. and give them a toss to collect any pan juices.
Cook the Vegetables And The Pork Belly (2nd Roast)
- Reduce the oven temperatureto to 150°C (302°F).
- The vegetables (eggplants etc) go into the oven tray that the pork belly was roasting in. Give the veggies a stir in that pan without washing any juice it has. Then they go back into the oven to roast. The belly goes on top directly on a rack.
- As the pork belly roasts the fat flavors and juices will drip into the veggies to create a delicious veggie roast!
- Final roast: Leave the veggies and belly to cook finish for about 2 to 2 ½ hours until cooked and crispy. Check in halfway through and test the vegetables. Remove the pork belly and the vegetables from the oven.
- Rest the pork belly: Rest the pork belly for 10 minutes before cutting into it. Very important step for the juices to re-distribute throughout the meat. If you ever find yourself with a sliced meat and a plate of meat juices, you didn’t rest the meat (and it will taste more tough, irrespective of how good the cut of meat). However, pork has a lot of juices so you’ll still have some on the plate even after resting it but resting the meat is also important for the meat muscle fibres to relax.
Roast Recipes
- Homemade Meat Gravy
- Easy Air Fryer Pork Belly
- Overnight Slow Cooker Lamb Leg Roast
- Air Fryer Chicken Roast
- Roasted Vegetables
Watch a short video for an idea, it doesn’t give the entire recipe.
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The Perfect Roasted Pork Belly With Tender Roasted Vegetables
Ingredients
Pork Belly
- 1.5 to 1.7 kg Pork belly 3.3lbs approximately
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- sea salt
Vegetables to act as a bed/same tray with belly (this contributes to a flavorful gravy, but you can also place the belly over a rack without veggies)
- 4 onions halved, use less if the belly is smaller
- 4 carrots rinsed, sliced in half
Spices / seasoning
- 2 tbsps coriander spice crushed seeds
- 1 tsp fennel seeds
- 1 tsp fennel spice
- salt and pepper
Vegetables to serve, roasted under the belly not with the belly
- 1 eggplant rinsed, cut into cubes
- 2 carrots washed, tips cut off and chopped into bite size pieces
- 2 mixed peppers cleaned, seeds and tops removed, roughly chopped
- 2 potatoes skin on cut into cubes
- 2 bulbs fresh fennel halved and quartered
- 1 bulb garlic unpeeled
Instructions
- Prep the pork belly: Remove all the packaging (plastic wrap) from the pork and lay it out on a rack to dry. Use a kitchen towel to dry the belly all around and leave it in the fridge, uncovered on a rack, overnight if possible. Otherwise, an hour at the least you if you want crackling.
- Room temperature: An hour before roasting, remove the pork belly from the fridge so it reaches room temperature before cooking.
- Start by prepping the ‘vegetable bed for the pork belly’: You can use carrots and onions to act as a bed, these vegetables can later be used towards making the gravy later. The veg used here are onions and carrots, cut side down to create a flatbed to lay the belly over. If not making gravy, the belly can be placed over a rack in a roasting tray.
- Prep the spices: Add all your spices to a mortar and pestle or grinder/blender and mix them. If you are using coarse salt and peppercorns, add them now otherwise add regular salt and pepper after grinding. Add a drizzle of olive oil to help the spices combine. Set aside.
- Preheat The oven must be preheated to 230°C / 446°F
- Score the skin: If scoring, use a sharp knife and carefully score the rind in 1 – Inch intervals or about a finger apart. Dry the skin once more after scoring.
- Season the pork belly: Turn the pork belly skin–side down and rub the spices (or just salt and pepper, 1 teaspoon) into the meat (underneath). The spices have already been mixed with oil so you won’t need to add any. Rub it into the meat. Drizzle olive oil over the rind (skin) and season with a generous amount of sea salt using about a tablespoon. Rub it in. Any remaining oil, use to rub onto the meat on the sides of the belly.
- Roast/Crisp the skin: Transfer the pork belly to a roasting dish over a rack or place it over the onions and carrots and roast for 45 minutes to an hour, or until the rind changes to a light brown colour and starts crackling.
- Prep the remaining veg: Rinse, clean and chop the eggplant, fennel, bell peppers, potatoes and set aside. To roast the garlic, remove the papery leaves, leaving just the tight ones on the garlic cloves. Slice the top bit off from the whole head of garlic, wrap in foil, drizzle with olive oil, close the foil and add into the roasting dish with the vegetables.
- Remove belly from the oven: Once the pork belly has turned brown and started developing a crackling, take it out of the oven. Drop the heat to 150°C (302°F)
- Roast the pork belly and veggies on different oven racks at the same time. After the high heat, we’ve gained momentum on the crackling, now we slow roast to cook the meat.
- Using a pair of tongs move the belly from the pan onto the oven rack directly in the stove (no oven tray) and place the prepared vegetables under the pork belly (in the same roasting pan that the pork belly was crisping in) Do not rinse the tray, and do not toss out those pan juices!)Belly out onto the rack and the veggies into the same oven tray. Give the veggies a good stir so that they collect the pan juices from the belly and then place the pan in the oven. The pork belly goes onto the rack above the belly this will a) allow the veggies and belly to finish cooking at the same time and b) the fat from the pork belly drips onto the veg adding incredible flavour!
- Final roast: Leave the veggies and belly to cook finish for about 2 to 2 ½ hours until cooked and crispy. Remove the pork belly and the vegetables from the oven.
- Rest the pork belly: Rest the pork belly for 10 minutes before cutting into it. Very important step for the juices to re-distribute throughout the meat. If you ever find yourself with a sliced meat and a plate of meat juices, you didn’t rest the meat (and it will taste more tough, irrespective of how good the cut of meat). However, pork has a lot of juices so you’ll still have some on the plate even after resting it but resting the meat is also important for the meat muscle fibres to relax.
- Serve: Slice and serve with roasted vegetables and gravy.
Notes
- We have the onions and carrots that act as a bed (you can also just use onions) for the pork belly while it browns and crisps the skin. Those get discarded afterwards if you are not using them to make a gravy. In which case, you can simply use a roasting tray with a rack and no veggies.
- The remaining vegetables are the ones that roast under the pork belly but not with the pork belly, and those are the ones we serve with the belly.
Hi, step 7 and 9 are confusing. Should the vegetables be cooked with the pork belly? Thank you.
Hello dear, there are 2 instances that the veggies are cooked. The 1st, is the 2 veggies (onions and carrots – or just onions is also okay) that act as a “bed” for the pork belly. The 2nd is when we cook the veggies that are later served with the belly. Do check the notes below the recipe. I have added a lot more information in the hope that it will be more clear so I thank you for bringing this to my attention. Please feel free to leave any comments here, I will be happy to help. Enjoy the pork belly and roasted vegetables! Miranda xx