Crispy Pork Belly Recipe
A crispy pork belly recipe that works for both skin-on and skin-off pork belly. If you want cracklins, keep the skin on. For a more tender dish, remove and follow the same simple instructions.
A crispy pork belly recipe that works for both skin-on and skin-off pork belly. If you want cracklins, keep the skin on. For a more tender dish, remove and follow the same simple instructions.
- Carbohydrate 0.085063125 g
- Cholesterol 3.2 mg
- Fat 3.19787875 g
- Fiber 0.03478125 g
- Protein 0.014371875 g
- Saturated Fat 1.06368625 g
- Serving Size 1 1 serving (117g)
- Sodium 151.21395 mg
- Sugar 0.050281875 g
- Trans Fat 0.14098375 g
- Calories 29 calories
Step-by-step
- Preheat your oven to 250 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil and place a wire rack inside.
- After you have scored the pork belly, season the meat side with about ½ of the salt and pepper. Heat a heavy bottom pan over high heat and add in the cooking fat. When the fat is hot, carefully add in the pork belly. Allow to brown without moving for 3-5 minutes depending on the heat of your stove.
- Remove the belly from the fat with some tongs and place on the wire rack with the fat side up. Take the fat from the pan and pour over the fat. You will see the scoring separate with the hot fat being poured over it.
- Evenly distribute the remaining salt and pepper. Place the pork belly in the oven for 3 hours.
- After 3 hours, remove the belly from the oven. Carefully pour off some of the fat into a bowl. Pour the fat back on top of the pork belly. Evenly distribute the herbs de provence over the top of the pork belly and place back in the oven for 1 more hour.
- After the 4th hour, turn on the broiler in the oven. Broil the pork belly until it crisps. For skin-on pork belly, keep a close eye on the skin as it will scorch very quickly- more quickly than the skinless pork belly.
- Serve hot and enjoy!
Deep golden rendered fat crusts over unctuous layers of meat, yielding a brittle crunch that shatters under the knife before giving way to absolute tenderness. Too many attempts at this cut end in soggy skin or rubbery fat because home cooks rush the rendering phase. Low ambient heat is mandatory here. Operating the oven at 250 degrees allows the intramuscular fat to melt slowly over four hours without scorching the outer proteins.
Scoring the fat in a grid pattern creates surface area for thermal expansion and spice penetration. Pouring hot duck fat or lard directly over those scored channels forces the meat to open up before it hits the oven, driving kosher salt and cracked black pepper deep into the tissue. Herbes de Provence added during the final hour contribute fat-soluble aromatic compounds like thymol and linalool, which bind directly to the pork lipids for better retention than water-based marinades provide.
Monitoring the broiler during the final minutes prevents carbonization, particularly if using a skin-on cut that blisters rapidly under direct radiant heat. Dietary accommodations are straightforward since this cut remains naturally gluten-free, dairy-free, and nut-free without modification.
