chinese crispy pork belly recipe
Crackling skin, tick. Rich, anise-infused pork, tick. One last sliver of crunchy roast becomes the new family bargaining chip, tick. [If you’re cooking this for a weeknight then marinate the pork the night before.]
1.5-2kg piece pork belly
marinade
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tbsp brown sugar
4 tbsp soy sauce
½ cup Shaoxing wine
1 tbsp ground five-spice
4 star anise, ground
1 tsp white pepper
½ tbsp rock salt
Score pork in lines 2cm apart acrossways, or ask your butcher to do this for you. In a dish that fits the pork, combine all marinade ingredients except the salt. Marinate pork, being careful to keep skin clean and dry. Marinade in fridge for 3 hours or overnight. Bring pork to room temperature, pat skin dry with kitchen paper. Preheat oven to 220C. Transfer pork to baking tray, discard marinade, and cook for 30 minutes. Remove from oven, sprinkle pork skin with rock salt, turn oven temperature to 180C and cook for another 30 minutes. Turn oven grill to high, cook pork until skin is crackled and blistered, about 20 minutes. Watch to make sure it doesn’t burn. Let rest 20 minutes, carve along lines to serve.
This recipe was created for Sunday Life magazine in May 2012. Photography by Katie Quinn Davies (which has been lightened by Kate Gibbs for this site).