food

Best Ever Pork Belly

If we could only have one piece of meat for the rest of our lives, it would hands down be our Best Ever Pork Belly. This simple and flavourful pork belly recipe is the beginning of a beautiful Sunday roast.

food

Best Ever Pork Belly

If we could only have one piece of meat for the rest of our lives, it would hands down be our Best Ever Pork Belly. This simple and flavourful pork belly recipe is the beginning of a beautiful Sunday roast.

Supplies

  • For the pork:
  • 2.5kg rib-in pork belly
  • 3 tbsp sea salt flakes
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • Rapeseed oil
  • 300ml chicken stock
  • 300ml white wine
  • For the simple spicy XO sauce:
  • 100ml vegetable oil
  • 4 dried chillies, rehydrated in warm water
  • 4 long red chillies, diced
  • 2 shallots, finely diced
  • 2 cloves garlic, finely diced
  • 300g streaky smoked bacon, roughly diced
  • 4 tbsp shaoxing wine
  • 3 tbsp soy sauce
  • 2 tbsp fish sauce
  • 2 tbsp honey
  • Juice of 1 lime
  • For the stir fried greens:
  • 1 tbsp sesame oil
  • 500g greens (choy sum/pak choi/water spinach etc)
  • 1 tsp soy sauce
  • 1 tsp shaoxing wine
  • 1 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted

Steps

  1. Heat the oil in a wok over low-medium heat. Add the chillies, shallot, garlic and bacon and cook until the ingredients start to soften, about 5 – 8 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients, excluding the lime and simmer for a further 5 minutes.
  2. Remove from heat and add the lime juice then blitz with a stick blender to puree slightly - you don’t want it to be completely smooth - you need to retain some texture. Set aside until needed.
  3. Add the sesame oil to a wok and place over a medium-high heat. Add the greens and stir fry for 2 minutes then add the soy sauce and shaoxing wine. Cook for a further minute then remove from the heat and stir through the sesame seeds.
  4. Put the pork belly in the fridge overnight, leaving the skin exposed to dry. The next day, use a sharp knife to score the skin in 1cm intervals, being careful not to go through to the meat - alternatively you can ask your butcher to do this when you buy your piece of meat.Get you piece of meat out of the fridge and mix together 1 tbsp of the sea salt, with some black pepper, and rub thoroughly onto the meat but not the skin. Leave, uncovered for 1 hour.
  5. Heat the oven to 230 C / 210 C fan. Rub a small amount of the oil over the skin and season with the remaining sea salt, making sure to get it between the scored cuts.
  6. Sit the pork in a large roasting tin, skin-side up, and roast for 45 minutes, until starting to crisp.
  7. Turn down the heat to 170 C/ 150 C fan, pour the chicken stock and white wine into the roasting tin, being really careful to not touch the skin! Roast for a further 3 hours. The meat should be very tender. The crackling probably won’t be quite done yet so turn the oven to grill and grill, keeping A VERY CAREFUL EYE on the meat until the skin is shatteringly crisp.
  8. Take the joint out of the oven and cover loosely with foil to rest for 20 - 30 minutes. Serve with the XO sauce and stir fried greens.