How To Cook Pork Belly In The Oven Quickly

It was my first time cooking pork belly and this was a great jumping off point.

How to cook pork belly in the oven quickly. Placing the belly skin side up is essential to tender meat because the fat renders it while it cooks. I lucked into a 1 25 lb slab of pork belly from my local butcher and followed this recipe with great success. Remove the pork belly from the bag rinse off any big pieces of spice and pat dry with a clean towel. Don t worry about adding additional oil since pork belly has a high fat content.

Traditionally pork belly has always favoured slow cooking methods this allows the fat to render into the meat over time leaving the resulting flesh moist and tender. Brine the pork belly in water salt sugar and spices in a zip top bag placed in a baking dish for six hours. While the oven roasted pork belly is a beautiful thing sometimes you just don t have time to wait or the desire to heat up the kitchen. Place pork belly skin side down in a large baking dish.

Typically recipes call for around 2 hrs at 180c 160c fan gas 4 then a further 30 mins or so at 200c 180c fan gas 6. I combined the cooking method for our pan fried chicken with the ease of skillet chicken bits to make this skillet fried pork belly possible in less than 15 minutes. As the name implies pork belly is taken from the belly of the pig this means it has a very high fat content which gives the meat a lot of flavour. Allow the pork belly to rest in the fridge uncovered for about 4 hours before you plan to cook it.

Rest the pork belly uncovered in a warm place for 20 minutes. Make sure the pork is cold when you score it so it s easier to cut. You can check the juices by piercing the meat with a skewer. If you re cooking pork belly on the stove cut the meat into strips that are 1 4 to 1 2 inch to thin.

Bake until the pork is cooked through and tender about 2 hours. Roast for 30 minutes at 220 c. The skin will dry out and result in a crispier crackling. Turn oven down to 180 c and roast for a further 1 1 2 hours or until the juices run clear.

Drain the fat flip and bake for 5 7 more minutes until crispy. Place the pork belly into a roasting dish skin side up. Raise the temperature to 500 degrees f and continue cooking until the skin is golden brown bubbling and crispy about 20 minutes more. Cook the strips for 4 to 5 minutes flip and cook for an additional 4 to 5 minutes.