Roasted/ Lechon Pork Belly Recipe | Panlasang Pinoy Recipes™ (2024)

FAQs

How do you keep a lechon belly crispy? ›

The skin wasn't dry enough. Make sure to pat the pork completely dry before rubbing in the salt and oil as excess moisture will stop it from crisping up. It's important to score the skin if you want it really crisp. You'll need a sharp knife for this, or ask your butcher to do it for you.

The secret to cooking pork belly is the combination of a gentle heat to tenderise the meat and short, high temperature blasts to crisp up the skin on the outside.

If your pork belly lechon is not crispy, then you may not have used enough salt when seasoning. Alternatively, you may have not coated the skin evenly with the salt. Salt reacts to the fat in the pork belly, causing the skin to puff up and harden.

It is a fact of life that dry skin crisps better than moist skin. Scotese's trick to crispy pork belly is to rub equal parts baking soda and salt into the skin—the combo of baking soda and salt will draw out moisture and set you up for success.

Pour a cup or more of boiling water over the skin. This will shrink the rind, allowing the incisions to open and enabling the heat, salt, and oil to penetrate deeper. Try to only pour the boiling water over the rind and not over any exposed meat on the roast, as this will dry the pork out.

Preheat oven to 230°C, 210°C fan or Gas Mark 8. Put the joint in a roasting tin on the top shelf for 20 minutes. This sudden blast of heat is the key to crispy crackling. Reduce the temperature to 180-190°C, 160-170°C fan or Gas Mark 4-5 and follow the cooking times below to ensure the joint is cooked through.

Cook approximately 1.5 hours, though a lot will depend on the size of your pork belly. You want to cook until the internal temperature is 160-165°F. Remove meat from oven and remove salt crust. It should come off in pieces.

Rub the roast with 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil and half a tablespoon of salt (more if you like salty crackling), making sure the oil and salt penetrate the scores. Place the roast on a wire rack inside a baking tray and cook at 240°C (max 250°C conventional) until the rind crackles, up to 50 minutes.

How do restaurants cook pork belly? ›

We soak the pork in water for about 20 to 25 minutes to wash away excess fat. Then we steam it for about 15 to 20 minutes until it's about 70% done. After that, we take it out of the water and poke holes in the pork with a needle and then rub it all over with salt and spices. Then we air dry it with a fan for 12 hours.

Here's a look at three easy ways to cook it: stovetop, grilling and oven roasted. It's a triple threat on the delicious front. Stovetop: Use 500 grams of pork belly, basically enough to cover the bottom of your pan in one layer.

I would store the lechon in a non air-tight container, like a KFC bucket/box with parchment paper. Paper bags are good options as well.

For the skin that's most likely already makunat, “All you need to do is put it in an air fryer, turbo broiler, toaster oven, or in your oven for approximately 10 minutes at 375 degrees F,” he says, taking a bite of a crunchy lechon skin he had finished heating. “It tastes as good as new,” he says.

Once the pork rinds are cooked and cooled, you can store them in a paper bag or an airtight container wrapped in paper towels at room temperature for 3 days. The paper towel will help absorb any moisture, keeping them as crunchy as possible.