Crispy Five-Spice Pork Belly
A versatile dish - can be served with rice, vermicelli, rice paper rolls, banh mi - however you like to eat it!
Ingredients
- 1.5 kg Pork Belly Rib bones in or off
Dry rub
- 3 tbsp Five Spice Powder
- 1 tbsp Garlic Granules Powder also ok
- 1 tbsp Chilli Flakes Not powder
- 1 tsp Salt Flay preferred
For the skin
- 1 tbsp Salt Flaky preferred
- 2 tbsp Neutral Flavoured Oil
For the oven
- 5 pcs Whole Star Anise Do not use powder
- 700 ml Boiling water from the kettle
Instructions
A day before cooking
- Mix the spices together to form a dry rub. Pat the pork skin and meat dry. Flip the meat so it's skin side down and rub the spice-mix onto the meat-side, NOT the skin-side.
- Score the pork skin by either slicing thin cuts about 3mm apart or stab the pork with the tip of the knife multiple times (be careful!). Once scored, salt the skin generously, and place on a tray in the fridge overnight to dry.See notes for butcher vs vacuum sealed pork.
The next day
- Next day, take the pork belly out of the fridge. Pre-heat the oven to 160 C fan-forced while the pork belly comes to room temperature.Pat the top of the skin dry if you see moisture on top. If some salt gets removed, that's ok!
- Place about 1 tbsp of neutral flavoured oil on the skin and spread around just on the skin.
- In an oven tray, place about 5 star anise and pour in roughly 500-700ml of hot water from the kettle. The quantity doesn't matter, you just want to not have the water dry out as you cook. On a rack, place the pork belly on top, not touching the water. Check the pork from time to time and if the water has dried up, pour in more hot water.
- Place the tray of hot water and pork belly in the oven, uncovered and roast for 1.5 - 2.5 hours. See notes re: cooking time.
- After roasting, turn the oven heat up to 230-240 C (depending on how hot your oven can go) and roast on high temperature for about 20 minutes, checking the colour through the oven door to ensure it doesn't burn. It can take less or more time depending on how dry the skin got.
- Once the skin has bubbled, become golden and crispy, remove the pork out of the oven and leave to rest at least 30 minutes.
- Chop and serve. Tip cut so the crispy skin side is on the board, slice through the meat and use the force of your palm against the knife to force the knife through the crispy skin.