Pork belly
This is a blimmin’ fantastic slow-cooked pork belly recipe. With very little effort, you end up with that wondrous contrast of meltingly delicious meat and salty crunchy crackling. I’ve tried loads of pork belly recipes using all manner of spices, brines, sauces and seasonings, but we’re going back to basics here. I just serve this chopped up on a board and people can pick at it – it’s heaven, although it doesn’t last long! Sometimes, I add a little homemade apple sauce to cut through the richness.
Ingredients
1-2kg pork belly (free range is best)
Olive oil
Salt
Note: If you’re buying pork belly from your local butcher, ask them to ‘score’ the skin for you so you don’t have to. Sometimes it’s already scored when you buy it – even then I usually add a few more cuts for good measure.
Method
Preheat the oven to 130c conventional bake.
Place the pork belly skin-side up on a clean chopping board and pat the skin very dry with paper towels. If the skin has not already been scored, carefully slice lines right across the belly using a sharp knife, about 1cm apart. You want to pierce through the tough skin and just go into the fat layer, not cut into the meat underneath. Scoring helps the crackling puff up later.
Place the pork belly skin side up in a roasting pan, preferably sitting on a wire rack if you have one. Drizzle and rub a good amount of olive oil all over the whole pork belly (including the underside) so it’s all coated. Sprinkle the skin side generously with salt and massage it in. I give it a hit of cracked pepper here too.
If there’s any meat poking out, try and tuck it under best you can so it’s not exposed.
Place the pork in the middle of the oven (skin side up) and cook in for 4 hours.
After 4 hours, increase the temperature to 150c and cook for another 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes, change the oven setting to ‘grill’ on medium-high. Move the pork belly to the top of the oven and grill the skin until it goes puffy and golden all over (it might only take a minute – watch it closely or it will burn!).
Transfer to a chopping board and cut into pieces to serve. For a meal it’s delicious with a nice zesty salad or a slaw and pumpkin or orange kumara mash.
Betcha there’s none left at the end…
First pork belly I ever done, best pork belly I ever had! Love the crispy crackle. Thanks a lot Chelsea!
A balsamic reduction makes a yum dipping sauce for the crackling. Pork belly and good salad, can’t beat it!
I just got a pork belly from our butcher today — have never cooked it and your recipe sounds perfect. One question, though: At the end, you set the oven to “grill”. Would that be the same as “broil” here in the US, do you think? I’ve never seen “grill” as an oven setting.
Cooked this for my friends and best pork belly I have tasted.
Amazing and would do it again
Try it guys and gals easy
Hi Chelsea,
Do you recommend resting the meat before serving? If so how long per 100g?
Trying this out tonight with your crunchy potatoes for my anniversary dinner with my man, all is looking great so far. Hopefully if he likes it Santa will be dropping off your cookbook this Christmas! Ta.
Rachel :)
Hi Chelsea,
I have made this numerous times in my old house with a conventional oven and I works out perfect every time! I have now moved to a new house with a Gas oven. What gas mark would each stage need to be? I hope it works!!
Cheers,
Naomi
Hi Chelsea – when the pork comes out of oven and before you grill the top would this be ok to leave it for 20-25 mins to do your crunchy potatoes – then grill the crackling???
Yep!
Hi Chelsea we have a fan assisted oven only would I need to reduce the temp or cooking times for a 500g to 1 kg piece of pork belly (only for 2 people ) and were can I find your kumara and orange mash recipe please what to make this xmas day with your yummy crispy potatoes thank you
Hi Chelsea my oven is fan assisted should I reduce the cooking times and Temp for the pork belly and were can I fine your kumara and orange mash recipe going to make this for xmas with your crispy potatoes yum thank you love your recipes
I made this for my family it was absolutely amazing.Thanks for the best recipe ever as before this I had never used pork belly and I will definitely be making this again.
I Am making this for the second time in two weeks. Is is so easy and the crackling is perfect. Thanks Chelsea for sharing :-)
My Mum makes this for me all the time and I love it!!!!!
Just love this recipe. Its the best for pork belly. Have recommended it to several friends. Keep coming up with your easy but successful recipes.
This is absolutely amazing and so easy for a basic cook like me! It’s a favourite in our house and always disappears quickly. Thanks for the great recipes Chelsea!
Does this work the same using rice bran oil? Haven’t got olive oil.
Yes.
I know this dish is irresistible, but I would comment that if there are no leftovers – perhaps consider cooking a bigger piece! :-).
We have a very simple dish we always, always make with the leftovers.
We slice the leftover meat into batons and warm through gently in a non-stick pan (from a cold pan, no fats or water needed), then toss the warmed meat through a very simple (Thai inspired) stirfry. It’s a real favourite of ours – would probably work with anyone’s favourite stirfry dish.
hi at what temperature do you slow roast ?
We used your recipe to cook our piece of pork belly yesterday, and it’s the best pork belly recipe we’ve found yet! Hard to get this one wrong, it’s just so simple. This might even be a go-er for our Christmas day cooked meat rather than any other roast. Pork belly really is the best bit of pork you can cook, the crackling and lovely juicy meat without any leftover dry meat. Love how all (well perhaps not all..) the fat just drips into the tray below as it’s slowly cooking away in the oven. YUM!
Hi Chelsea.Tried your pork belly,wow it was wonderful,your recipes are just great.
Hi Chelsea,
We had pork belly at a restaurant the other night, it was lovely but when I read your receipe decided to give ago and scored 10/10 from my husband.
So thanks Chelsea, that’s a great compliment as my husband is a fussy eater.
Hi Chelsea, are your oven temps for fan bake or just normal? Also could you use a slow cooker for the first bit then transfer to oven to grill skin?
Just normal. And no, I wouldn’t recommended a slow cooker.
In the oven!!! Thanks Chelsea this is a fam favourite now!! I rub fennel seeds in as well (pinched that from Jaimie Oliver) just to mix it up a bit, and it’s totes ammaze. Thanks for the foolproof tasty recipe!! xx YUUUUMY
Hi Chelsea, could you sit the pork belly on veg e.g. sliced fennel, sliced apple, sliced onion, garlic, salt and pepper instead of a rack?
Yes!
Hi Chelsea, how long would a small 600g piece take? :)
its in the oven right now cant wait!!
Hi Chelsea, Iam cooking this on friday night for my family,do you do a ju that goes with the pork belly ? thanks Delwyn
Following your Facebook post of pork belly.. I immediately thought YUM… having sourced from Pokeno butcher and following your recipe we had the best pork dinner ever.. moist, tasty, crispy crackling.. Absolutely delicious… made my husband’s Father’s Day… thank you!
I start with a hot oven for an hour to get a good crackle started.
Then fill pan with apple cider up to the skin so meat is in a delicious cider bath and won’t dry out. Cover and Cook for 3-4 hours.
Finish under grill.
This also allows you to create moist tasty pulled pork.
Perfect timing. I have a piece of pork belly sitting in my fridge and was wonderong how to cook it this time for Father’s Day. Lets hope it turns out as delicious as it looks.
Thanks so much for that recipe – I followed it on the weekend for my flatmates birthday (she loves pork belly) and I have never cooked it before – in fact, I am pretty hopeless with cooking pork as it is not my favourite meat! It was so easy and simple and OMG – taste bud ZING!!!!! loved it, and really loved the pork for a change! Am going to use this again!
Hi, I’ve never cooked pork belly before so have been surfing a few recipes. I see Jamie Oliver’s recipe starts with an uber hot oven and then gets turned down yet your recipe does time other way around. Could you give me some insight on the difference? Thanks heaps.
This recipe is divine. I have done several pork belly recipes which have been quite fiddly and make a heck of a mess but this is simple and the tastiest I have tried….search over!! Thanks Chelsea……….keep them coming!!
Would this same easy concept work with a boneless lion roast or would it dry it out?
I’ve made this as my go-to for quite a few dinners with friends ALWAYS with great results. Tomorrow I’m making it with your crispy roast potatoes for a group of 6 Frenchies deep in the the mountains in Les Ecrins, France. Wish me luck! :)
Good luck!
Hey Chelsea! Just wondering if this would work with wild pork too? Thanks!
As long as it’s fatty, sure thing!
I’m trying it tonight yay!! Always wanted to cook it but didn’t think it was so easy thanks Chelsea
Wow! I’m a meat loving man and decided to try cooking pork belly for the first time ever. I was a but nervous to be honest as this is a holy grail protein for me.
I followed this recipe word for word minute to minute and Boom. .. restaurant quality pork belly for 4 served!
I don’t think I’ll ever order this on a night out ever again! Thank you so much for this recipe. Legend!
How long would you cook this for in a fan forced oven?
Cooked crispy pork belly lastnight awesome recipe we all loved it :). My daughter made your choc fruit cheesecake, thanks to your wonderful recipe’s we had a perfect meal. Cheers Chelsea :)
OMG best pork belly I’ve ever had, no left overs and just melts in your mouth.
Hi Chelsea. For some strange reason i preheated the oven on fan grill and had it cooking for 20 minutes on it before realising & resetting at bake.Do I have to adjust the time of 4 hours? Is thermowave setting the same as fanbake ? If it is, can I use this setting for the next time?
This is the only way I do Pork Belly now!!! Love it :)
Thanks Chelsea – just tried this one out & it was yummy! Worked really well with the coleslaw & kumara mash – will def do this again!
Yum Chelsea, this bad boy is cooking as we speak. Thank you for keeping it simple, can’t wait to whip up a tasty slaw, kumara mash and devour it with the family! Perfect sunday delight…
Hi, if I have already leave my pork belly overnight in the fridge, does it still need to be 4 hours cooking in the oven? Thanks.
Hi Erika, I’m not sure what you mean…
Have had a pork belly cut in my freezer for sometime not knowing how to go about cooking it. Came across your recipe Chelsea and cooked it last night. What can I say other than Yummy Yummy it just melted in the mouth and the crackling best ever.
This was a great hi with my son in law, so much so that he has asked for the recipe so he can cook it tonight :). A great and very easy recipe :)
My husband and I absolutely love pork now because of this simple yet bloody genius recipe!!! We are now sold on pork, not just red meat – yay!
Thanks Melissa – Chelsea’s recipe sounded fantastic but your comments have sold me – have the pork belly in the fridge – will be cooking this for dinner!
In the oven now, am really looking forward to this as I’ve never cooked a Pork Belly before.
Thanks for a simple and easy to read recipe, too many sites make it hard with heaps of ads etc
Simply the best…..
served it with a ranchslaw and home made apple sauce.Told my mates at the squash club your method and website too
thank you for the recipe