The Many Ways to Make Crispy Pork Belly
If you search the internet, you're going to find A LOT of different ways to make crispy pork belly. How do you know which to follow?? Well, lucky for you I have gone through many of those methods myself in order to actually understand what it is that creates these puffy, crispy skin we long for.
I have discovered that many of the methods that are either not very good, where the skin is crispy but not super puffy and bubbly. Or the skin is crispy but the meat is overcooked. Or it is unnecessarily complicated calling for steps that don't really need to be done at all...I guess many of it is "trim ends off the roast" kind of situation (hope you get my reference!). But most importantly, most of them don't explain WHY they are asking you to do these things, which you know is not my style!
So this recipe has been distilled down to the essentials, along with explanations, so that you only do what is necessary for excellent result. It is also optimized not only for beautiful crispy, puffed skin but also juicy, perfectly cooked meat.
How does Crispy Pork Belly Actually Work?
To get that crispy, golden, bubbly skin, you only need to make sure a few things happen:
- You need to poke lots of little holes in it. This breaks the skin integrity and allows it to puff into these gorgeous bubbles. If you don't poke the skin, you will still get crispy skin, but not puffy and bubbly. It is important not to poke holes that are too deep, or meat juices will flow up during roasting, making the skin wet, which interferes with the crisping.
- The skin needs to be DRY. You have heard me say this many times, but crispy = no moisture. If something is moist, it by definition cannot also be crispy at the same time. (This is why anything that's crispy-outside-soft-inside can only stay like that for a short time, because the moisture inside will eventually sog out the exterior.) Pork skin has a lot of moisture in it, so we have to make sure it is as dry as possible before we go to crisp the skin. We do this by salting the skin and letting salt draw out some moisture (and also season the skin), and then drying it in the fridge for a day before roasting.
- High heat. The skin will become crispy and puffy not when the pork is roasting, but when exposed to a sudden burst of high heat. In Thailand, this is done by deep frying, but we can also achieve the same result by broiling, or even roasting at very high heat.
What To Do With Leftovers?
Try your best to not have leftovers as this is one of those things that do NOT reheat well. The skin will go from crispy to chewy and disappointing. Also, try to serve it while it's fresh for maximum crispiness. Good news is you can roast the pork in advance, let it rest at room temp for up to 4 hours, and about 30-40 minutes before you want to serve it, put it under the broiler to crisp the skin.
Watch The Full Video Tutorial!
All my recipes come with step-by-step video tutorials with extra tips not mentioned in the blog post, so make sure you watch the video below to ensure success - and if you enjoy the show, please consider subscribing to my YouTube channel. Thank you!
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Crispy Puffy Pork Belly
- Yield: 3 servings
Ingredients
Serves 3
- 500g piece pork belly, centre cut (see vid for explanation)
- ½ tsp 5-spice powder (I have a recipe for this one the website, or you can buy)
- ¼ tsp white pepper, ground
- ¼ tsp salt for the meat, plus another ¼ teaspoon for the skin
Note: Do not make anymore than you can eat in one meal. This does not keep well and does not reheat well.
Dipping Sauce
- 1 Tbsp lime juice
- 1 Tbsp fish sauce
- ¾ tsp sugar or light brown sugar
- ½ tsp roasted chili flakes, or to taste
- 2 tsp toasted rice powder
- A little chopped green onions or cilantro (optional)
Instructions
Prepping the Pork:
- Using a meat tenderizer, a metal skewer, a thick wooden skewer, or an ice pic, poke as many holes as you can in the pork skin, being careful not to go too deep and puncture the meat.
- Use a sharp knife, score the skin into 1-inch strips, going only deep enough to break the skin, try not to cut too much into the fat, and definitely not into the meat.
- Turn the pork meat side up, and sprinkle ¼ teaspoon salt evenly over the meat. Then sprinkle ½ teaspoon 5-spice powder and rub it evenly into the meat. Finally, sprinkle ¼ teaspoon ground white pepper and press it in. Be careful not to let any of the spices get onto the skin.
- Wash your hands if you've got spices on it, so it won't get on the skin, then turn the pork back skin side up. Sprinkle about ¼ teaspoon of salt thoroughly over the skin; I prefer using coarser grain salt like kosher salt for this so it's easier to see that you have salted the skin evenly. Let sit for about 20 mins until you see lots of water drawn up out of the skin. Dab it dry, and brush off any remaining grains of salt.
- Place pork into a container and refrigerate, UNCOVERED, for at least 18 hours to dry out the skin. (I usually do it for 24, but 18 is the lowest I have personally gone and was still successful. I have seen other recipes say 12, but I have not tried this out myself).
Roasting the Pork
- Preheat oven to 350°F or 180°C, set the rack in the middle of the oven. Put pork on a rack so heat can circulate around the meat, then set it on top of foil-lined baking sheet (for easy cleaning).
- Roast for 50-60 mins, or until internal temp reaches a minimum of 145F. 50 minutes usually gives you juicy pork that is still beautifully pink inside. If you want well-done pork you will have to roast it for at least 60 minutes for this size, for a minimum temp of 160°F.
- TIP: You can take the pork to this stage up to 4 hours in advance, let it sit at room temp, and broil the skin about 40 minutes before ready to serve.
To Crisp The Skin:
- Once the pork is done, remove from the oven. If you're going to crisp the skin right away, turn the oven off and open the door for about a minute just to release the heat so the pork doesn't continue to roast while it's crisping the skin.
- Set the rack on the lowest or second lowest rung - you want the pork to be about 10 inches away from the broiling element.
- Switch to "broil" on high setting.
- If there's any fat pooling on the pork skin, dab it dry with paper towel, then broil the pork for 10-20 minutes or until the skin is puffed and bubbly all over. KEEP AN EYE ON IT! There may be hot spots that require you to turn the pork around half way through. Or if the pork is getting too browned on one side you can tent it with foil (sometimes the pork is not even and one side will be closer to the element than the other).
- *It's important to keep an eye on it. In my oven, it took 20 mins, in Adam's oven it took only 10 cuz it's smaller and the pork was closer to the element. So it can vary a lot!
- Let the pork rest for at least 15 minutes before slicing.
For the dipping sauce:
- Combine fish sauce, lime juice, sugar, chili flakes and stir until sugar is dissolved.
- When ready to serve, stir in toasted rice powder and green onions or cilantro.
Margo says
I followed your recipe exactly. I had purchased some sliced raw pork belly and painstakingly poked holes, salted and 5 spiced. I allowed it to dry uncovered for 19 hours until we could wait no longer. I used bamboo skewers to draw the slices together and cooked as you suggested!
I would say that the outcome was perfect.
I had to toast my own rice flour and it added a lovely taste to your sauce!
Thank you X yum!
Frank van der Knoop says
Most Thai recipes I've seen (I can read Thai) also use vinegar to rub the skin. What's the purpose of that?
Thanks!
Li says
Ooh thank you sooo much for posting this! I finally had success using your recipe and method! Perfect crispy puffy skin and without all that faff! I also learnt where I went wrong in the past, I watched the video and understood what “poke as many holes as you can” meant! 😂. I’d previously read and tried the various other methods to achieve the crispy skin like boiling the skin first, baking it with a layer of salt, brushing it with vinegar etc but the results did not have the puffy crispy skin, I’d describe it more like teeth breakers. Admittedly, I only try it to make crispy roast pork belly after every 10 years, because it’s such a mess to clean up the oil splatter in the oven but at least that effort was worth while this time! Thank you
Günter says
Hi Palin,
Really perfect crunchy pork belly! I learned from you that the use of a tenderizer is essential to get this result. I live in Germany and unfortunately I could not find a company where I can buy it. Can You help me?
Dave says
This is great, I cooked something! I ate it and enjoyed it! And everyone who ate it is still alive! This is a vast improvement. Great recipe, many thanks 🙏
Pailin Chongchitnant says
GUests being alive is the most important thing. Well done 😉
Ken H says
If I use a larger piece of pork belly, say 1 kg or 1.5 kgs, how long should I roast it for?
Dave says
I wanted to try this but my partner has bought pork belly with the bone still in, would you try with this or do I need to take the bone out? Many thanks
Pailin Chongchitnant says
I would take the bones out because the bones will mess with the cooking time and it would take longer to cook. And it would be hard for serving also as you'd have to cut through the bones somehow.
Gael says
Thank you for this simple but delicious of making crispy pork belly.
I have everything ready to start cooking and enjoying the results.
Definitely will be purchasing a meat tenderiser like yours, as you explained it will make a great difference.
Many thanks.
Fareels says
What do I do if I punctured the meat while tenderizing the skin?
Pailin Chongchitnant says
Nothing you can do to fix it unfortunately, but it'll still be fine if it's not too much!
Mina says
Easy and delicious!
Geoff McClure says
I have tried this recipe now three times. The first two were delicious but the skin never did get uniformly crisp and puffed. The third attempt I decided to cheat. I rested the meat for about 30 minutes then pan fried it skin side down in about 1/3 cup of the rendered oil from the pork belly...perfection!
Vy M says
Thank you Paline🙏
Great recipe!
Always puffy and tasty!
Love it
Neil says
Mine didn't puff up like yours - I can think of at least 2 reasons: 1; supermarket pork belly and 2; didn't prick enough, tho i did by a cheaper version of tenderiser (maybe i didn't have your fierce face when going at it) - was about 10 mins anyway, 3; tray was 1 rung too low from my grill.
I grilled 1 strip of the roasted pork - i wonder if i can "re-spike" the skin now?
The dip was fantastic!!!
Pailin Chongchitnant says
Glad you liked the dip! So my guess is that it wasn't hot enough...maybe your broiler isn't as hot so the pork needs to be closer. Try it again, you can "re-spike" if you wish! Hopes for better next time!
Muriel says
This recipe is easy and simple to make and makes the best pork belly! I receive compliments every time I make it so thanks for the great tips! I find it difficult to find that perfect piece of pork belly without wrinkly skin and I'm wondering whether there a way to remove or reduce the wrinkles on the pork skin? Do you have suggestions or will blanching the skin in boiling water help reduce the wrinkles?
Thanks.
Moey Mee Kheng says
Can I use a turbo broiler to roast following your method?
Chloe says
Why I tried this recipe today. Everything goes well until the broiling. After 25 mins broil in high my pork skin is no sign of puffy out and turning crispy .... then I got worried so move it to the top rack ending up burn the skin. Lmao my bad... but I wondering what else I did wrong.....
Pailin Chongchitnant says
Sorry it didn't turn out! Hard to say without knowing what you did differently, but possibly you did not poke the skin enough, as without poking, it will not puff.
Carmen says
I made this twice (in the past month) as I bought a larger chunk of pork belly. It's a "quick" and easy recipe - compared to boiling then drying or the salt crusted version. Followed the recipe to the letter except I used convection broil 350° for 55 minutes to get to 145° meat temperature. Then convection broil at 450° for 7 minutes, turned off the oven and left the pork in the oven for another 3 minutes. As you said, you have to keep an eye while on broil.
Jane says
The easiest method I’ve seen in a long time.. !
Thanks 🙏
Mimi says
I made mine with coarse salt on skin while baking with grey results too. But inconvenience as I don’t always have coarse salt on hand. So will try your way. I have 2 questions. Your recipe says to broil for 40 mins but your instructions says 10 or 20 min. Pls clarify. I have always broiled mine in too rack and it took 5 min or less but would like to try using a lower rack and leaving it longer, tour way. Also, broil at what degree? 450 or 500? Thanks
Chuck says
This is how I understand the recipe. She says to take it through the first stage up to 4 hours in advance if you're not ready to serve right away. 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes. Then you can broil it later for 10-20 minutes before serving to really crisp up the skin..
Michael says
Great method!
Earlier I used the "first cooking and fork" method. This one is much more easier.
Thanks!
VY T NGUYEN says
Great instruction!
Joannewalters says
Will definitely try
Cindy says
Would the time and temperature remain the same for a smaller piece of meat? I have two strips of pork belly I’d like to make.
Also, could I use an air fryer? I have a toaster oven style air fryer. But it gets really hot so I don’t know if I have to adjust the temperature or time.
Thanks!
Pat says
This is by far the best roast pork recipe I have ever made! Meat is juicy n skin is so crispy! Recipe is easy to follow too!!
Lana Ong says
How do I prevent big pocket of bubbles from forming? I piece the heck out of the skin but sometimes I get big pockets forming during the last broiling stage. 🤔
Pailin Chongchitnant says
I think what you're doing is the right direction, but you might have to be a little more aggressive with the poking to make sure you don't have any spots without holes. It's easy to feel like you've poked all areas, but if you don't push hard enough it might not have pierced through. Areas without holes is what would create those pockets.
Jeremy Whigham says
Easy to prepare and really good and crispy. Highly recommended.