CANTONESE ROAST PORK BELLY
Siu yuk, or Cantonese Roasted Pork Belly, is being added to our list of common roast meats in Chinatown restaurants.
That said, while I grew up eating it, I had no idea how to make it at all.
Even though this Chinese crispy roast pork belly dish was written by me, I received a lot of help from my parents in the making of it. We conducted our homework and found the information to be quite accurate.
We agreed on a roast pork belly recipe, and I cooked it on my own. It’s a lot easier than you think. Down below, I’ll show you how it’s done without revealing any spoilers.
You’ll see that we utilized a slab of pork belly with the ribs still attached for our Chinese roast pork belly dish. We figured this would help keep the meat juicy. If you choose, you can remove (and then eat) the ribs before slicing your pork after it’s been roasted in this manner.
However, without the ribs, it is easier to cook the pork uniformly. We’ll show you exactly how to adjust the cooking time in our detailed instructions. This decision is solely yours.
Pork belly, Shaoxing wine, five-spice powder (white pepper), rice vinegar, and salt are all you need for this recipe.
That’s all there is to it.
My reaction was the same as yours: “Wow!” We now come to the recipe…
INGREDIENTS:
- 3 lb slab of pork belly
- 2 teaspoons of Shaoxing wine
- 2 teaspoons of salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoon of rice wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon of sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon of five-spice powder
- 1/2 cup of coarse sea salt
- 1/4 teaspoon of white pepper
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Rinse and pat dry the pork belly. Rub in the Shaoxing wine while it’s still skin-side down on a baking sheet (not the skin). Salt, sugar, five-spice powder, and white pepper should be combined. Rub the meat with the spice mixture as well. Turn the meat over so that the skin-side is facing up.
- To proceed, you’ll need a metal skewer with a sharp point. In order to get the skin to crisp up rather than become leathery, poke holes all over the surface. Actually, the more holes there are, the better. Let it sit out in the open for 12-24 hours in the fridge.
- Preheat the oven to 375°F. Fold up the sides of a big piece of aluminum foil (heavy-duty foil works best) onto a baking tray, and tuck the pork within, making a 1-inch-high border around the sides.
- On top of the pig skin, apply a thin layer of rice wine vinegar. Pork should be fully coated with a single layer of sea salt. In the oven, roast for one and a half hours. 1 hour and 45 minutes if the ribs are still connected to the pork belly
- Turn the broiler to low and lower the oven rack after removing the pork from the oven. Unfold the foil and remove the top layer of sea salt off the pork belly. Crisp up the pork by broiling it again. 5 to 10 minutes should suffice. The broiler should preferably be set to “low” to allow a more progressive cooking process. If your broiler gets too hot, keep the pig as far away from the heat source as possible. To avoid burning, pay strict attention to it.
- Remove the meat from the oven when the skin has puffed up and become crispy.
- Slice it once it has rested for around 15 minutes.