Happy Lunar New Year! Growing up, roast pork was at every Chinese holiday meal. It was a tradition for my grandpa to go to Chinatown and pick up roast pork, roast duck, bbq pork, and drunken chicken for my entire extended family.
My mom was super excited that I was trying my hand at roast pork. She said mine wasn’t as good as the BEST roast pork place in Vancouver, B.C., but my dad and brother really liked it so I will take that as a win!
Make sure you pick a good piece of pork belly at the store. I made the mistake of letting the guy at the counter pick for me and ended up with a piece with too much fat. You want a piece that has really even layers of meat and fat. Chef K and I personally don’t want a mouthful of pork fat, but luckily my brother does so he really enjoyed that.
The toughest part of nailing a good roast pork is getting that perfectly crispy skin. That is why you have to dry out your meat first and then broil the skin later.
Ours got a little burned in the middle because my brother failed to tell me that the oven at my parent’s house had a hot spot. Brothers are the worst sometimes… the skin did come out nice and crispy though, so I was happy!
Keep your spices on your pork, not the floor,
Your favorite alternative chefs, K & T
Chinese Roast Pork
Ingredients
- 3 lbs pork belly skin on
- 9 cloves garlic
- 2 tsps rice wine
- 2 tsps salt
- 1 tsp coconut sugar
- ½ tsp five spice powder
- ¼ tsp white pepper
- 1½ tsp rice wine vinegar
- ½ cup rock salt
Instructions
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Use a metal skewer or some sharp skinny tools to prick lots of holes into the skin. Be sure not to pierce the fat, just the skin. You can also just score the pork a little with a sharp knife.
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Turn the pork belly over so that you can rub the flesh side with the rice wine.
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Mix salt, coconut sugar, five spice, and white pepper together. Rub mixture all over the flesh of the pork.
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Dab the skin dry with paper towels and place meat skin side up in the fridge uncovered for 12 - 24 hours to dry out.
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
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Remove pork from fridge and place on a sheet of foil. Fold up the edges of the foil to create a neat little box around the pork, so that the edges are just slightly higher than the pork.
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Dab the skin dry before brushing with rice wine vinegar, then spread rock salt evenly over the skin.
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Roast for 60 minutes. Remove from oven and scrape all the salt off the top of the pork and discard extra salt. Place pork belly back on the foil.
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Switch your oven to broil on medium high. The pork belly should be about 10 inches from the the top of the oven when you put it back in the oven.
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Broil for 20 - 25 minutes, rotating the sheet pan at the 10 minute mark. Broil until you get a nice crispy skin.