Belly Delicious! Two Pork Belly Experiments

It all started because of this video. . .

A friend of ours shared it in Facebook. I found it compelling and watched it many times (with the volume turned off). It inspired me to give it a go. Happily, we already have the ingredients at home, except for the pork belly. I followed the recipe to a T, and here’s what I ended up with.

The next experiment was Panlasang Pinoy‘s recipe for Crispy Oven-Broiled Liempo (liempo is pork belly in Tagalog).

I already have a go-to recipe for Lechon Kawali that requires a deep fryer, but I wanted a recipe that doesn’t require deep frying. As heavenly as deep fried pork belly is, actually deep frying the pork belly requires mad deep frying skills that I don’t possess. I am always running away from the deep fryer after throwing the meat inside. Oil spatters aren’t fun.

Imagine my glee when I read this recipe. It required steaming the pork belly, leaving it to cool down and finally putting it in the oven. After steaming, I placed the meat in the freezer for 10 minutes so it’ll cool quickly. Once cooled down, I poked holes in the pork skin, which was something I learned from the video above. Then all it needed was salt and pepper!

I thought 30-45 minutes would suffice to make the skin crispy, but when I tried it, it took almost an hour. As you can see, the edges got slightly burnt, but it was definitely crispy!

The next time that I’ll make Chinese Roasted Pork Belly, I’ll mix the white pepper, five spice and salt before rubbing on the meat. Thanks to this recipe, I learned that it’s important to poke holes on the skin, not the fat.

Both experiments were easy to prepare with minimal ingredients, broiled and crisped to crunchy perfection. Given it’s pork belly, it’s hardly heart-healthy but if you feel like indulging in some pork goodness, both recipes will serve you well. You’ll definitely enjoy those delicious little bites of pork.