The belly is cooked in a couple of stages to really get the flavor in, and it is slow-cooked to really get the meat lush and tender. begin by completely tenderizing the slabs of pork belly in the slow cooker together with our basic flavoring components. You can use any blend of aromatics and spices at this point. Get the pork really tender, stopping just before the point that it starts to fall apart. Set it on a wire rack, and leave it out to cool to room temperature.

Heat up enough vegetable oil in the fryer to get the pork totally submerged. Fry the slabs of pork belly over low heat until it gets an even golden brown color.

Once nice and golden, take the pork out of the fryer and set it on a cooling rack to drain off any excess oil and to cool down to room temperature. Once the pork has cooled down, get the oil in the fryer really hot and flash-fry those pork belly slices for about a minute or two. Finally, take the pork out of the oil and again set it on the cooling rack to air dry for a couple more minutes.

Ingredients

  • 1 kg of pork belly
  • 100 ml dry cider
  • 4 tbsp honey
  • 2 tbsp dark soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp oyster sauce
  • 1 red chilli – finely chopped
  • 2 tbsp brown sugar
  • 2 tbsp plain flour
  • Salt & pepper

Instructions;

  1. Preheat the oven to 160°c
  2. Score the skin of the belly in a cross pattern, then pour boiling water over the top of the skin, this helps to open up the top layer so you can get the flavour in.
  3. Rub in a few pinches of salt and pepper into the skin. Pop into the oven in a small, lightly oiled, roasting tin for 2 hours.
  4. After 2 hours, take the belly out. Keeping it in the tin, pop a smaller roasting tray on top and weigh down with some cans/bag of sugar/something heavy and pop in the fridge.
  5. Mix the cider, honey, soy sauce, oyster sauce, chilli and sugar together in a bowl, slowly add the flour.
  6. After one hour, take the belly out of the fridge, cut into slices, and pour over half of the dressing. Make sure all the sides are covered. Pop back in the fridge.
  7. After one more hour, pour the rest of the dressing over and pop in the oven for 30mins (still at 160°c).
  8. Once the belly is ready, heat a glut of oil in a frying pan and top each slice of the belly, skin side down and fry for a couple of minutes to get the skin super crispy.
  9. Let the pork belly rest before serving