Who doesn't love pork crackling...? After years of struggling to get my pork joint perfect I've finally nailed it. I could never find the balance, I either had lovely juicy meat and chewy no good crackling or the opposite, perfect crackling and dry over cooked meat... well this recipe is a game changer.
I've found that the biggest must for crispy crackling is to make sure you pre salt the skin at least an hour in advance. I knew it had to be salted to draw out the excess mixture but I always did it in a hurry and the salt got no longer then 10mins to draw it out... big mistake. So be sure to put a nice thick layer of course salt all over the skin and leave it while you enjoy a bit of brekkie and your already half way to crackling heaven.
I hope you enjoy this recipe and it works out as deliciously as it did for me... you can check out how mine turns out on my Instagram page my profile is katiecooks.co.uk, there's a direct link on my website homepage... be sure to tag me on instagram with your crackled pork joint.
Prep time 20mins (+ 1hr salting time minimum)
Cooking time 3.5hrs
1kg Pork Belly
Lots of salt (don't worry we won't be eating it)
3tbsp olive oil
600ml chicken or veg stock (or enough to come at 3/4 of the way up the meat)
2 sticks of celery, roughly chopped
2 carrots, roughly chopped
2 shallots,
3 garlic cloves, bashed
Few sprigs of dried thyme
2 bay leaves
At least an hour before cooking heavily salt the skin of the pork belly, pop back in the fridge until your ready to cook.
15mins before you want to start cooking the joint take it out of the fridge, you'll notice the salt has drawn out a lot of moisture, this is great...Wipe the salt from the skin using kitchen towel and re salt it heavily for another 15 mins while the oven pre heats.
Pre heat the oven to 210c
Once again wipe all the excess salt from the skin. Place the pork in a roasting tray and then brush the skin with the oil, season once again with salt, not as much as when we were drying the skin out but just a little heavier then you would normally season a joint.
Pop it in the oven for 25mins.
After this time, take the pork joint out, and LOWER the oven temperature to 160c... don't forget to do this!!
Carefully pour the stock around the pork joint being careful not to get any on the skin. Scatter the veg and herbs around the sides of the joint and place in the oven uncovered for 3 hours.
You can check the pork every now and again and just top up the stock, I find I have to do this twice during the cooking time.
After the 3 hours you should have beautifully soft meat with the crispiest of crackling.
Remove and rest uncovered for 15mins before carving.. of you can resist the golden crackling for that long!!
You can use strain some of the liquid and add it to your gravy, it'll taste delicious!!
I always panicked if my crackling didn't start going all bubbly I presumed it wouldn't be crispy, but that couldn't have been further from the truth, even though my pork skin still appeared to be relatively flat it was really light and beautifully crisp.
