Chinese Roast Pork Belly – What Went Wrong?

My intention for my second post was to write about how to roast pork belly. But, the pork belly didn’t quite work out, so I am going to write about how not to roast a pork belly.

Pork belly is one of those cuts that would make any nutritionist cringe and run. But for me, the words “pork belly” make me salivate. It always comes out so juicy and tender. But, so as to not freak out all the nutritionists out there, I would recommend limiting your consumption of pork belly to a minimum. (Although, I think pork belly will be, if it’s not already, the new gastronomic craze.)

The cut is from – you guessed it – the belly of the pig. Most people would say they have never eaten pork belly, but I would argue that most people have since it’s the same cut of meat that is used for bacon, which is another one of my all-time favorite things. It’s almost impossible to ruin a piece of pork belly because it’s fat layered with some meat.

So, how did I ruin my slab of pork belly…well, I’ll tell you…

For Chinese roast pork belly you use a slab of meat that has a layer of meat on the bottom, and then a thick layer of fat and then the skin of the pig. Yes, the skin of the pig. The Chinese way of making the roast pork belly is to roast the slab in an oven and then place the slab under the broiler for a few minutes to crisp up the skin. If done correctly, you end up with an incredibly juicy and flavorful piece of meat and a crunchy outer edge that adds this wonderful texture to each mouthful.

If done incorrectly, you end up with a juicy and flavorful piece of meet with a hard outer edge that will fatigue your jaws because it’s so hard to chew. Unfortunately, that’s what I ended up with the other night. But, everyone can learn through trial and error, right?

Chinese Roast Pork Belly
2 pound slab of pork belly
1 clove of garlic
3 tablespoons of five spice powder
3 tablespoons of salt
1 tablespoon of white pepper

On Thursday I went to Chinatown to get the pork belly. I find it impossible to find pork belly at my local grocery stores, and when I do find it, the cuts are really thin, sort of like thick bacon. But, what you want for this recipe is a slab. Since pork belly is used in so many Asian dishes, you will have no problem finding this in Chinatown. I bought a two-pound slab, which cost me $4.70! C-H-E-A-P!

Pork belly - see the layers of meat and fat?

I also picked up five spice powder. This is also something I haven’t seen in local grocery stores, but it’s quite easy to find in the Asian markets. Five spice powder is a mixture of star anise, cloves, ginger, cinnamon and fennel seeds. It’s used to season a lot of different dishes in Malaysian and Chinese cuisines. I think it adds a nice richness to the dishes. To me it adds that same kind of warmth and comfort that adding cinnamon and nutmeg does for pumpkin pie.

Take the slab of pork belly and just rinse it under cold water. Make sure you dry off the slab with paper towel and make sure to dry the loose layers in between the fat and the meat too. Cut the clove of garlic in half and then rub the garlic all over the slab. You want to just infuse a bit of the garlic to the meat. Mix the five spice powder, salt and pepper together and then rub it all over the slab and make sure you get in between the layers too. Now, place the slab on a raised roasting rack with a pan underneath. The slab will produce a lot of drippings, so you need something to catch the drippings. Place the pan, uncovered, in the fridge for at least five hours and up to 24 hours. By letting is sit in the fridge uncovered, you’re further drying out the skin and making it easier to have it crisp up.

Leave the pork belly, uncovered, in the fridge for at least five hours

Once you’re ready to cook, take the pan out of the fridge and let the slab warm to room temperature for about 15 minutes or so. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the pan in the oven and let roast for about 30 minutes. After it has been roasting for about 30 minutes, place the pan under the broiler to crisp up the skin…and this is where it all fell apart for me…

During this process you want to check on the pork belly fairly often to make sure it doesn’t burn. I remember when my mom would make this she would squat in front of the oven door and just stare at the pork belly until it was done. This process can actually take about 20 minutes – so you know my mother was getting a great thigh and buttocks workout from this!

Anyway, I was making this at J’s place, so I wasn’t completely familiar with the oven (not that I’m making excuses) and I didn’t know how to turn the oven light on. So, I opened the oven door to check on the pork belly. The first time I opened the door, everything looked good and smelled good. The second time I opened the door, everything looked good and smelled good…and then the smoke detector went off. The whole apartment was totally smokey. I quickly ran to the smoke detector waving an oven mitt and was able to reset it. Phew. I went back to the kitchen and checked on the pork belly, again opening up the oven door. Again, the smoke detector went off. Again I went running with the oven mitt and was able to reset it. I did this routine about five times until J came home only to see me mid-flight between the kitchen and the smoke detector. He tried to take off the smoke detector, but I think the code for new buildings is to have smoke detectors that can’t be taken off. And, by this time the apartment was so smoky that the smoke detector couldn’t be shut off or reset. So, I had to just turn off the oven and take the pork belly out.

Burnt roast pork belly - ugh!

So, there are a few things that might have gone wrong:

1) I placed the pork belly too close to the broiler,
2) You’re supposed to take a paper towel and pat off some of the grease on the skin throughout the broiling process, but maybe I should have done this before the broiling process
3) I should have first figured out how to turn on the oven light

Anyway, it certainly didn’t turn out looking the way I had wanted it to – the skin hadn’t crisped up and some of it was burnt – but, we ate it anyway and it tasted OK.