Pork belly is a rare treat for me. I hope this one is worth it.

Time: 2 Hours + overnight

Ingredient Availability: 3/5

Difficulty: 1/5

Pork belly, in my experience, is very easy to make good. Usually, I would just buy it sliced and marinate it in a teriyaki or bulgogi sauce and fry it up. It has never disappointed. This recipe takes a lot more effort and time than what I’m used to, so I have pretty high expectations for it. Given the picture in Joshua Weissman’s Texture over Taste, I expect the texture to be very crispy on the skin. I’m not sure what to expect from the flavor. Let’s see if this is worth it.

Key Ingredients and Omissions:

As I said, I usually just buy pre sliced pork belly when I make marinated pork belly for myself. I thought that skin on pork belly that wasn’t sliced wouldn’t be that hard to find. I was wrong, I had to go to my local butcher to find pork belly that fit that description. I was not able to find calamansi or yuzu. I just used lemon instead. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: When recipe authors call for a relatively obscure ingredient, they really need to provide a more common substitute. Giving me the option between yuzu and calamansi does not help, as neither one is common. Other than those two things, Everything else was fairly standard and easy to find.

Tools:

• Frying pot or wok

• Boiling Pot

Cooking Review:

Prep: 8 minutes

The prep for this recipe included slicing the chilies and adding all the ingredients to a pot of water with the pork belly.

Boiling Pork Belly: 1 hour

After about 10 minutes on medium high, the water had come to a boil. Once boiling, I began flipping the pork belly every now and then to make sure it cooked evenly, as it curled up during the boil. I boiled it for a total of 50 minutes. I then transferred it to baking sheet with a cooling rack.

Sauce: 10 minutes (while pork was boiling)

While the pork was boiling, I mixed the lemon juice with the garlic, chiles, and soy sauce.

Cooling and rubbing with salt: 16 minutes

After cooling, for about 15 minutes, I rubbed the skin with salt and put it in the refrigerator to chill overnight.

Cubing and baking Pork: 16 minutes

I took the pork out of the fridge and cut it into chunks and arranged them on a baking sheet. I baked them at 300 degrees Fahrenheit for 6 minutes.

Frying: 26 minutes (3 batches)

I had the oil coming up to temperature during the last step, so when the pork came out of the oven, the oil was ready to fry them. I transferred some of the pork into the oil and fried for about 10 minutes for the first batch. The oil temperature dropped considerably, so it took longer for the skin to puff and blister. Keep that in mind and try your best to keep the temperature of the oil as close to 350 degrees Fahrenheit as possible. Also, don’t overcrowd the pot. The next batch took only 5 minutes, while the last batch took 7.  At that point, this dish was done.

Analysis:

Well, I found a way to mess up pork belly. The pork was tough, chewy, and dry. The flavor without the sauce was very light and you could pick up on some of the flavors from the boiling step. As far as the crispiness went, it wasn’t all that crispy. Although the skin did blister, it didn’t really puff much, so there wasn’t a lot of crunch to it. The sauce is pretty much necessary. While it is fairly spicy, the flavor is very nice despite not using yuzu or calamansi. They soy sauce and lemon juice compliment each other pretty well. Overall, I was disappointed with this. I’m gonna stick to just marinating and cooking sliced pork belly, which is easier to find and work with. I’m going to give this recipe a 5/10. I would recommend trying the sauce, but skip the pork. The sauce is nice on chicken, so it doesn’t need to be used with pork exclusively. Given the difficulty to find the ingredients and the 2+ hours it takes to make, I don’t think making the Lechon Pork Belly is worth it.