ULTIMATE PORK BELLY | Jamie Oliver

pork belly

🥗Healthier: chicken thighs

💰Cheaper: pork shoulder

Chicken thighs offer a leaner option, while pork shoulder is more economical.

white wine

🥗Healthier: vegetable broth

💰Cheaper: apple cider vinegar

Vegetable broth reduces alcohol content, while apple cider vinegar provides acidity.

Go to your butchers and select a free-range piece of pork belly with good marbling.

Use a Stanley knife with a new blade to score the skin of the pork belly every centimeter in a herringbone pattern.

Make a flavored salt with 2 tablespoons each of coriander seeds, fennel seeds, black pepper, and sea salt, along with 2 bay leaves.

Rub the flavored salt mixture into the scored pork belly, ensuring it gets into the crevices.

Add a little olive oil to the pork belly to help with rendering the fat.

Quarter four white onions, leaving the skin on, and place them in a roasting pan as a trivet under the pork belly.

Place the pork belly skin side up on top of the onions in the roasting pan.

Preheat the oven to 230 degrees Celsius (about 450 degrees Fahrenheit) and roast the pork belly for 40 minutes to 1 hour until the skin is crackling.

After the initial roasting, lower the oven temperature to 150 degrees Celsius (about 300 degrees Fahrenheit).

Prepare vegetables by cutting potatoes, fennel, and carrots into inch-sized chunks, and breaking up a whole bulb of garlic while leaving the skins on.

Season the vegetables with salt and pepper and mix them well without adding oil.

Place the pork belly back in the oven on the top rack and the vegetables underneath to catch the drippings.

Cook the pork belly for an additional 3 to 4 hours at 150 degrees Celsius (about 300 degrees Fahrenheit) until the meat pulls apart easily.

Mix the vegetables every hour while cooking to ensure even flavor distribution.

Once cooked, remove everything from the oven and prepare to serve the pork belly and vegetables.

Cooking Techniques

Equipment Needed

Spice Level:

Dietary