Crispy Pork Belly | Siu Yuk 燒肉
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If there is one place that gets me excited about going to Chinatown, it would be Chinese BBQ shops. You know, the restaurants with endless amount of roasted pork, chickens, ducks covered in that sweet and savory sauce hanging right by the window.
While most people go for the popular BBQ Pork (Char Siu) or Crispy Roast Duck, I, on the other hand, often pick the Crispy Pork Belly aka Roast Pig or Siu Yuk 燒肉. Not that I don’t like Char Siu (otherwise I would not go through the trouble to make Char Siu at home), but something special (probably the crispy skin) about Crispy Belly that just gets me every time when it comes to choosing between the crispy belly and BBQ pork.
A perfectly cooked crispy pork belly has this signature golden crispy skin with tender and juicy belly meat. As you take a bit into the crispy skin, the skin literally cracks in your mouth like firecracker! If yours doesn’t sound like in this video, then something is not right.
If you recall, I shared this Chinese BBQ Pork/Char Siu recipe a while ago and it turned out to be really popular on this site. Ever since then, I’ve been getting a lot of requests for the equally delicious Crispy Pork Belly recipe. So two years ago, I decided to include a crispy pork belly recipe in my free Chinese New Year Cookbook. However, for some reason, I still get recipe requests now and then so today I am just going to post the recipe on this site so hopefully everyone gets to make this classic Cantonese pork dish at home.
This homemade version is actually not complicated and the results are quite good, even better than some of the restaurants. If you celebrate Chinese New Year, this could be a great dish to make to impress your guest!
Lastly just a quick note on tools. In my recipe I use this special spiky meat tenderizer to poke holes on the pork sin. If you can’t find it in your local Chinese supermarket, you can use a folk instead. It might just take a little longer.
About Chinese New Year Cookbook
As I mentioned earlier, to celebrate Chinese New Year and share my heritage, 2 years ago I published a free Cookbook with some of my favorite New Year dishes. It’s been popular offering on this site and I get good feedback from readers who have downloaded it. So with Chinese New Year 2016 just around the corner, I am excited to announce that a slightly updated edition will be coming out very soon. The new edition will include a few new recipes as well as updated design to reflect the year of the Monkey.
If you are interested in learning more about this new edition, please stay tuned for the update in the near future.
Crispy Pork Belly | Siu Yuk 燒肉
Prep Time: 8 hours
Cook Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 9 hours
Ingredients:
- 2lb pork belly
- 1tbsp white vinegar
- 1tsp baking soda
Brine
- 1tbsp salt
- 3liter water
Seasoning
- 1tbsp salt
- 1.5tsp five spice powder
- 1tsp sugar
- ½tsp sand ginger powder (optional)
Directions:
Pat dry the belly and poke many small holes on the belly skin using the tip of your knife or a special tool shown in the picture. Be careful not to penetrate the skin.
Combine all the seasoning ingredients and mix into a spice mixture. Make two shallow cuts on meat side of the belly. Rub the spice mix evenly on the meat side only.
Turn the pork skin side up. Lightly rub baking soda on the skin. Then evenly brush the vinegar on the skin.
Let the belly marinate in the fridge for 2 hours or overnight for better flavor and texture.
Preheat the oven to 380F. Wrap the pork belly with aluminum foil exposing the skin.
Roast the pork belly for 50 minutes. Then switch to broil and boil the skin for 5 minutes to turn the skin bubbly and crispy. To avoid burning the skin, try to move around the pork so it gets even heating.
Cool off the belly on a cooling rack. Scrap off any charred skin. Slice the pork to cubes and serve it hot with hoisin sauce.
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