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Slow roasted pork belly takes a cheaper cut and turns it into something divine. Who can turn down succulent pork that falls apart and also a good helping of crackling.

I often hear people tell me crackling is difficult on the Big Green Egg because it keeps in so much moisture. I have a few tips though at my Technique page to help you out on that so you should be able to achieve a good crackle just about every time. It’s important you use great pork here, none of the supermarket rubbish. And buy yourself a Stanley Knife from a DIY store as it will cut through the skin when you need to score it so much more easily than any kitchen knife.

Why not also give my pork belly skewers a go, they’re super easy and have a georgous spicy dressing to go with them.

Ingredients

• Belly of Pork – ribs in is great as they will add flavour
• Maldon sea salt
• Black Pepper
• Olive oil

Method

1. Score your pork belly with a Stanley Knife, scoring the fat about 7mm apart in strips.
2. Put your pork uncovered into the fridge overnight for the fat to completely dry out.
3. Rub a good handful of Maldon salt into the fat pushing it into the scored skin. If you want you could also rub in other herbs and spices, fennel seeds work really well.
4. Pour on some olive oil and rub into the skin and bottom of the pork.
5. You can also add coarsely ground black pepper to the bottom side.
6. Preheat your Egg to 130-150°C (lower is better but it will cook faster at 150°C)
7. Setup your Egg with the plate setter feet up and stainless grid on top.
8. For the first hour place your fat side up on the stainless grid.
9. After an hour turn your belly so it is fat side down, this will help it crackle.
10. When the meat reaches an internal temp of 90°C or more after about 5 hours cooking time, adjust your Egg to cook the belly for 20 minutes at 220°C or until the fat crackles.
11. Take your belly off and rest wrapped in foil for at least 30 minutes.
12. If necessary take the crackling off and put back on the Egg to crisp it up.

Notes

This is such a succulent cut. Serve with apple sauce if that’s your thing, I prefer a bit of chilli sauce to spice it up a little.

When your Egg is at 220°C make sure you check regularly that the skin isn’t burning. It’s very easy to go from a lovely crackle to a burnt skin.