Crisp roasted pork belly with salsa verde

Company coming over? Make this roasted pork belly with Italian seasoning and a fresh herb sauce.

Crisp roasted pork belly with salsa verde. Credit: Comfort Food With Spencer Watts.

• serves

  10

• prep

  20 minutes

• cook

  2 hours

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

Pork

• 1 pork belly, skin on (about 4½ kg / 10 lb)
• 1 cup chopped parsley
• ½ tsp chopped fresh oregano
• 1½ tsp chopped fresh thyme
• 1½ tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
• 3 tsp chopped chives
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• 1½ tsp garlic powder
• ½ tsp onion powder
• 1 cup finely diced onion
• 3 tsp lemon zest
• 1½ tbsp Dijon mustard
• 1½ tbsp olive oil
• 1½ tbsp salt
• 3 tsp pepper
• About 2 cups vegetable oil (optional, see note)

Salsa verde

• 2 tbsp + 1 tsp reserved pork belly seasoning mixture
• 1 cup chopped parsley
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 3 tsp lemon zest
• 1 cup olive oil
• 1 tsp honey

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 170°C (325°F).
2. Place the pork belly onto a cutting board and trim the edges to make them straight. Save the scraps to cook off and use in pasta or a salad. Place the pork skin side down onto the cutting board.
3. In a bowl, mix freshly chopped herbs with dry spices, diced onion, lemon zest, Dijon mustard, olive oil and salt and pepper. Mix well to combine. Reserve 2 tbsp + 1 tsp for the sauce. Spread remaining mix over the meat.
4. Fold pork in half lengthwise and using zip ties, pinch meat closed into a log. While the ties hold the pork together, use butcher twine to tie the pork up neatly. Cut the zip ties off the pork.
5. Place the pork on a rack on a baking tray and add 1cm (about half an inch) of water to the tray. Place tray in pre-heated and cook for 2 hours, until internal temperature is 77°C (170°F).
6. Place vegetable oil into a heavy bottomed pot and heat over medium heat.
7. For the salsa verde, place parsley, lemon juice and zest, oil, honey and left over herb mixture into a mini chopper. Blitz until well combined
8. Remove the pork and cut carefully cut away the butcher’s twine and remove it.
9. Place back onto the drying rack on the baking tray. Carefully ladle hot oil over the pork belly a few times. This will cause the skin to crisp up. (For an alternative, see Note)
10. Serve with salsa verde.

Note

Ladelling hot oil over the cooked pork makes the skin crisp but you can, alternatively, turn up the oven to 250C (500F) to finish cooking the pork briefly.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.