Try making the Italian classic tender herb-filled porchetta with crispy crackling skin with this easy to follow recipe. It’s basted with flavor and aroma before being slow-roasted to perfection.
Preparation:
10mins
Cooking:
5hrs20mins
Total:
13hrs30mins
Serves:
10
Ingredients
12lbpork belly(1 slab), boneless, skin on and not tied
zestsof 2 oranges
⅓cupfresh thymerosemary, parsley, dill leaves, or a combination of all, chopped
4clovesgarlicpeeled and roughly chopped
4tbspolive oilif using, for basting
1tbspsaltcoarse
½tspchili flakes
½tspground nutmeg
6cupsvegetable oil
butcher's twine
To Serve:
¼ozside saladof your choice, we used lettuce, tomatoes, & Italian dressing
¼cupsauceof your choice, we used applesauce
3ozpotatoescooked to your preference, we used crispy marble potatoes
1lemon wedgeper serving
Instructions
Layout your pork belly, flesh side up. Roll your pork belly, stopping at the point where a part of the skin will be rolled into the flesh. Mark this as a guide, then turn the skin side up.
Trim off the excess skin and fat using a sharp knife. This will prevent the porchetta from having a gummy texture once consumed.
Flip to its underside and make 1-inch deep cuts, 2 inches apart.
In a small bowl, combine your orange zest, fresh herbs, garlic, salt, chili flakes, and nutmeg. Set aside.
Sprinkle the prepared mixture all over the scored flesh of the pork belly.
Roll tightly and tie pork with kitchen twine, then keep chilled for at least 6 hours (best if overnight) to marinate the flesh, while drying out the skin as much as possible.
When ready to roast the porchetta, preheat oven to 250 degrees F and line a roasting pan with aluminum foil.
Set pork in a roasting pan, fat-side up. Roast for 3 to 4 hours or until the internal temperature reads 160 degrees F.
Baste your porchetta skin with the olive oil occasionally.
Once your pork internal temperature reads 160 degrees F, increase the oven temperature to its highest setting until skin turns mahogany and crispy, roughly 20 to 25 minutes.
Remove from the oven. Let meat rest for 30 minutes before slicing and serving.
Remove and discard the twine. Heat up your vegetable oil until smoking.
For an even crispier skin or crackling, pour your very hot oil around the porchetta just before serving. The skin should blister up as you drizzle the hot oil.
Serve with side salad, lemon wedges, sauce, and potatoes of your choice.