If you like the slightly sweet yet savory taste of pork, you will love our wonderfully indulgent porchetta recipe and our pork belly slices! This maple glazed pork belly recipe is simple, but incredibly delicious. It’s melt-in-your-mouth pork with irresistible crispy crackling and served with chipotle aioli. There’s something about the combination of fatty meat, sweet marinade, and smoky, spicy aioli that really does it for us. While the meat is the main attraction, the crispy crackling is what puts it over the top. There are a lot of myths about what to do and what not to do, but we find keeping it simple works best. Try our straightforward method for making this delicious maple glazed pork belly and we guarantee you won’t be disappointed (and neither will your guests)! Here’s everything you need for the pork belly:
Pork belly – since pork belly has become popular, it’s now more widely available. Check for it at your local grocery store or butcher shop! Brown miso paste – miso paste is a fermented soybean paste that comes in light and dark varieties. Look for darker brown miso for this recipe. Maple syrup – adds a sweet caramel taste. Chinese five spice – Chinese five spice is a seasoning blend based on the five elements – fire, water, wood, earth, and metal. You can find it at most grocery stores or Asian markets. Sesame oil – we use sesame oil to coat the skin to make it crispy. Flaky sea salt – a liberal sprinkle of flaky sea salt gives the crackling lots of flavor.
Pork crackling is the term given to the layer of crispy, super tasty skin on roast pork. It’s delicious and there’s nothing quite like it!
Here are our top 3 tips for making perfect crackling:
Letting it dry out in the fridge The point of this is to reduce moisture and result in a crispier skin. While the skin should be dry when it goes in the oven, you don’t need to dry it out for hours in the fridge. The crackling turns out great when you dry the skin with paper towels. Marinating the pork belly for hours This is said to allow the marinade time to work into the meat. There’s certainly no harm in letting your pork belly marinate for hours, but it doesn’t seem to make a noticeable difference in taste or texture in the end. Quickly cooking the pork belly We’ve seen this method of cooking online but highly discourage you from cooking it this way. Pork belly is a fatty cut of meat which means it needs to roast slowly in the oven to render the fat so it becomes soft and melts in your mouth. Pork belly is a fancy cut of meat and should be left to the pros Pork belly is actually a really versatile and easy cut of meat to work with. We won’t tell your dinner guests if you don’t! This maple glazed pork belly is a versatile meal that you can serve in many ways. In the pictures, we serve it with cooked rice and a side of steamed broccoli. It also tastes great with roasted potatoes or veggies, noodle dishes like our soy ginger noodles, or a crunchy Asian salad or cucumber salad.
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