Okay so before you think this picture is an entirely accurate depiction of what this pork belly will look like when it’s finished – I had to take it out of the oven to photograph because the sun was going down! It now gets dark around 5pm, and I put this in the oven around 3pm and it wasn’t done cooking, but I wanted to have a picture to share this awesome recipe with you guys!
So just know that in real life, the skin is way darker and crispier.
I know that there are a ton of recipes out there for pork belly. Most involve spices, scoring, starting at one temperature, changing to another and putting the pork belly in a steam bath. I don’t enjoy any of that. I like to keep my cooking as simple as possible.
Sometimes I do score the skin, other times I don’t. For this, I didn’t. And it was remarkably similar to when I do. I didn’t add any spices other than salt and pepper, I also rubber it down with a garlic clove once it finished cooking to impart a nice garlicky flavor, because garlic goes with everything. I knew I’d be using this for several different recipes with different flavor combos, so I didn’t want to use a predetermined set of spices that would have to influence whatever kind of dish I made with this.
I also bought this pork belly from a local farmer. It’s organic, soy-free and from pastured pigs. This is the only kind of pork belly I recommend purchasing.
Super Easy Pork Belly
Ingredients
- 1.5 lb pork belly
- salt
- pepper
- garlic clove
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Add salt and pepper to the skin of the pork belly.
- Roast for two hours, or until cooked through. This will vary depending on the size of pork belly you get, so you can use a thermometer to determine internal temperature.
- Once done, rub with a garlic clove cut in half.
