Crispy pork with crackling is a crunchy and flavorful dish. Many people hesitate to make it because they are afraid that the crackling will be tough and the skin won’t become crispy. This dish is loved by both children and adults, and can be enjoyed with rice or as a snack. Crispy pork can be sandwiched in bread, dipped in fish sauce, eaten with rice, or mixed with noodles.
Making crispy pork at home ensures that you have clean and delicious meat without worrying about the quality of the pork. And you don’t need an oven or a rotisserie, you can make it in a pan.
Preparing the ingredients for crispy pork
You should buy pork belly with evenly distributed meat so that it will be more delicious when it’s cooked. Good pork should be pink, without any strange smell, and have a firm and consistent texture. Cut the meat into wide horizontal strips, about 5cm wide to avoid thin slices that will dry out and lack juiciness.
In the pork belly, there are short and long sections, and the short section is tastier and slightly more expensive.
The marinade recipe for 2kg of pork belly is as follows:
1 small onion
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 cooking wine: if you don’t have it, you can use white wine
1 tablespoon of soy sauce
½ package of five-spice powder
Sugar, seasoning powder, salt
Preparing the meat and marinating
When you bring the pork belly home, soak it in cold water for half an hour to remove excess blood from the meat. Then rinse it with salt water and you can squeeze salt on it for 15 minutes to remove the smell of pork skin. Remember to remove any stuck hair on the skin.
Boil a pot of water and add a tablespoon of white vinegar. When the water boils, blanch the pork briefly. Then take the meat out and rinse it with cold water to make it dry.
You can cut the meat if it is too thick or leave it if the slices are thin.
Marinating the meat: Finely chop the garlic and mix it with five-spice powder, oyster sauce, soy sauce, 1 tablespoon of sugar, seasoning powder, and 1 tablespoon of cooking wine. Put on gloves and rub this mixture onto the meat, excluding the skin. Wrap the meat with plastic wrap and marinate it for about 3 hours in the refrigerator or 30 minutes at room temperature.
How to make the crackling crispy: Mix 2 tablespoons of vinegar and 1 tablespoon of salt until dissolved. Use a fork or a sharp tool to pierce holes in the pork skin. Then brush this mixture on the skin to help it become crispy. You should use white vinegar, a type of vinegar with a pleasant aroma to ensure that it is not mixed with industrial chemicals, and sea salt.
Grilling and frying the pork to make it crispy
How to make crispy pork in a pan: Wipe the pan dry and add cooking oil, sprinkle a bit of starch (cornstarch, wheat flour, tapioca flour, etc.). The purpose is to prevent the meat from splattering. When the oil is hot, fry the meat, remembering to press the skin down onto the bottom of the pan first. Fry for about 10 minutes until the skin is crispy, then flip it over to fry the other side until it turns golden brown. Now you have crispy pork made in a pan without the hassle and time-consuming process.
How to make crispy pork in an electric oven: You can use a household oven for roasting. First, preheat the oven to about 250°C for 5 minutes to heat the oven. Then place the meat on a baking sheet at 200°C. Remember to set the broil mode on the side with the crackling. Check after about 20 minutes, if the crackling is not crispy yet, you can continue roasting.
How to make crispy pork in an air fryer: Wrap the meat with aluminum foil, leaving the crackling exposed. Then heat the appliance and put the meat in the air fryer. You can brush a little cooking oil on the crackling and fry for about 30 minutes to make the crackling crispy. Then remove the foil for an additional 15 minutes to make the skin and the meat golden.
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With this method, you won’t need to spend too much time and still have a delicious and nutritious meal to treat your family.
