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Prep time
8 hours
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Cook time
1 hour 45 minutes
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Serves
4-8
Author Notes
If you asked me what my favorite roast is, my answer is, and will always be siu yuk. For the uninitiated, it’s a classic Cantonese roast pork belly that has an insanely crispy skin and layers of juicy fat and flesh. Even if you’ve never heard of it’s name, you might’ve seen slabs or strips of it hanging in the windowsills of Cantonese restaurants in Chinatowns around the world.
Although siu yuk isn’t a very common Christmas roast, and I haven’t seen it feature much at all in festive dinner spreads, I love it so much that I’m still going to make it this Christmas (with a few festive embellishments, of course). And I think you should too!
To make it, I turned to my mom’s trusty siu yuk recipe. I got a fresh slab of pork belly, patted it dry, and poked holes in the skin (which will help turn it crispier as it bakes.)
Instead of the classic Chinese five-spice marinade though, in the spirit of Christmas, I wanted it to taste more festive, so I used applesauce!
I reduced the applesauce down into a paste, added salt and cinnamon, then rubbed this all over the meat. Then, I left it in the fridge overnight to marinate and dry out, and right before roasting, I put a ton of salt on the skin. The salt will draw out the moisture as it roasts and form a crust, which is removed halfway through the roast. Then back to the oven it goes until the skin turns crazy bubbly and crunchy-crisp.
It’s crispy, crackly, juicy, meaty, rich, tender, and is pretty much everything I could ever want in a roast. You can have it on its own, whip up a chimichurri like you would for porchetta, or even have it with cranberry jam. Whichever way you have it, with that tinge of applesauce and cinnamon, it’ll fit right into any Christmas spread, and be the talk of the party! —Jun
Ingredients
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2
lb. (900g) skin-on pork belly, in one large slab
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1 cup
(240ml) applesauce
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¼ teaspoons
(1g) ground cinnamon
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1½ teaspoons
(8g) fine salt
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½ cups
(140g) coarse salt, for the crust
Directions
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Prepare the slab of pork belly by trimming off any uneven sides, then patting it dry with kitchen towels on all sides, especially the skin. Then, using a sharp skewer, poke holes through the skin in a quick, stabbing motion. The holes should go through the skin layer (about a quarter through the whole slab), careful not to poke through the whole belly. This will help the skin and fat crisp up as it roasts. It sounds excessive, but I poke it at least 100 times to really make sure I get that crispy skin every time.
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Combine the applesauce, ground cinnamon, and half of the fine salt in a saucepan. Place this over medium heat and cook for 10-15 minutes until the applesauce has reduced by half and turns thick and pasty.
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Sprinkle and rub the remaining fine salt on the meat sides of the pork belly, keeping the flesh bare and unseasoned. Then spoon and rub the applesauce all over the meat sides too, in as even a layer as you can manage.
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Poke 4-6 skewers horizontally through the sides of the pork belly. (This is to ensure it stays flat as it bakes.) Put the pork belly on a wire rack set over a tray, and keep it in the fridge overnight, uncovered, for at least 8 hours and up to 24 hours.
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On the day of the roast, heat an oven to 400°F (204°C). Set a wire rack in the middle of the oven (this will be for the pork), and place a deep tray on the bottom rack of the oven. Heat the oven to 200°C (fan-assisted convection). Then, bring 4 cups (1L) of water to a boil, and pour it into the bottom tray.
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Take the pork belly out of the oven, then pour all of the coarse salt onto the skin side of the pork. (Yes, all of it!) Use a spoon or your hands to even out the salt layer so you form an even crust on top of the pork skin.
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Place the pork on the top rack of the oven, right on the wire rack, making sure it’s positioned directly over the tray of water below. Bake for 45 minutes. The tray of water serves two purposes — it’ll prevent the outsides of the pork from cooking too quickly and burning, and it’ll also catch any drippings and make cleanup much easier.
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After 45 minutes, remove the pork belly from the oven and remove the salt. The salt should have formed a crust that’s easily removable, though you might need to brush off any excess salt that has stuck to parts of the skin.
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Turn the oven up to 440°F (227°C). Then roast the pork belly for a further 40-50 minutes, until the skin pops and bubbles and turns ultra crispy.
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When done, take the pork belly out of the oven and let it cool for 15 minutes. Then, for the easiest carving method, flip the pork belly over, and slice it into long strips with the skin-side down, before laying each strip flat then chopping up each strip into bite-sized pieces.
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You can eat the pork belly pieces as they are, or dip them into a chimichurri sauce or even cranberry jam for even more festive feels. Crunch down and enjoy!
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