porchetta recipe

This porchetta recipe is as good as it gets. It&#039;s all-belly porchetta with rich and tender meat flavored with fennel and traditional Italian seasonings and has the crispiest, chicharron-like crackling. And won&#039;t worry, making this famous Italian dish is surprisingly simple.

Porchetta Recipe

whole skin-on pork belly (12-15 lb)

fennel seeds

chii flakes

oranges

orange juice (squeezed from ½ an orange)

olive oil (divided)

parsley

sea salt (divided)

EACH: minced rosemary, thyme, sage, and black pepper

Roll pork belly

Roll the pork belly into a long log and then mark where the skin overlaps. Unroll and remove the skin from the overlapping part.

Remove some skin

Unroll and remove the skin from the overlapping part.

Poke holes in skin

Use a paring knife to poke shallow holes all over the surface of the skin. Try not to go too deep and make lots of holes.

crosshatch cut

Turn the pork belly over and cut diagonal lines into the meat to form a cross-hatch pattern.

Mix spice paste

Grind the fennel seeds and chili flakes until coarsely ground. Transfer them to a bowl and add the orange zest, orange juice, 1 tablespoon of olive oil, parsley, 1 tablespoon of sea salt, pepper, rosemary, thyme, and sage and mix to form a paste.

Rub paste on meat

Run this paste all over the meat, using your fingers to work the rub into the meat.

roll pork belly

Roll the pork belly into a tight log and tie it with butcher twine at 1&quot; intervals.

Cut end meat

Optional: if there is a lot of meat sticking out from the ends of the porchetta roll you can cut it off for a neater presentation. (see notes)

Cut in half

At this point, the porchetta will be VERY long. Cut it in half to make it easier to cook.

refrigerate

Rub the pork belly log with the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil and sprinkle the remaining 1 tablespoon of sea salt over the skin. Put the porchetta on the rack set over the baking dish and put it into your fridge for 24-72 hours.

Prep the porchetta

roast pork belly

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Remove the porchetta from your fridge and rub more olive oil over the skin. Put it into your oven on a middle rack and let it roast for 3-4 hours. It will be done when it reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit.

Drain fat from baking dish

Remove the porchetta from the oven and turn the temperature to broil. Lift the porchetta on the cooling rack off the baking dish and carefully drain all the fat from the bottom of the baking dish into a heatproof bowl. Put the porchetta back onto the baking dish and baste the skin with the fat in the bowl.

Broil pork belly

Once the oven comes up to temperature put the porchetta back into the oven. The skin will turn dark brown and bubbly under the high heat, but watch it very carefully so that it doesn&#39;t burn. Every 5-7 minutes, use 2 pairs of tongs to carefully rotate the porchetta so that the skin crisps all around. You&#39;ll know it&#39;s ready when it&#39;s dark mahoggany brown and the skin has lots of little bubbles in it.

rest porchetta

Remove the baking dish from the oven being very careful not to spill any of the hot fat that&#39;s in the baking dish. Let the porchetta rest for 15-20 minutes before carving it with a serrated knife.

Cook the porchetta

Try this Porchetta recipe or the famous Italian Pork Roast. Rubbed with herbs and slowly cooked it&#039;s juicy inside with delicious crispy skin!

Porchetta (Italian Pork Roast)

pork belly (, about 5 kg)

pork

dry white wine

extra virgin olive oil

garlic

rosemary sprigs

sage

bay leaves

peppercorns

fennel seeds (,

salt

rosemary

Put all herbs in a food processor and pulse until finely grind.

Place pork belly skin side down on a work surface. Perform long cuts about ½ inch (1 cm) deep. This will the meat better absorb all the aromatics so as facilitate rolling it into a log. Rub with salt also working it into the cuts.

Pour wine and extra virgin olive oil. Rub it into the meat.

Slice garlic cloves and place in-between the cuts in the meat.

Evenly coat the meat with herbs, saving a little for the pork fillet.

In the same manner rub pork fillet with wine, oil and herbs and arrange on the pork belly.

Roll the pork belly tightly into a cylinder.

Using kitchen twine, tie the roll at 1-inch intervals.

Let porchetta rest for 2-3 hours at room temperature or in the fridge overnight.

Prepare the meat

When ready to roast, preheat oven to 350 F (180 C).

Using a sharp knife poke holes all around the pork rind. Rub it generously with salt.

Fill baking sheet with water, rosemary (fresh of dry), a few bay leaves and fennel seeds. Place the baking sheet on the lowest rack in the oven. Wrap both ends of porchetta with aluminum foil to prevent from burning. .

Place porchetta on the wire rack right on top of the baking sheet filled with water

Before roasting

Bake in a preheat to 355 F (180 C) oven for 30 minutes.

Cooking Phase 1

Then lower the temperature to 245 F (120C) and bake for 3 hours.

Cooking Phase 2

Increase the temperature to 355 F (180 C) again and bake for another 30 minutes OR until the temperature at the core of porchetta has reached 160-162 C  (71-72 C). I highly recommend using a thermometer inside porchetta and positioning it in the center (core) for the most accurate and most important JUICY porchetta.

Cooking Phase 3

Once the inside temperature of porchetta has reached 160-162 C  (71-72 C), shift the wire rack with porchetta closer to the grill without touching it. Turn up the temperature to 430 F (220 C) and roast for 3-5 minutes checking on porchetta frequently until skin is crispy but pay attention not to burn it.

Porchetta is ready when it has reached temperature of 165 F (74 C) on the inside. If it goes higher than 170 F (76 C) you risk overcooking it which results in dry meat.

Cooking Phase 4

Allow to rest for at least 30 minutes and up to 1 hours before serving.

Let rest and serve

This cut of meat is never seen in American markets - and not every town has a butcher shop. They sell something they call Porchetta but it is a very lean cut of meat. I remember something like this from my childhood in New York but unfortunately ( for meat shopping) I don’t live there anymore.

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Top 2 porchetta recipe recipes from across the web

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Porchetta Recipe

Porchetta (Italian Pork Roast)

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