Recipe courtesy of
Young Sun Huh
for
Food Network Kitchen
Recipe courtesy of
Young Sun Huh
for
Food Network Kitchen
Watch how to make this recipe.
Siu Yuk (Crispy Cantonese Pork Belly)
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- Level: Intermediate
- Total: 15 hr 30 min (includes drying time)
- Active: 50 min
- Yield: 6 to 8 servings
-
- Nutritional Analysis
- Per Serving
- Serving Size
- 1 of 8 servings
- Calories
- 609
- Total Fat
- 62 g
- Saturated Fat
- 22 g
- Carbohydrates
- 2 g
- Dietary Fiber
- 0 g
- Sugar
- 1 g
- Protein
- 11 g
- Cholesterol
- 82 mg
- Sodium
- 282 mg
A signature meat of Cantonese barbecue restaurants, siu yuk is a roast pork belly dish that features a wonderful contrast between crackling-crisp skin and tender, juicy meat. While this dish doesn’t require a lot of ingredients, it does involve some advance preparation and a few steps to achieve its crowning glory: skin that is perfectly crispy all the way through. We tested a lot of different methods that are popular for cooking the dish at home, but more often than not while the top of the skin would get crunchy, underneath it would remain chewy. We eventually settled on an easy combination of techniques for roasting the pork belly, including keeping the skin very dry and poking it full of tiny holes using a meat tenderizer with sharp needle-like blades. But the final step for getting a consistently beautiful layer of crispy, crumbly skin is finishing the pork skin-side down in a skillet. The result is beautifully burnished chunks of meat with an irresistible combination of flavor and textures.
- Level: Intermediate
- Total: 15 hr 30 min (includes drying time)
- Active: 50 min
- Yield: 6 to 8 servings
-
- Nutritional Analysis
- Per Serving
- Serving Size
- 1 of 8 servings
- Calories
- 609
- Total Fat
- 62 g
- Saturated Fat
- 22 g
- Carbohydrates
- 2 g
- Dietary Fiber
- 0 g
- Sugar
- 1 g
- Protein
- 11 g
- Cholesterol
- 82 mg
- Sodium
- 282 mg
Ingredients
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Directions
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Submerge the pork belly in the water and cook for 5 minutes to soften the skin. Remove the pork belly and run under cold water until fully cooled.
- Pat the pork belly very dry and place skin-side up on a cutting board. Using a couple of toothpicks, metal skewers, a fork or a meat tenderizer with sharp needle-like blades (see Cook’s Note), prick the skin evenly all over with hundreds of tiny holes, piercing through the skin but making sure not to go into the meat, which could cause juices to flow up during cooking and prevent the skin from getting crisp. This will take some patience, but the more holes you poke, the better the skin will crisp up at the end.
- Flip the pork belly over to the meat side and cut 1/2-inch-deep lines about 1 1/2 inches apart into the meat following the grain. Rub the Shaoxing wine evenly into the grooves and all over the meat, avoiding the skin. Mix 1 tablespoon kosher salt, the sugar, five-spice powder and white pepper in a small bowl. Rub this spice mixture into the meat until evenly coated, avoiding the skin again.
- Tear off a large piece of heavy-duty foil (or a double layer of regular foil). Place the pork belly in the center with the skin side up. Wrap and fold the foil around the pork to form a tray that fits snugly against the sides of the pork belly but leaves the top exposed.
- Sprinkle 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt all over the skin (avoiding the meat) and gently rub it in. Let sit for 15 minutes to draw out moisture from the skin. Pat the skin very dry with a paper towel, then brush with the distilled vinegar. Refrigerate the pork uncovered overnight (at least 12 hours) to dry out the skin and marinate the meat.
- The next day, line a baking sheet with foil and set a rack inside. Place the pork, still wrapped in its foil tray, on the rack and let sit at room temperature for 1 hour.
- When ready to roast, preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Sprinkle 1/4 teaspoon salt on the skin and cook the pork in the middle of the oven until it reaches an internal temperature of 195 degrees F (insert an instant-read thermometer into the meaty side of the pork and not into the skin), 2 hours 15 minutes to 2 hours 45 minutes. The pork should be tender and sliceable but not soft and falling apart.
- Remove the pork from the foil tray using tongs and place directly on the baking rack to rest. Pat the skin dry. Pour the liquid in the tray into a liquid measuring cup. The liquid should separate with the juices settling to the bottom and the fat rising to the top. Pour the fat into a skillet large enough to hold the pork, stopping just before the juices. Place the pork skin-side down into the fat in the skillet. Add enough vegetable oil to the skillet so that it comes up to the height of the skin.
- Place the skillet over medium heat and let the skin crisp up gradually until completely covered with tiny, airy bubbles and there is no flat skin in sight. This process will take about 15 minutes and it’s worth it to get skin that’s completely crisp and crunchy with no chewy texture. If there are hot or cool spots in the skillet, move the pork around as needed for even cooking. If there are any parts of the skin that aren’t touching the oil enough, press down gently to get better contact with the oil.
- Remove the pork from the skillet, drain the skin quickly on some paper towels to absorb excess oil, and rest skin-side up on a cutting board for 5 minutes. Cut the pork belly into pieces using the cuts in the meat as a guide, then slice across each one to get bite-size pieces. Arrange on a platter and serve warm with hot mustard and/or hoisin.
Cook’s Note
Try to select a piece of center-cut pork belly that’s even in thickness and has a balance of meat, fat and skin. Avoid the thicker end of the pork belly, which can be overly fatty. A meat tenderizer with sharp, thin needles is an efficient way to poke holes in the skin and ensure puffy, shatteringly crisp skin; this tool is typically what restaurants use.
