Porchetta Recipe: Juicy Pork Belly With Crispy Crackling

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Porchetta….. This juicy, marinated, incredible piece of Italian pork is to die for!

The best porchetta I’ve eaten, which was in Italy was cooked with fire. These traditional methods are cooked slowly for hours and create deep flavours and incredible crispy skin.

But when these traditional recipes get adapted to be made at home in a regular oven, the results are always a little disappointing in comparison. You either get juicy meat and no crackling or great crackling and dry meat, it’s a tough balance to get right. It’s the same problem I tackled with my light, crispy pork belly.

Today I want to change that!

So my plan is simple, I want to create a tender, juicy, authentic tasting porchetta covered all over with light, crispy crackling. But, I have to use my oven to cook it, I can’t use any specialist equipment, and it can’t take the whole day to prepare. It’s the same no-specialist-kit approach I took with my chuck steak secrets.

I’m going to weave traditional and modern methods together into 1 effective recipe, to create a home-cooked porchetta, that I could happily serve in Italy and not get shouted at.

I haven’t seen any other porchetta recipes using these techniques, I’m really excited to share this with you.

Porchetta Marinade: Three Ways to Season It

These amounts are all for a 1kg pork belly (4 portions), multiply or divide for your size.

The marinade changes from region to region in Italy. Down in the hot South they add things like fennel pollen and lemon, while some Umbrian versions use chopped kidneys, hearts and liver. After studying over 100 recipes, the pattern I found was that most use garlic, sage and black pepper, so that is where the first version below starts.

3 x garlic cloves, 20 x sage leaves, 20 x cranks of black pepper, handful of rosemary prongs, handful of parsley leaves, 1 heaped teaspoon fennel seeds, the zest of one lemon. (the marinade from the video)
3 x garlic, 20 sage leaves, 200g sausage meat, 100g pancetta or guanciale.
3 x garlic, black pepper (as above), 2 teaspoons picked thyme leaves, a handful of rosemary prongs, 10 x mint leaves, 10 x sage leaves.

These are 3 examples of how you could season your porchetta, the options are endless. Many of the same flavour combinations work in my five favourite compound butters.

For any of them, rough chop everything together on the board with a knife until it looks mostly green and smells delicious. A food processor works too if you don’t mind the extra washing up.

Why Poach the Belly Before Roasting

This is the step that throws people, but it’s what gives you juicy meat and crisp skin at the same time. Before it goes anywhere near the oven, the rolled belly gets poached for around 90 minutes in a pan of water infused with bay leaves, black peppercorns, rosemary stalks and parsley stalks, plus a generous shot of vinegar and a heavy pinch of salt.

The salt and vinegar in that liquid start breaking down the skin so it turns light and crisp later, rather than hard and chewy. And because water can only ever reach boiling point, poaching is a genuinely stress-free way to cook the meat through gently without any risk of drying it out. I use the same poach-then-roast trick for rotisserie-style chicken at home. Top the liquid up if it drops below the level of the belly, and once it’s out, let it steam dry for 15 minutes before it goes anywhere near a hot oven.

My preferred way to poach is in the oven, because it is completely hands off. Get the pan simmering on the hob first, then put it in with the lid on at 120C for the 90 minutes, otherwise it takes a very long time to come up to temperature. You can also keep it lightly simmering on the hob for the same time. When it comes out, a thermometer in the middle should read just under 90C, which is a good place to be for pork belly.

The Book Cut for Pork Belly Porchetta

Before marinating, trim off any major silver skin and excess fat, then make a horizontal cut through the middle of the belly, going about 95% of the way through so it opens up like a book. It’s the same cut I use when butterflying breasts for my butterflied chicken meal prep. This one cut does two jobs: it triples the surface area for the marinade to sit in, and it stops you ending up with a hollow, under-seasoned pocket in the centre once it’s rolled. A few shallow crisscross scores on top give the marinade even more surface to grip. If you haven’t cut meat this way before, take your time and use light strokes, as it separates more easily than you’d think.

Season the meat sides with salt, and put a generous amount on the skin too, pressing it in so it sticks. Spread the marinade over the meat side only, never the skin, and rub it into the score marks. Then roll the belly up tightly with the skin facing down, starting from the plain meat end.

How to Tie Porchetta

There are some overly complicated ways of tying meat, so here is my favourite, which is really simple. With the flap facing down, start with the first piece of string exactly in the middle. The knot is the same as the start of tying your shoelaces, plus one extra loop, which stops it loosening as you tighten it down. Once it is tight and sitting where you want it, add one more knot. Tie the next piece roughly halfway between the first piece and the end of the belly, repeat on the other side, then finish with one more piece of string running the opposite way, keeping the porchetta tight.

At this point it can go straight into the poaching liquor or rest in the fridge for 12 to 24 hours for even deeper flavour.

How to Make Porchetta Skin Crispy

Crispy porchetta skin comes down to three things: poaching the belly in salted, vinegared water first, letting it steam dry for 15 minutes so the skin is properly dry, and roasting it hot at 250C on a raised rack. Dry skin crackles far better than wet skin.

After poaching and steam-drying, brush the skin with oil, salt it well, sit the porchetta on a trivet so it’s raised off the tray, and roast at 250C until the crackling is blistered and crisp, usually 20 to 50 minutes depending on size. Get a tray of crispy roasties with any potato in on the shelf below.

Do not leave it sitting flat on the tray. The part touching the tray overcooks and goes tough, and the edges of the tray shield the bottom from the hot air, which gives uneven crackling. A wire rack over the tray is my preference because it gives great air circulation all the way round, and slices of carrot or onion underneath also work.

Oven temperature matters at this stage, so use a cheap oven thermometer. Built-in thermostats are often not very accurate, and a 20 degree difference here can be the difference between great crackling and not so great. Mine took 37 minutes to get corner to corner crackling, so start checking from 20 minutes. Rest it for 15 to 20 minutes and remove the string before slicing.

Why poach the pork belly before roasting it?

Poaching in a salted, vinegared liquid for around 90 minutes gently cooks the meat through without any risk of drying it out, since water can only ever reach boiling point. At the same time, the salt and vinegar start breaking down the skin so it turns light and crisp in the oven rather than hard and chewy.

What is the ‘book cut’ and why does it matter?

It’s a horizontal cut through the middle of the belly, taken about 95% of the way through so the meat opens up like a book. It triples the surface area available for the marinade and stops you ending up with a hollow, under-seasoned pocket in the centre once the belly is rolled up.

Can I marinate the porchetta overnight instead of cooking it straight away?

Yes. Once it’s rolled and tied you can either poach it straight away or let it marinate in the fridge for 12 to 24 hours first for deeper flavour. Both options work, the extra time in the fridge just gives a slightly stronger result.

What marinade should I use if I don’t have all the listed herbs?

There’s no strict rule here. Garlic, sage and black pepper appear in most versions, but fennel seeds, rosemary, parsley, lemon zest, chilli flakes, thyme or even sausage meat and pancetta all work well. Use what you have and let the flavour be your own.

My crackling isn’t crisping up in the oven, what went wrong?

Make sure the skin is genuinely dry before it goes in, steam-drying for the full 15 minutes after poaching matters here, and that it’s brushed with oil and salted well. Raising the porchetta on a trivet rather than letting it sit flat in its own juices also makes a big difference to how evenly the skin crisps.

How long does porchetta take to cook?

For a 1kg pork belly porchetta, allow around 90 minutes for poaching, 15 minutes to steam dry, then 20 to 50 minutes roasting at 250C until the crackling is crisp, followed by a 15 to 20 minute rest. Mine took 37 minutes in the oven, so start checking from 20 minutes.