slow roasted pork belly with ginger beer – jamie oliver

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I was doing some research on a slow-roasted pork belly and stumbled across this recipe by Jamie Oliver.  this sounded so delicious as well as very easy, so we made it for lunch.

The 3 main reasons why I love slow-roasted pork belly are as follows:

  1. Crispy crackling – I’m a massive fan of texture in my food, especially extremely crunchy bits, so very little beats pork crackling for me.
  2. Succulent meat – Pork belly that has been slowly roasted yields a layer of the moistest, succulent and juicy meat. 
  3. Flavour – Pork belly is the starting point of streaky bacon. Need I say more? It’s also laced with fat which is the flavour factory, and by slow roasting it, you render out a lot of the bad part but retain all the good taste part.  Win Win.

This is what you will need to make:

  • A pork belly (whatever size), we found that 1.2 kgs can feed 2 (I mean 4) comfortably
  • a 300 – 340 ml can of ginger beer per 700gms of pork belly (roughly).  We used Stoney Ginger beer
  • 2 – 3 Tbs of brown sugar
  • salt (smoked salt was used)
  • oil

How to make this:

  • preheat the oven to 220 degrees C
  • score the skin of the belly with an extremely sharp knife (this is a bit difficult).  If you want thin crackling shards as per the image here, cut the grooves quite close together. If you like thick crackling wedges, cut further apart
  • rub a bit of olive oil over the top and sprinkle with the salt, getting it into the crevices
  • place a large piece of foil in a shallow roasting dish, with the sides folded up
  • fill this with the ginger beer and the sugar
  • fold the foil up around the pok belly keeping the top open and place in the oven
  • cook for 15 minutes at 220 C, then turn the oven down to 180 C and cook for a further 2.5 hours depending on the size 

Laurence threw in some rustic pieces of vegetables to complete this delicious meal.

Succulent and lip-smackingly tasty with gooey caramelized bits at the bottom of the pan to make a sauce.  The crackling was perfect and I think it best not to have too many people around to compete for it.

thin and very crispy shards of crackling
roasted butternut, carrots and whole beetroot

20 Comments

  1. oh wow. looks so delicious sam!

  2. Looks SO yummy – think we must def make soon.
    Lovely pics as well hun, you are getting good!

  3. This looks absolutely delicious. I never thought to roast beets with meat…fantastic idea. Yum…so craving this. Must hop to the butcher. I need pork belly ASAP

  4. The ginger beer must impart such a warm delicious flavor to this hunk of meat…..Brilliant Jamie, Brilliant you for trying it!!!

  5. Thanks Nina, actually Laurence gets the credit for the preparation. I’m just the stylist, photographer and blogger :-). LOVED the ginger beer with it, such a lovely flavour.

  6. Thanks Shay, I must say posting this today has made me want to rush out and make this again, and again, and again. A little bit of time, but so worth the effort.

  7. Try also with ginger ale or coke.Yum

  8. My Mum made this for me two weekends ago and it’s been all that I can think about! So delicious, thank you! I’ll be making it for my boyfriend this weekend, we’ll both be addicts soon.

    By the way, we’ll be coming to South Africa early next year, we’re both total foodies, do you have any ‘must-eat-at’ recommendations for places to visit?

  9. Awesome Juliet, glad it worked out. I love the sticky sauce it makes.

  10. It sounds delicious and easy and I must try it – can you taste the ginger beer at all?

  11. Hi Cheryl, no you don’t taste the ginger beer at all, it cooks for so long, it just becomes a delicious gravy mixed in with the pork pan juices.

  12. Syd Newton says:

    awesome doing this for Australia day long weekend.

  13. Nice one Syd. Ive actually been dying to make this again. A friend did this recipe as part of her xmas feast and said it was awesome.

  14. OK, I’m not being thick but when u fold up the foil around the pork does the veges go inside that foil or outside it n the roast dish. Do u have this on YouTube please my Porks ready today to cook but I want to follow your method with full understanding.

  15. HI Donna, no the vegetables are cooked separately – they are not part of the pork recipe, just something I cooked to go with it.

  16. gonna work on a variation of this tonight…using mid strength proper (ie Coopers Australian) beer and roasting on fennell. Will let you know how it goes …. have done it before….very similar technique but using cider. [was declared sensational by my Warden…church that is not priosn! ]
    Apples and pork go well. Also will use roasted beetroot…and have lots of leaves in the garden for salad…and tomatoes are just ripening in my hand……Australian summer!

  17. Hi Stephen, I hope your recipe worked out well
    Best
    Sam

  18. Thanks Sam.
    Recipe worked really well replacing ginger beer with beer!…Don’t imagine there was any alcohol left by cooking time any way….I love ginger beer so will try it soon
    After pouring South Australian Olive Oil in the pan…the world’s best… Placed the pork belly from a great local butcher here in Adelaide called “Baa Moo Oink!” (see here for example https://www.baamoooink.com.au/specials.html) on a bed of baby fennel
    My MAJOR addition is lemon thyme…which I grow….pushed into the crackling creases…this really lifts the flavours….rubbing the belly with salt on the skin AND using brown sugar…this is fantastic…cooked for 20 mins on really high to crackle. Added the beer after 20 mins and then turned right down. Making sure that the liquid does not cover the crackling
    As it happened one of the guests got lost on his way here so the meat was in the oven for an hour longer ….made a jus/gravy/glaze with the pan juices. it was sensational….quite sweet…but perfect.
    I served with Pontiacs and roasted beetroot and a bitter green sald ( also grown with lettuces and Black Russian tomatoes)

    I felt pretty satisfied!

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