1 whole skin-on pork belly, 5-7kg
2 tablespoons fennel seeds
1 tablespoon chii flakes
Zest from 2 oranges
1/4 cup orange juice, squeezed from 1/2 an orange
1/4 cup olive oil, divided
1/4 cup chopped coriander
2 tablespoons sea salt, divided
1 tablespoon each: minced rosemary, thyme, sage, and black pepper
Start with the pork belly skin side down and roll it into a long log. Using the tip of a sharp knife, mark where the skin overlaps. Now flip the pork belly skin side up and remove the small bit of skin that overlaps. We do this as skin that gets wrapped in the meat becomes gummy and chewy and doesn’t crispy nicely.
Take a pairing knife and spend several minutes stabbing the skin all over. You want to absolutely cover it with small holes. Try your best only stab holes in the skin and not all the way into to the fat or meat.
Flip the belly over so it’s skin side down. If parts of it are thicker than others, you can use a rubber mallet to pound the meat so that’s it’s roughly even in thickness. Then, cut the meat in diagonal lines to create a cross-hatch pattern. Make sure to only cut the meat and not go through to the fat layer.
Grind the fennel and chili flakes until coarsley ground – a small blender or food process works well for this. A mortar and pestle is another good option. Mix the ground fennel with the rest of the herbs, spices, oil, and orange zest & juice to make a thick paste. Spread this paste onto the meat using your fingers to work it into all the cuts you made.
Roll the belly into a tight log and tie it up. Use butcher twine and tie it at 1-inch intervals Once you’ve rolled the porchetta it will be a long, unwieldy log. To make it easier to bake and serve, we cut it in half. At this point, you can wrap and freeze one of the logs if you’d like.
Oil and salt the skin liberally then place the porchetta on a cooling rack placed over a baking dish. Put it into your fridge (uncovered) for 24-72 hours.
Remove the prepared porchetta from your fridge and let it rest on your counter while your oven preheats to 300F/150C.
Liberally oil the skin then put it into your oven and let it roast for 3-4 hours. It will be finished cooking when it reaches an internal temperature of 165F/75C.
Remove the porchetta from the oven and crank the temperature up to broil. Drain the fat from the baking dish into a bowl – there will be quite a bit. When your oven comes up to temperature, brush some of the fat you drained from the pan over the skin then put the porchetta back into the oven.
Turn the porchetta very 5-10 minutes so that it crisps all over. The temperature ovens broil varies widely so keep a close eye on it so that the skin doesn’t burn. Once the skin is dark brown and has bubbles all over it is ready!
