The Most Effective Rotisserie Technique for Cooking Pork Belly

One of my all-time favorite foods to eat is pork belly that has been roasted on a spit. If you do it correctly, the crackle will give off a magical crunch when you bite into it, and the rest will melt in your mouth. There are a ton of ways to spit roast pork belly, some of which may directly conflict with the approach I suggest, but this is the one I've used quite a bit, and it works great for me!

Step 1: Prepare the pork belly

Use the point of a sharp knife to make tiny cuts all over the skin. I literally just pricked it with a needle. Apply white vinegar to the skin's surface with a paper towel. 

Salt should be liberally applied to the skin, and it should be thoroughly rubbed in. (To learn more about how to prepare a pork belly for crackling, see our blog post on how to get the perfect crackling when spit roasting.)

Pat down any moisture that forms on the pork belly skin while you leave it in the fridge overnight. Choose the rub you wish to use and remove the pork belly from the refrigerator. The Butchers BBQ Honey rub I used in this instance tasted fantastic, but as you can see, the high sugar content caramelized and turned the outside of the meat dark. More salt should be used to the skin after liberally applying the rub to the underside only. Place the pork belly in the rotisserie cage, making sure that the underside, not the skin side, touches the skewer.

 

Step 2:Get the spit ready

 

In the base of your spit or wherever you want to light your charcoal, light 3 natural firelighters. Six Flaming Coals Hotrods should be split in half and placed inside a chimney starter. Place the chimney over the burning natural firelighters and wait for it to get ready for around 40 minutes.

When the Hotrods are piping hot and have nearly all changed colour, you'll know they are ready to pour out of the chimney and into the base of the spit. For this, heat-resistant BBQ gloves are highly advised. Put the skewer with the rotisserie basket onto the spit with the hot rods already inside, then turn on the electric rotisserie motor.

Step 3: Cooking the pork belly

 

Keep an eye on the spit while the pork belly is roasting on it. Fat from the pork will start to drip onto the charcoal as it heats up, possibly starting a fat fire. The heat produced by 6 hot rods cut in half will take 3 hours to cook a pork belly. 

When you see moisture developing on the skin of the pork belly, pat it dry as much as you can with paper towels. Keeping the skin dry is essential for getting crispy crackling. Make sure you have plenty of paper towels on hand and some heat-resistant gloves so you can wipe down the skin as necessary as the fat starts to render and the pork belly cooks.

Tip 1: When you place the pork belly on the spit, try to get the crackling to happen right away. The coal is at its hottest at this time, so take advantage of it. Put the meat on a low heat and watch it carefully. Lift it up and begin the spit roasting process when you're satisfied.

Tip 2: We advise using nitrile gloves with cotton glove liners underneath while handling hot food rather than heat-proof BBQ gloves and running the danger of getting greasy over them. Because the nitrile outer gloves are heat proof, hygienic, and disposable, you shouldn't be concerned if you spill food or fat on them. Your hand is protected from the heat by the liners underneath.

When there is little any resistance when you prick the pork belly with a metal skewer to test its temperature, it is done. This indicates that the fat has been rendered, and everything should be incredibly juicy aside from the crunchy crackling.

Step 4: Serving the pork belly

 

By this time, you've survived hours of watching the pork belly rotate on the spit and being tortured by the mouth-watering aromas coming from your barbecue. If you're anything like me, when the spit is hot and turning, you'll start pinching pieces off of it and forget to snap lovely pictures. Whoops! 

Wearing two pairs of heat-resistant gloves on each hand, remove the skewer from the spit. Pick up the skewer with two hands, one on each end, and place it on a cutting board. Otherwise, your crackling will come off from the meat. To prevent this, open the basket and gently press down on the crackling to remove it from where it has attached to the basket. Use a sharp knife to cut the pork belly after turning it over so the skin is facing down on the board. If you've done a great job with the crackling, you'll need to apply a lot of pressure to the knife in order to cut through it.

Enjoy!

 

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