Pork Belly

This step is to just score the skin. With a sharp serrated meat knife, cut horizontal lines across the skin about a half inch apart, just deep enough to pierce the skin but not all the way through to the fat. Using a needle meat tenderizer, or a skewer, poke holes all over the skin.

In the opposite direction of the horizontal score marks, cut into one-inch wide strips, cutting straight through skin, fat and meat.

Clean and dry your cutting board for the next step.

Place the scored strips skin side down on your clean dry cutting board. (Always protect the skin from moisture or other substances.)

In a mortar and pestle, or in a spice grinder, crush the fennel seeds with two teaspoons of kosher salt then mix in the brown sugar, black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika and oregano.

Rub this mixture on the bottom and sides (meat side) of the strips, making sure not to get any on the skin.

Line a medium sheet tray or a 9X13 inch casserole dish with parchment and a rack.

Flip each piece and place onto the prepared pan.

Use two tablespoons of kosher salt to sprinkle all over the top of the skin you just prepared. Use your fingers to work the salt into all the crevices.

Place in the refrigerator, uncovered, for 24 hours or longer to dry out the skin. The longer the better if possible. Liquid will drip down into the pan bottom as it sits.

Four hours before serving, preheat the oven to 250-degree F with the rack in the center of the oven.

Take each strip and wipe as much of the top layer of salt and moisture off as possible, not letting the excess salt fall back into the pan.

Place the strips, skin side up, back onto the rack, spacing each one so they don’t touch each other.

Bake for 3 ½ hours uncovered. The internal temperature of a piece once tested with a probe thermometer should be about 185 degrees F.

Move the strips to a platter to hold, uncovered and skin up. Lift the pan they were cooking on and drain the fat into a glass cup measurer. There should be about one cup of fat. Top it off with vegetable oil if not quite one cup. Try to just use the fat and not any other liquid in the pan. The fat will float so this step should be easy to separate any non fat liquid. Discard this liquid if any, as it will be very salty and not usable.

Pour this fat into a large saute pan but do not apply heat yet.

Lift each cooked strip and place skin side down into the fat in the pan. Turn the temperature to medium heat and let the strips crisp up for between 8-12 minutes, or longer if needed. Use tongs to lift one at about eight minutes to test for crispness. Keep cooking until all the strips are crisp.

As they crisp, place back onto the pan with the rack, skin side up, to rest uncovered for 15 minutes.

While the pieces rest, make the sauce by whisking all the sauce ingredients in a small saucepan and cooking over medium low for five minutes. Pour into a serving bowl once finished and cooled.

Place the strips on your cutting board and cut them into pieces. If you like small bite sized pieces, cut at each score mark. For larger pieces, skip every couple of score marks and cut.

Serve with the sauce on the side.