While traditional beef is considered a delicacy in certain circles, baked pork belly in the oven is, on the contrary, a well-known, popular and quite democratic dish. It serves as a piquant, tender and affordable alternative. Like beef, this tenderloin comes from the lower half of the shoulder of the carcass, has an excellent consistency and texture, right down to the marble pattern. By the way, many professional chefs boil pork belly, but it can also be stewed and roasted in the oven. Well, let's try and we today?
Ingredients
We need: a kilo or a half of the corresponding part of the carcass, a few cloves of garlic, salt and pepper. You can also use a mixture of your favorite spices - for example, for making barbecue. And also - for dressing meat - cooking twine (but you can do without it, just such a procedure helps to perfectly maintain the shape of the dish). Well, that’s all that’s needed.
Pork brisket in the oven: a simple recipe
1. Rub well washed and dried brisket with seasonings of your choice. Salt and pepper as well (or add other hot condiments, such as sage and thyme, or - for a better touch - use chili and smoked paprika flakes ).
2. Put the peeled meat on a cutting board, then roll it into a cylinder or cone shape. Tie the brisket loops from the kitchen twine (each loop is a few centimeters apart). Use kitchen scissors to cut the twine. You can put it in the finished grid.
3. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
4. Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil (or melted lard can be used) in a separate frying pan on the stove. Olive oil is usually chosen for a lighter taste and aroma, and lard for a richer, more saturated one.
5. Place the tied pork belly in the oven for 40 minutes, periodically rotate it on a baking sheet to fry evenly. Halfway to full readiness, add additional seasonings to your personal taste, such as chopped garlic or cilantro, if you like.
6. Remove the meat from the oven and transfer it to a deep plate. Pour over all the butter or lard in which the pork belly was cooked in the oven. In principle, the dish can already be considered ready and served (after cooling and cutting portionwise) on the table. And do not forget to remove the twine!
What gives additional quenching?
Advice to those who love softer, so that it literally melts in your mouth.
You can "bring" the pork belly in the oven as follows. In a pot or deep pan of an appropriate volume, put already baked meat and add a few cups of “stew” - milk, wine, beer (or even Coca-Cola plus fragrant seasonings, such as bay leaves, cloves or lemon peel). Put the container back into the oven and simmer until the liquid is about half full. Remove the lid and cook the meat in the oven for about 30 minutes or until it is completely soft, and the skin will have a crispy texture and a golden brown hue. This pork belly, baked in the oven, is so tender and juicy that none of the guests can ever guess that it was not cooked, say, on the grill!
In foil
This is another option that is often used by housewives. How to cook pork brisket in the oven in foil? This part of the carcass is an excellent material, so with the stiffness of the pulp, as a rule, there are no problems. What we need: a piece of food foil, a kilo of brisket, a set of spices, salt, pepper and garlic. This time we will do without twine wrapping.
How to cook
This is probably the best bacon in the oven you'll ever try! The sensual aroma of spices and garlic really penetrates the meat, carefully wrapped in foil, and the brisket really adds a lot of pluses to your taste.
Instruction:
- We thoroughly wash the meat, lightly dry it with a kitchen towel and rub it with a set of spices and garlic with salt and pepper. A good option would be to wrap it in plastic kitchen wrap and leave it at the bottom of the refrigerator for soaking for an hour or two.
- Expand the film and get the future delicacy. We spread the foil on a baking sheet and wrap the brisket, saturated with spices. You can leave a few punctures for the removal of steam.
- Place the baking sheet in the oven, which is preheated to 200 degrees. Keep the meat closed for about 40 minutes. Then we unfold the foil, leaving the window, and continue the stewing until ready. A golden crust should appear on top, and the meat itself inside should become soft and bloodless. If there is a “grill” mode in the stove, turn it on at the very end of cooking. This recipe for baked pork belly in the oven is very simple and does not require any special gestures, the main thing is to follow the time.
- Then remove the brisket from the oven and transfer the meat from the foil to a plate, cutting it into slices.
Super-flavored sauce
It will perfectly suit the dish we cooked. The sauce is sweet and spicy at the same time. And it is made of lightly fried bacon (which is finely chopped and sautéed in a frying pan over low heat), half a glass of apple cider, a spoon of vinegar - also apple, a spoon of dark brown sugar, half a glass of broth (you can take pork or chicken), a spoon of ketchup itself simple, tomato and chilli peppers (add this spicy ingredient according to personal preference). After cooking in a saucepan (5-10 minutes), you can strain the sauce and remove the bacon from it. And the resulting mixture is served in a separate container for chopped meat. Bon appetit to all!