Honey Glazed Crispy Pork Belly
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My honey glazed crispy pork belly is basted in honey to contrast a Spanish dry rub that includes smoked paprika, cumin, cayenne pepper, and garlic powder. It’s so good it’s like meat candy!
If you’re on the hunt for a delicious weekend recipe, you’ve found it! Crispy pork belly is one of my favorite snacks. It’s honestly one of the only things that hold me back from becoming a vegetarian! I just love me some bacon, don’t you?
Whenever I come across a pork belly recipe, it’s usually prepared in an Asian-inspired marinade, glaze, or spice mix. While I do enjoy that, I love my spice rub made with smoked paprika and earthy cumin. When I eat it, I feel like I’m in a bar in Madrid munching on delicious Spanish tapas. Tapas are small plates of savory appetizers, just enough to whet the appetite and keep you wondering what’s next.
If you’ve ever wondered how to cook pork belly, I’ve got the ultimate recipe for you. You can enjoy this dish as an app, or you can pan-fry it and enjoy it in a sandwich. No matter which way you eat it, you’ll want to go back for seconds!
INGREDIENT NOTES AND SUBSTITUTIONS
- Pork Belly – Not to be confused with bacon, pork belly is a fatty boneless piece of pork.
- Cumin – Earthy, warm, and complex, this spice is a must-have for my Spanish-inspired spice rub.
- Smoked Paprika – The smokiness of the paprika adds even more richness to my crispy pork belly spice rub and pairs wonderfully with the meat.
- Garlic Powder – It wouldn’t be a savory spice rub without my favorite flavor add-on, garlic!
- Cayenne Powder – For some added heat. You can feel free to adjust the quantity so that it meets your spice preferences.
- Honey – My honey glazed pork belly gets its sweetness from, of course, honey!
- Salt – The final touch to the spice rub.
- Dry Sherry – You’ll add your honey to the dry sherry in order to create the glaze. Don’t worry — the alcohol will get burned off as it cooks.
HOW TO MAKE CRISPY PORK BELLY
- Prepare The Meat. You can keep your pork belly as is, or you can slice it into two 10-inch by 1-inch by 1-inch slabs, depending on its size. To prepare it for cooking, score the skin with crosshatch marks using a sharp knife.
- Add The Spice Rub. Place the cumin, smoked paprika, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, and salt in a small bowl and mix. Then, rub the mix all over the pork belly. Make sure to press it so that it adheres to the meat. Wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. If you have time to leave it overnight, all the better!
- Roast The Pork Belly. If you did refrigerate the meat overnight, make sure to bring it to room temperature an hour before you roast it. While you wait, preheat your oven to 350°F. Place the pork belly on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. You can also use a deep baking dish. Roast the meat uncovered for 60 minutes with the skin side up.
- Make The Glaze. Combine the honey and dry sherry in a small bowl and then baste the meat with it to complete your honey glazed crispy pork belly recipe. Lower the temperature of your oven to 250°F and roast for 20 more minutes. Then, baste the meat once more and cook for 10 minutes.
- Slice & Serve. Take your crispy pork belly out of the oven and allow it to cool a bit before slicing. Now you know how to cook pork belly. Enjoy!
Why Is My Pork Belly Not Crispy?
Pork naturally has a lot of excess moisture in it, so you need to dry it out a bit before roasting it in order to ensure that it crisps up nicely. You can do so with my dry rub — the salt helps to draw out that moisture. Letting it sit overnight in the fridge uncovered with the dry rub can also do much to help make sure that the meat gets crispy when roasted. If you have the time, don’t skip this step!
Should You Boil Pork Before Roasting?
One of the questions that often comes up around how to cook pork belly is whether or not you should boil the pork before roasting. Blanching the meat can help make scoring the meat easier and it helps to retain moisture. This extra step isn’t necessary for my honey glazed pork belly, as we want a crispy outside!
How Do You Get Crunchy Crackling on Pork?
If you want your honey glazed pork belly recipe to be extra crispy, you can play around with the heat a bit and cook it for a lot longer. Roast it at 320°F for 2 and ½ hours, then crank up the temperature to 485°F for 30 minutes to get the crackling and crunchy results you’re after.
This recipe post, originally published on Kevin Is Cooking May, 2016, and was updated with new content, photos and/or video in August, 2022.
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Honey Glazed Crispy Pork Belly
Ingredients
- 1 lb pork belly
- 2 tsp kosher salt
- 2 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp cayenne powder
- 1/4 cup honey
- 3 tbsp dry sherry
Instructions
- Keep whole or slice into 2 10" x 1" x 1" slabs of pork belly, depending on size of pork belly. Score the skin with a sharp knife with crosshatch marks.
- In a small bowl mix together the spice rub. Rub the spice blend on all sides of the pork belly, pressing to ensure it adheres and is coated. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes (preferably overnight).
- If refrigerated over night, place on counter to come to room temperature an hour prior to roasting. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Place pork belly on baking tray lined with parchment or a deep baking dish. Roast uncovered in greased pan for 60 minutes (skin side up).
- In a small bowl combine honey and dry sherry. Baste pork belly with honey sherry mixture. Drop temperature to 250°F and continue to render for 20 minutes. Baste one more time and continue cooking for 10 more minutes.
- Allow to cool slightly before slicing.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Ahhhh don’t even talk to me about going vegetarian! Bacon+Pork Belly+Plus perfectly roasted chicken = home to me 🙁 Roasted pork belly is SO damn easy to make right?!? And it has suuuuuch a flavor payoff! When I saw this on instagram…I could not help myself…I shared it and showed it to my hubs telling him…”Look this is my friend Kevin…from San Diego…Look at what he cooked! Isn’t it amazing!” He replied “aha Mila…ever since you went meat free I can only wish to see things like this at home.” Such a complainer 🙂 Lovely recipe my dear!
Completely agree, so good and when it bastes in it’s own fat and crisps up – heaven! Thanks so much for sharing that, I think your husband deserves this this weekend. Right? 🙂
Seriously Kevin! You’re killing me with this… I think you guys need to move to Sydney to be closer to us all… then we can feast on this delicious pork together!
Thanks Amanda! Nagi came and stayed with us for a few days and we had so much fun. She mentioned we needed to come down to Sydney too and gather you, Scott, John and Dean and have a restaurant crawl in Sydney or hop over to New Zealand for a proper holiday. One of these days for sure! 🙂
Smoked paprika is the best and I sneak it in wherever I can. Who could say no to pork belly that looks this good?
Thanks John. Tasty grub right there. 🙂
So I’ve yet to try making pork belly at home. I think I’ve been jaded by some really subpar homemade pork belly in the past…but this looks amazing! I love that spice rub my friend. #WolfpackPorkInMyBelly
Pork belly is so good, but I hear ya, if it’s not rendered and cooked well it looks like a big, chewy piece of fat and that’s no bueno.
Slow and rendered, breaks the fats down, bastes the meat and the honey and sherry glaze really compliments the smoked paprika and other spices. I actually made a big batch and we had them again last night over polenta and wilted spinach. Happy holiday weekend Dave.
Putting pork belly on the shopping list right now! You are right. We do tend to see it mainly done in recipes with Asian flavours so this is a nice change. I always have smoked paprika on hand and just bought some more Spanish sherry vinegar last week so great timing!
Excellent! So glad you like it and thanks for stopping by Sue. Save a little of the honey and sherry for a quick toss in after you chop the pork belly – heaven!
Hahahahaha – I loves me the bacon too, Kevin! 😉 This pork belly is seriously the most delicious thing I have seen in a long time! SOOOO perfectly crispy and that sticky honey glaze is EVERYTHING! I could eat just this for every meal of the day! Pinned! Cheers, friend!
I love to read comments like this one! 🙂 I wrapped 2 of these up for this weekend, but might have to have them tonight with some flatbreads…. This weekend is looking better by the minute. Have a great weekend yourselves, hopefully at a beach hideaway!
Hey Kevin! You know you had me with that first photo! Holy baconliciousness! I have some pork belly in the freezer and it is coming out to be transformed!! I love tapas, it is so much more fun to get a variety of small plates to share! Gary introduced me to tapas when he returned from a trip to Spain many years ago and every few months we will do homemade tapas for dinner. Have a great holiday weekend guys! 🙂
Transform that pork belly Dorthy! A tapas dinner sounds so fun. Have a great holiday weekend you two. 🙂
Oh Kevin! This looks amaze balls! Meat candy? Hahaha….so true, though. I’ve never actually made pork belly before…can you believe it?! And I’ve probably only eaten it once or twice in my life. I LOVE it, though. I think I have a level of guilt there from eating all that fat. Maybe I know that I can’t control myself if it is in front of me, lol 😀 Imagine if we could just eat whatever we want and not worry about the calories and fat. Dream world, right ? I can just picture that crispy skin bubbling up as it’s cooking. Drool. However, if I do make it myself, your recipe would be the place I’d start. Looks absolutely delicious! Enjoy your holiday weekend, friend 🙂
Just keep it low and slow to render. I have had many at restaurants where they are still quite fatty and it’s not rendered, which makes it tough to cut. It should be fall apart tender.
Love your dream world, good minds think alike! 🙂 Have a fun weekend!
Looks delicious! Would you recommend the same treatment for any other meats?
Most definitely Jeff, except fish might not be right. I might have to dry rub and smoke some chicken this weekend! Have a great holiday weekend.
I’ll never forget the first time I tried pork belly. My life has never been the same! You had me with ‘crunchy on the outside, fork tender on the inside.’ Exactly as it’s meant to be! I really love this recipe, Kevin. And your pictures tell a beautiful story! Have a wonderful weekend, my friend! Stay cool! 🙂
It’s simply the best, indulgent snack I know! Have a great 3 day weekend yourselves Annie. It’s actually drizzling rain right now this morning, can you believe it? 🙂