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Chinese roast pork or siu yuk. Save yourself a trip to Chinatown and use this easy recipe for the best and crispiest Chinese roast pork belly at home.
Chinese Roast Pork Recipe
In my cookbook “Easy Chinese Recipes,” I have a Chinese roast pork belly recipe, or siu yuk.
When it comes to Chinese roast pork, one could never have enough of the crispy skinned roasted pork belly. It’s sinfully delicious!
This Chinese Roast Pork recipe is from my good friend Robert Danhi’s Facebook page. Robert and his wife made the roast pork following a recipe gathered from a church in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
This is the PERFECT recipe for Chinese roast pork belly! It’s absolutely mouthwatering.
The recipe is easy, hassle-free and fail-proof. I guarantee you crispy, crunchy, absolutely aromatic and to-die-for pork crackling, melt-in-your-mouth pork belly.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
This is the easiest and best recipe you’ll find online. There is no need to poke the pork skin, there is no no vinegar in the recipe.
There is also no need to par-boil the pork belly before roasting.
The end result is very crispy pork crackling. The pork belly is also juicy, tender, with the melt-in-your-mouth pork fat.
The taste is a bit salty and aromatic. The aroma comes from the garlic and five-spice powder.
Ingredients
- Pork belly
- Five spice powder
- Garlic
- Kosher salt
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients.
How To Make This Recipe
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C), arrange a pan on the bottom 1/3 of oven rack and fill with water. The pork belly should be roasted using the rack above it.
Step 2: Wash and use paper towels to dry the pork belly.
Step 3: Make some horizontal slits on the sides of the belly, then rub the meat side with the five spice powder.
Step 4: Insert each garlic and push them deep inside the pork belly.
Step 5: Layer the top of the pork belly with the salt evenly.
Step 6: Place the pork belly on a wire rack. This is how it should look before going into the oven.
Step 7: Place the pork belly at the top 1/3 of the oven and roast for 1 hour. While baking, the oil will drip to the bottom pan with water.
Step 8: Bake until the salt crust forms, the salt should be hardened. Check water in the pan below and add if needed. This is how the pork belly and salt crust will look like in the oven. You have to insert the garlic deep inside the horizontal slits or else they will be pushed out during the roasting process.
Step 9: Remove the pork belly from the oven, pull off the salt crust and discard.
Step 10: Raise the heat of oven to 465°F (240°C), place the pork belly back in the oven and roast for another 40 minutes.
Step 11: Remove from oven and let set for 10 minutes.
Step 12: Cut and serve immediately with some chili sauce and hoisin sauce, or eat as is.
Frequently Asked Questions
This recipe is only 446 calories per serving.
What To Serve With This Recipe
Serve this dish with rice or noodles. For a Chinese meal and easy weeknight dinner, I recommend the following recipes.
I hope you enjoy this post as much as I do. If you try my recipe, please leave a comment and consider giving it a 5-star rating. For more easy and delicious recipes, explore my Recipe Index, and stay updated by subscribing to my newsletter and following me on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram for new updates.
Other Recipes You Might Like
Chinese Roast Pork Belly
Ingredients
- 2 lbs. pork belly
- 6 cloves garlic
- 1 teaspoon five spice powder
- Kosher salt, for layering
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C), arrange a pan on the bottom 1/3 of oven rack and fill with water. The pork belly should be roasted using the rack above it.
- Wash and use paper towels to dry the pork belly.
- Make some horizontal slits on the sides of the belly, then rub the meat side with the five spice powder.
- Insert each garlic and push them deep inside the pork belly.
- Layer the top of the pork belly with the salt evenly.
- Place the pork belly on a wire rack. This is how it should look before going into the oven.
- Place the pork belly at the top 1/3 of the oven and roast for 1 hour. While baking, the oil will drip to the bottom pan with water.
- Bake until the salt crust forms, the salt should be hardened. Check water in the pan below and add if needed. This is how the pork belly and salt crust will look like in the oven. You have to insert the garlic deep inside the horizontal slits or else they will be pushed out during the roasting process.
- Remove the pork belly from the oven, pull off the salt crust and discard.
- Raise the heat of oven to 465°F (240°C), place the pork belly back in the oven and roast for another 40 minutes.
- Remove from oven and let set for 10 minutes.
- Cut and serve immediately with some chili sauce and hoisin sauce, or eat as is.
Video
Notes
- Bake until the salt crust forms, the salt should be hardened.
- Check water in the pan below and add if needed.
- You have to insert the garlic deep inside the horizontal slits or else they will be pushed out during the roasting process.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
So goood, thank u soo much…
Nice crispy
Nice flavor
Good technique
Love it..
Thank u for ur kindness to share this recipe…
God bless u and all family…
Just tried this tonight, I have a convection oven so had to adjust temp and time but I found a web page that had a conversion for regular ovens to convection and it worked out well. I had to shorten the final round in the oven, I pulled it when it looked right and it had filled the oven with a fair amount of smoke. Was perfectly done. Very tasty, I had hoisin sauce and chiu chow chili oil for dipping. Just what I needed, a taste of real Chinese food, not Americanized. The smell when baking was just amazing. Delicious!
I travel frequently to the Philippine for work. I love the roast pork there. The skin is crispy but somehow it is different from the Chinese style I used to make. Recently, my new neighbour has a Filipino maid. One day , she did the roast pork. Here is the secret. She dried the pork ( skin side up) under hot sun for a couple of hour. She then roast the pork without the top layer of salt. It was crackling good. I tried it a few time myself and it was really good. The skin texture is different from the Chinese style. I love both styles.
Bee’s recipe is simple and good. If you want more favour, add some red fermented bean curd (Nam Yee) and Chinese cooking wine. Season the meat in the fridge overnight ( sometime I leave it for 48 hours). The meat will be very tasty. It also make the skin very dry. Just before roasting, if the sun is hot, I put the meat under the hot sun to make sure the skin is super dry. The skin will crack very easily.
Thanks for your tips! I will have to try your method.
How did this other method turn out?
I took up the courage and tried the recipe with my new oven. The skin was not that crispy and I know I probably did not dry the skin enough. The flavor was yums and oh so juicy. However what troubled me most was the smoke, splatters and gunk splattered on the oven walls! How did you guys out there manage it? I spent hours cleaning everything up. I want to try again but I must figure out a less messy way if it exists. Thanks Bee for the recipe and video!
Hi Pauline, LOL, yes it does get a little messy inside the oven.
I just made this. It was easy and delish!!! Thank you for sharing this recipe. It came out pretty just like your pictures and it tasted good! I absolutely love easy, simple, no fuss recipes. This is it! Thank you Bee!
Thanks Vi, I am so happy that you had great success with this Chinese roast pork recipe.
Hi, I tried this recipe and mum simply loves it. She says I should make it for our family’s Chinese New Year gathering! After washing the pork, I dry the skin furiously with a hairdryer. It is difficult to get the skin crackling at times. Could it be the humidity, or I didn’t bake the skin with salt long enough? Also there is no rating for this recipe. I would like to give it 5 stars!
Thanks Deidre. :)
I tried this recipe and accomplished it perfectly. My question however is how do I keep the skin crispy for a long period of time or until the next day?
Hmm, I think you will lose the crispiness for sure because of exposure to humidity, etc.
HI. Did you score the skin side of the pork belly?
No need to score.
came out almost perfect (pilot error — did not rotate half-way thru cooking on “Phase 2”). have one, small tweak. while the pork belly came to room temperature on the counter, i put a fan on high to make sure it was thoroughly dry.
Good idea. :)
I make this last night and it turned out spectacularly!