Airfryer Chinese 5-Spiced Pork Belly

Moisture is the enemy of crispy pork belly skin, so the trick to super crispy pork crackling is placing the pork belly in the fridge overnight or up to 3 days to help to dry out the skin and maximise the crackle. Make the most of your air fryer and enjoy pork belly in minutes of cooking rather than hours in the oven. This pork belly is meltingly tender and crispy all at the same time. It is seasoned with Chinese five spice for extra flavour. But if you don’t have the spice blend, just use salt and pepper.

	Sugar Free Chilli Sauce
800 g-1 kg Pork belly 2 tsp Chinese five spice mix Olive oil spray Sea salt Cucumber, to serve	1 Garlic clove, roughly chopped 1 tbsp Finely chopped ginger 6-8 Red chillies, chopped 1 tsp Sea salt flakes 100 g Erythritol 80-100 ml Apple cider vinegar 1/5 tsp Guar gum or xanthan gum

Place garlic, ginger, chillies, salt flakes, erythritol and apple cider vinegar in a food processor. Blend everything together until very fine. Pour into a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes. Sprinkle the guar gum over and whisk until the sauce has thickened. Pour into sterilised jars, seal and cool. Store in fridge for up to 1 month.
Use a sharp knife to score the skin of the pork belly crossways without going through to the flesh, making the cuts about 1cm apart. Place pork belly on a plate or tray, uncovered, in the fridge for at least 24 hours to dry out or up to 3 days.
Turn the pork rind-side down onto a dry chopping board. Rub the pork flesh with Chinese 5 spice blend. Turn the pork over and use a sharp knife to cut the pork belly into 3-4cm pieces.
Preheat the air fryer to 200C/400F for 3 minutes. Spray pork rind liberally with oil. Sprinkle with salt. Place half the pork belly, skin-side up, in the air fryer basket. Cook for 15-18 minutes or until just golden and crisp. Transfer to a serving plate and repeat with remaining pork belly. Serve with the prepared chilli sauce.

5 comments:

Brian's Home Blog 28/4/26 01:11: Bet that is really good in the air fryer, yum!
Tom 28/4/26 01:21: ...our oven can be used as an air fryer, we need to figure out how!
Linda's Relaxing Lair 28/4/26 01:24: Lovely photos, Angie! I do really like pork!
foodtravelandwine 28/4/26 01:53: It sounds delicious!....beautiful pictures!!........Abrazotes, Marcela
My name is Erika. 28/4/26 02:30: I love how this looks so crispy. Yum!