Cebuchon /Lechon belly 9-10 lbs skin on pork belly 2-3 tbsp course salt 1-2 tbsp ground black pepper half a pack of magic sarap- optional 2 heads garlic, minced 1 medium shallot, chopped 3-4 stalks of lemon grass, chopped 5-6 stalks of green onions Steps
Prepare your ingredients. Wash thawed pork belly. Pat dry with paper towels. Place on a roaster rack facing up. In my case, my roaster rack is not big enough so I used a half sheet pan with baking rack. Poke the skin using a needle meat tenderizer. If you don’t have the tenderizer, a small knife is fine. Score the meat using a sharp knife. Rub salt all over the meat. Add ground black pepper, garlic and shallots on the surface. Crush the lemon grass leaves, cut the stalks diagonally and place them in the middle. Tie pork belly with a butcher’s twine forming a log. Marinate overnight.
Roasting
First, I roasted the belly over boiling water at 180’F for 2.5 hours. Replenish boiling water as needed. After 2.5 hours, increased the temperature to 320’F and roast the belly for 2.5 hours, flip the meat on each side every hour. Replenish boiling water as needed. Lastly, increase the heat to 420’F and roast for 2 hours, flip the meat on each side every hour.
Tip: I noticed that each oven is built differently. Even the heat distribution is different. When we went to Las Vegas it took 8-9 hours to roast an 11 lbs of pork belly. So, keep an eye when you’re roasting the pork belly on high heat (420’F). Since we didn’t have Mang Tomas sauce, we enjoyed it with cucumber salad with black pepper, sugar, rice vinegar, fish sauce and calamansi juice. So good you’ll! 🤤
#filipinofood #filipino #lechon #porkbelly #cebuchon