TASTEMADE: Vietnamese Crispy Roasted Pork Belly- "Thit Heo Quay" Air Fryer Recipe

Beautifully crispy & crackling roasted pork belly is one of the most coveted Vietnamese dishes and it was definitely one of my dad's specialties. Also known in Vietnamese as Thit heo quay- it’s not an easy dish to make, however, it’s so worth it when you get it right. That moment of biting into a SUPER crunchy pork belly skin is just so satisfying and rewarding.

This dish is a childhood favorite of mine and making it helps me connect to my cultural heritage. Comfort foods like this ignites memories of my childhood and family gatherings around the kitchen table. I remember watching my parents cook, and them imparting small nuggets of information on how they prepared these precious meals.

For this dish I didn't want to spend hours in front of the oven so I chose to cook them in the air fryer instead. Every family has a recipe of their own on how to get that perfect crackling skin but what’s unique is my dad’s meat marinade for this.

Marinade:

PS- I’ve done this with and without drying it in the refrigerator and it definitely helps.

**Warning: Every air fryer is different, some get hotter faster, others have different settings. You’ll have to play with your settings some and watch over your pork belly to find your magical settings but below are mine based on using a Ninja XL basket air fryer.

For traditional baking instructions (not in the air fryer), click below link!

Traditional oven recipe

Below are some other tips on how to ensure you’ll get a good slab of crispy pork belly:

Selecting your pork belly: Make sure you select a nice piece of pork belly from your butcher. Choose a piece of pork belly that is flat on the top (this will help with easier crisping of the pork belly), and make sure the slab isn’t all dried out from being in the butcher display (the skin should look soft, and white, not yellow/browned and dry looking).

Also- Look for a slab that has a nice fat to meat ratio. You don’t want all fat with just a little meat layer, and you don’t want all meat with no fat layer.

Seasoning & Marinating: When marinating your pork belly make sure your marinade does not touch the skin. The skin needs to be absolutely dry to achieve a crispy skin. If you get marinade on the skin, just be sure to wipe it off.

Prepping skin: The key step to crispy skin is making small punctures/holes into the pork belly skin that breaks through pork skin's surface but not too deep into the fat layer (if you do fat will come up through the pores). I tried 2 different methods: I used paring knife to puncture and score, and a small sewing needle to puncture skin. The best was just using a needle and puncturing like hundreds of holes into the skin, each hole essentially would blister up during the roasting process.

Slicing: As much as you are craving to cut into the pork belly after it comes out of your oven, resist the temptation and wait til it gets to room temperature or else you'll let all the juices out and you'll also get a soggy pork belly skin!

Vinegar: Vinegar makes the skin super dry and crispy! Nom Nom Nom!!! (I also heard you can use lime juice but I didn't try that)#5: Annato oil or Annato powder: use a little of this on the skin along with some Five Spice powder and you'll get that perfect orange/warm tinted skin. Otherwise, it'll be more fleshy/gray which doesn't look as pretty.

Noodles:

We made this dish with Three Ladies Brand “Banh Hoi Tuoi, Fine Rice Vermicelli” noodles. To cook noodles stack into a colander, add boiling water to cover the noodles then let soak for 1 min and 15 seconds, then place colander and noodles into a cold water bath for a 2-5 seconds, then strain. Fold noodles in half and place on a plate.

INGREDIENTS

3 lbs pork belly (ask butcher for one with a decent amount of meat and nice layer of pork belly skin, I try to find pieces that have at least 1 1/2” of meat)

Salt Rub & Salt Crust:

2-4 tbs coarse sea salt (or as needed +/-)

Marinade:

1 tbs Rum Liqour or vodka
1 tbs hoison sauce
2 tbs of maggi or soy sauce
1/2 tsp Chinese bbq powder (this adds that nice red color to the bottom of the meat)
1 tsp honey
1/2 tbs black pepper
1.5 tsp salt
3/4 tsp 5-spice chinese powder

SKIN VINEGAR DRYING SOLUTION
1/16 tsp annato powder
1/4 tsp Chinese powder
1/16 tsp baking soda
1/2 tbs vinegar

PREPARATION
1. Clean pork belly step 1: Mix 2 tbs vinegar, 1.5 tsp salt and about 4 cups of water (enough water to cover pork completely). In a deep baking dish, place pork skin facing up and add the vinegar solution for about 10 min.
2. Clean pork belly step 2: Wash and clean pork under water and scrape the skin with sharp knife along the pork belly skin to remove any dirt and dead outer layer/skin from pork belly (Skin should be a clean white throughout entire skin, no dirty patches, this sounds gross but if your pork belly is hairy you’ll need to use a razor to shave off the hairs).
3. Pat dry and let dry for 10 min
4. Cut long slices about 2” apart to the bottom of pork belly vertically along the longest part of your slab of meat (meat part only up to the fat, do NOT cut into fat/skin).
5. If you are using a air fryer you'll need to cut your pork belly into sections that will fit in your deep fryer, my pieces were about 4” x 6 1/2” sections.
6. Marinate bottom of pork belly (Do not marinate the skin!) and onto the sides of the meat and be careful not to touch the marinade onto the pork belly skin, if you do, just wipe it off with a paper towel. Be sure to get the marinade up into all the cut slits you made as well.
7. Transfer pork belly (skin side up) onto a foil lined pyrex pan that is almost the same size as the pork belly.
8. Score the pork belly skin a few times in a hatch mark pattern, just barely slicing into the skin. Then prick pork belly skin with a needle (sharp paring knife or meat pricking tenderizer) and make sure you break into the skin but not too deep into the fat layer.
9. Brush skin top with vinegar, and lightly salt with skin and rub the salt evenly across the top of the skin (about 1/2 to full tsp of salt). You can put in the fridge uncovered for 1 day if you have time (will help with better skin crunch).

PREPARATION ON COOKING DAY:

1. Mix vinegar solution: 1/16 tsp five spice powder, 1/16 tsp annato powder for color, 1/16 baking soda, mix with fork, then add 1/2 tbs vinegar. Let it completely fizzle down, then mix well with a fork again and brush over the top of the pork belly skin. Leave till it gets to room temperature (about an hour).

AIR FRYER DIRECTIONS

1. Brush sesame oil all over skin, then sprinkle the left over 2-4 tbs coarse sea salt on top generously so you have nice salt crust layer on top of the pork belly skin. You want a nice layer of salt, don’t worry you’ll remove this salt layer off later.

2. Place foil wrapped pork belly and place into air fryer for 20 min- at 300 degrees on “air fry” mode. Wipe off salt layer. Air fry again for about 5-10 minutes at 400-450F until skin is crispy and bubbly (careful not to let skin burn, mine took about 6 min at 450F for that perfect crisp). Meat is done at 145F or higher.

FINISHING
1. Remove from oven/air fryer and place on wire rack and let cool for 15 minutes.
2. Cut along bottom cut lines that you made with skin side down.
3. Then cut each slice into many 1/2” slices by slowing cutting down on the meat and through the skin, and then press firmly down to snap/cut through the skin.

SERVING
1. Serve with fish dipping sauce, Nuoc Mam or Nuoc Mam Gung
2. Plate with fine rice noodles fresh lettuce and herbs