This Air Fryer Pork Belly is super juicy with extra crispy skin. It's the best version of crispy pork belly I have ever made. It takes less than 40 minutes to cook in the air fryer and comes out perfect, every time!
This pork belly in the air fryer is seasoned with Chinese five spice and garlic powder for extra flavour, but if you're looking to make crispy air fry belly pork for a different style of meal, then feel free to just season it with garlic granules and omit the 5 spice.
I've also written out a quick 4 ingredient dipping sauce for these crispy air fryer bites with hoisin sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil, and rice wine vinegar. It's SO good, so make sure to scroll down to the recipe card at the bottom of this post to make it.
Another great air fryer recipe I think you'll love are my air fryer chicken drumsticks coated in a hot honey buffalo sauce!
If you love pork belly, here are some tasty recipes that you could save for the future! My udon pork belly carbonara is great for a midweek dinner, Butadon aka Japanese pork rice bowl is quick and delicious, or my 20-minute pork belly fried rice for something simple and flavourful.
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Why you'll love this recipe
Simple: I feel like a lot of pork belly recipes require long lengths of time and oodles of effort to create the perfect crispy pork belly. Well, not this one. You can have your pork belly ready from start to finish in under 50 minutes. With around 10 minutes prep and then 40 minutes cooking, it's a winning dish for me.
Juicy & Crispy: the best kind of belly pork, if you ask me, is one that has super crispy skin, and really juicy meat. This air fryer pork belly recipe will give you just that!
Easy to adapt: Although I've seasoned this pork belly with a mixture of Chinese 5 spice and garlic granules, you can absolutely omit the Chinese 5 spice and simply season it with garlic granules just to give it some flavour.
Ingredients & Substitutions
Pork belly: To make this air fryer pork belly recipe, you want a medium to large pork belly joint (mine was around 800g). I chose a joint that had its skin in tact (not scored), but if the only available option to you is a scored one, then pick that up! You don't want pork belly slices.
Salt: I used malden salt for this air fryer pork belly recipe because it's less concentrated in flavour and easier to wipe off when the moisture out of the belly pork has been drawn out.
Chinese 5 spice: To provide some extra flavour to the pork belly meat, we've used Chinese 5 spice. If you don't have this but you still want an Asian-inspired flavour profile, I'd recommend using ground Sichuan peppercorns and black pepper, or for a sweeter for autumnal angle, using a combination of allspice and ground cinnamon.
Garlic granules: Garlic powder or granules would work great regardless of whether you use the Chinese 5 spice. You could also use onion powder or granules too.
Recipe variations
Pork belly roast dinner: One of the most disappointing things, is when you go out for a Sunday roast dinner at a restaurant or pub, and you order the pork belly with crispy crackling, and it's not good. So, now you can just make it at home, in your air fryer, and it will come out 10/10 every time. I'd recommend omitting the Chinese 5 spice and adding some dried parsley or mixed herbs to your garlic granules.
Pork belly tacos: For a more Mexican-inspired dinner, season the pork belly meat with garlic granules and chipotle paste. This will make everything taste smoky and sweet, perfect to add to tasty tacos.
Pork belly curry: If you're looking for crispy pork belly in curries, then season your meat with garlic granules with ground cumin or whatever spice is the most dominant in your curry of choice.
Step by step instructions
Step 1: Turn the pork belly meat-side facing up. Score the meat going in about ½cm deep diagonally both ways, creating criss-cross lines.
Step 2: Sprinkle the Chinese 5 spice and garlic granule powder over the meat and then rub the powders into the crevices of the scored areas.
Step 3: Flip the pork belly over and score the skin in the same way. Break the surface of the skin and slice delicately through to the fat. You'll need a sharp knife. Make sure to not cut through to the meat.
Step 4: Sprinkle a generous layer of salt all over the skin and rub it in with your fingers. Leave uncovered for 10 minutes. This is to remove any excess moisture, to ensure the skin is as crispy as possible.
Step 5: After 10 minutes, rub the salt off the skin, patting the skin dry.
Step 6: Get a large sheet of tinned foil and place the pork belly joint meat facing down into the centre of the foil. Then, gently fold up the sides of the foil to cover the sides of the pork belly, leaving the skin uncovered. This is to ensure the meat stays juicy and the skin gets cooked to crisp!
Step 7: Get your air fryer, I use a Ninja air fryer (they're the best in my opinion). Place in your pork belly, click the air fryer setting and then set the temperature to 160C/320F and cook for 30 minutes.
Step 8: Once the pork belly has cooked for 30 minutes, turn on the Max Crispy setting (or the air fryer setting ensuring it's on the highest temperature), and cook at 240C/465F for 10 minutes. Before doing this, double check that the sides of the meat are still covered by the foil.
Step 9: Meanwhile, make your 4 ingredient sauce by combining the hoisin, soy sauce, sesame oil, and rice wine vinegar in a small bowl. Taste and season according to your preferences.
Step 10: Take your pork belly carefully out of the air fryer and it should be super golden and crispy on the skin side and really juicy on the meat side. To slice it, turn it upside down so that the meat is facing upwards, and slice into ½ inch strips. You can then optionally slice those into three or four to make pork belly bites. Serve up with rice or whatever you fancy, and enjoy!
What to do with leftovers
Storage: If you have any leftover air fryer belly pork, let it cool, then place it in an airtight container and into the fridge for up to 3 days.
Freezing: To freeze your cooked air fryer pork belly, I'd recommend slicing it up and then placing it into an airtight container (you could also divide it into portions and place them in freezer bags). Freeze for up to 3 months. Then leave to thaw in the fridge overnight before reheating.
Reheating: To reheat your pork belly, you could either place it back in the air fryer at 160C/320F for 7 minutes until hot. Or you could place it in the microwave with the lid slightly ajar until piping hot.
FAQs
There are many recipes that suggest leaving the pork belly skin uncovered to remove any excess moisture. But I have found that just adds a lot of effort for not a lot of reward. So this is definitely something you could do, but I don't recommend it necessarily.
Depending on the air fryer you have, you might want to play around with the temperatures based on how you know your air fryer works. Or just check on your air fryer pork belly every 5 minutes to ensure it's not burning or on the opposite side of things, not cooking.
I love serving mine with stick rice, Pak Choi, and a fried egg. But you could also serve it with noodles, in a sandwich, or with pasta.
Other related recipes you might enjoy!
If you tried this Crispy Air Fryer Pork Belly recipe or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below. Thank you!
Air Fryer Pork Belly (The CRISPIEST Version)
Equipment
- 1 Ninja Air Fryer
Ingredients
- 800g pork belly joint
- 1 tablespoon Chinese 5 spice
- ½ tablespoon garlic granules
- 1 tablespoon malden salt
For the sauce
- 2 tablespoon hoisin sauce
- 2 tablespoon light soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- ½ tablespoon rice wine vinegar
Instructions
- Turn the pork belly meat-side facing up. Score the meat every inch, going in about ½cm deep diagonally both ways, creating criss-cross lines (there are step by step photos further up this blog for your help!).
- Sprinkle the Chinese 5 spice and garlic granule powder over the meat and then rub the powders into the crevices of the scored areas.
- Flip the pork belly over and score the skin in the same way. Break the surface of the skin and slice delicately through to the fat. You'll need a sharp knife. Make sure to not cut through to the meat.
- Sprinkle a generous layer of salt all over the skin and rub it in with your fingers. Leave uncovered for 10 minutes. This is to remove any excess moisture, to ensure the skin is as crispy as possible.
- After 10 minutes, rub the salt off the skin, patting the skin dry using a paper towel.
- Get a large sheet of tinned foil and place the pork belly joint meat facing down into the centre of the foil. Then, gently fold up the sides of the foil to cover the sides of the pork belly, leaving the skin uncovered. This is to ensure the meat stays juicy and the skin gets cooked to crisp!
- Get your air fryer, I use a Ninja air fryer (they're the best in my opinion). Place in your pork belly, click the air fryer setting and then set the temperature to 160C/320F and cook for 30 minutes.
- Once the pork belly has cooked for 30 minutes, turn on the Max Crispy setting (or the air fryer setting ensuring it's on the highest temperature), and cook at 240C/465F for 10 minutes. Before doing this, double check that the sides of the meat are still covered by the foil.
- Meanwhile, make your 4 ingredient sauce by combining the hoisin, soy sauce, sesame oil, and rice wine vinegar in a small bowl. Taste and season according to your preferences.
- Take your pork belly carefully out of the air fryer and it should be super golden and crispy on the skin side and really juicy on the meat side. To slice it, turn it upside down so that the meat is facing upwards, and slice into ½ inch strips. You can then optionally slice those into three or four to make pork belly bites. Serve up with rice or whatever you fancy, and enjoy!
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