Smoked Porchetta
I’ve recently gotten into smoking meats with our new smoker and trying out a lot of different cuts of meats. One thing that I’ve always wanted to make was a porchetta and I thought smoking would be a sure fire way to get a huge pork belly roast infused with as much flavor as possible.
As I was smoking this, I used a slab of pork belly with the skin removed. Pork skin needs a high temperature to ensure it gets crispy and this is more a low and slow cooking method. The last thing you want is tough pork skin. No one wants to eat that and it will ruin the beautiful porchetta.
I infuse my porchetta with lots of fresh herbs like thyme and Rosemary and am very heavy handed with the fennel and garlic. Fennel pairs very well with pork and the smokiness enhances the licorice anise flavor. I highly recommend toasting fennel seeds and grinding it to a powder for these flavor.
Smoked Porchetta
Recipe details
Ingredients
Porchetta roast
- 1 full slab pork belly, skin off
- 3 tbsps fresh thyme
- 3 tbsps fresh rosemary
- 1 head garlic, skin removed and cloves finely minced
- zest of 4 oranges
- 3 tbsps fennel seeds, toasted and grind to powder
- Salt
- black pepper
Rub
- 2 tbsps Lawry’s seasoning salt
- 1 tbsp onion powder
- 1 tbsp garlic powder
- 1 tbsp smoked paprika
- 1/2 tbsp fennel powder
Instructions
- Butterfly a full slab of pork belly to allow for maximum flavoring for the porchetta.
- Once butterflied, season the pork belly with thyme, rosemary, orange zest, garlic, fennel, salt and pepper.
- Roll the pork belly up tightly like a cinnamon roll. Using butchers twine, tie the pork belly roll tightly. Refrigerate overnight to allow the flavors to penetrate into the pork belly.
- Next day, preheat your smoker to 300F for about 10 minutes until it gets up to temperature. Combine the rub ingredients and rub it all over the outside of the porchetta ensuring even coverage.
- When your smoker gets up to temperature, place your porchetta inside and allow to smoke for about 2.5-3 hours until the internal temperature reaches 160.
- Remove the porchetta and tent with foil. Increase the temperature of the smoker to 475 and place the porchetta back inside for about 15 minutes to get a bit of a sear and high smoke to the outside.
- Remove, tent and allow to rest for 15 minutes before slicing and serving.
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