Pork belly is a delicious cut of pork. It is made in many cultures, but no one does it like Spanish, Chinese, Danish and Korean cuisine. The trick to getting pork belly so crispy is basically lots of high heat for longer than you’d think, almost charring that thick pork skin and making it a delectable crispy treat.
Reheating pork belly is simple, however reheating pork belly so that it remains crispy is a whole different task. You can reheat crispy pork belly in the oven, in an air fryer, or fried on a skillet.
Reheating Crispy Pork Belly
The whole idea of reheating crispy pork belly is to try and keep the pork belly just as crispy as it was fresh. Crispy pork belly will generally stay crispy in the fridge for about 2 days, afterwards you definitely won’t get the crispy you are looking for no matter how you reheat it. Let’s take a look at how to reheat pork belly and keep it crispy.
In The Oven-
The best method to reheat pork belly in the oven is by first removing the crispy skin from the meat. This is a recommended step because the meat will reheat the best when it is wrapped in tin foil, and the skin stays out and gets crispy. You can also glaze the meat with stock or with sauce before wrapping it to make the meat nice and juicy (so that it never tastes like it’s being reheated). This is also a great method if the skin has become soggy and needs some crisp anyway.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Remove the skin from the pork belly
- Glaze the pork belly with sauce or with broth and wrap tightly with tin foil
- Place on a baking sheet, leaving the pork skin out of the tin foil and placed next to the meat
- Heat for 10-15 minutes or until the skin looks crispy enough
In The Airfryer-
The air fryer is basically like a tiny oven and, if you have one, a super easy and fast way to reheat really anything. The air fryer works really well for reheating pork belly because it takes almost no time at all and you will get extra crispy skin! You can go about this the same way you went about reheating pork belly in the regular oven, or you can leave the skin on and just stick the whole thing as is in the air fryer. You do not need to wrap the pork belly with foil for putting it in the air fryer. The trick to reheating anything in the air fryer is timing, you want to really watch your pork belly and make sure you aren’t overcooking it.
- Preheat your air fryer to 350 degrees F.
- At this point, you can either throw your pork belly in the air fryer as is OR you can remove the skin and place it next to the meat
- Glaze the meat quickly with broth or water
- Heat for no more than 5 minutes
Fried in a Skillet-
Your last option for reheating crispy pork belly is to heat it up by frying it in a skillet. For this option you will want to thinly slice your pork belly or cut it into chunks, leaving the skin on the meat.
- Heat up a tablespoon of oil in a skillet
- On medium high heat, place your pork bits or thinly sliced pork belly into the pan
- Fry until it begins to crispy and is heated through
- Flip the pork belly so it crisps on all sides, especially the skin side for crispy skin
Why You Should Never Reheat Crispy Pork Belly in the Microwave
The microwave tends to just heat things, not really crisping them or frying them. If you were to reheat your once crispy pork belly in the microwave this is what would happen. The skin would become extremely rubbery and lose all of its crisp, while the meat will probably become very chewy and lose a lot of flavor. Although it is a really fast way to reheat things, you should probably forget about the microwave for this one.
Final Thoughts
Crispy pork belly is super delicious and will stay crispy even after being reheated if you do it correctly. With the help of an oven, an air fryer or a skillet, you can achieve that same crisp you had when you first cooked the pork belly. Definitely forget about the microwave for this dish, you don’t want rubbery pork!