air fryer porchetta
That’s right, a full-on air-fried porchetta
If you’re not cooking your meats in the air fryer, you need to sort yourself out.
Now, as this pork recipe is a little bit fancy and extra, it does take a little longer to cook than other air fryer recipes, but it is oh so worth it! If you’re over the standard (yet still delicious) chicken or beef on your Sunday roast, go a bit wild with this beautiful porchetta.
What is porchetta?
Porchetta is basically a boneless Italian pork roast stuffed with herbs and other lovely bits. I’ve got everything from fennel seeds, garlic cloves to lemon, rosemary and thyme in mine and it is DELICIOUS. It really is an extra special piece of pork that is beautifully moist and flavoured. Please give it a try if you’ve never had it before.
Can I mix up the seasonings?
Yes, you absolutely can. Simply replace the flavours in this recipe with any others you prefer. Black garlic is a delicious replacement for standard garlic; or you could even use smoked garlic. Alternatively, you could change up the herbs and use what you have to hand. The possibilities are endless and please tag me in all your porchetta creations. Will never turn down a chance to look a pork pic.
What to serve this air fryer porchetta with
For that classic British approach, I like to serve the porchetta with sautéed, buttered leeks, roast potatoes, garlic gravy and a big olde dollop of apple sauce. Can you tell that I’m super into garlic?
Or pork is soooo good with peppers, so serve this with the classic Italian peperonata, broccoli and some crispy potato cubes. For the peperonata, take 1 thinly sliced large onion, 6 deseeded and sliced peppers (red, orange and yellow ones), 3 crushed garlic cloves, 1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar (and more to taste), 1 tablespoon of tomato puree and salt and pepper. Put a deep frying pan on a low-medium heat, add a large glug of olive oil, then add the onion and peppers and cook for 20 minutes, until soft. Add the garlic, vinegar and tomato puree and season well. Leave to cook for a further 30 minutes – there should be no caramelisation, just soft, sticky peppers. Taste and adjust the seasoning to your liking.
More air fryer recipes please
You can find more air fryer recipes on my website here, or you can purchase my book: Poppy Cooks: The Actually Delicious Air Fryer Cookbook which also happens to be a Sunday Times bestseller. Naturally I had to throw that nugget of info in.
A full roast dinner in the air fryer?
If you’re serving up porchetta as part of your next Sunday roast, why not try a few more elements in the air fryer. I attempted the full roast, including gravy and IT WORKED. From roast potatoes, to cauliflower cheese, maple roasted carrots and even yorkshire puddings, it was surprisingly easy to do and perfect if you’re cooking for two. Watch me take this challenge on over on my YouTube channel.
air fryer porchetta
By Poppy Cooks
https://www.poppycooks.com/recipes/porchetta/
Ingredients
- 800g–1kg piece of whole, bone-out pork belly, preferably a long piece (your butcher might be best for this)
- 1 tablespoon fennel seeds
- 1 tablespoon chilli flakes
- 3 garlic cloves
- 3 rosemary sprigs, leaves picked
- 3 thyme sprigs, leaves picked
- 1 lemon, zested
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon sea-salt flakes
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- vegetable oil, for spraying
- salt and ground black pepper
- You will also need butchers twine (meat string)
Metric
Imperial
Instructions
- Prep your pork belly. Place it on a plate, skin side up and season it with the regular table salt. Then, leave it uncovered in the fridge overnight.
- The next day get the meat out of the fridge and leave it to come up to room temperature (at least 30 minutes).
- While the meat is coming up to room temperature, make the filling. Heat a frying pan over a medium heat, add the fennel seeds and chilli flakes and toast them until you can smell them getting aromatic (about 30–40 seconds). Then, get them into a pestle and mortar with the garlic, fresh herbs, lemon zest and olive oil, mash them together until they form a paste of sorts. Add the flaky salt and season with black pepper.
- Turn your pork belly upside down so that the meat is uppermost, then, using a sharp knife, make a diamond criss-cross pattern in the meat and begin to rub in the herby paste, completely covering the meat in an even layer.
- Place 3–5 pieces of butcher’s twine (long enough to tie around your meat) underneath the pork belly, equally spaced apart, then begin to roll the pork belly so that the skin is on the outside and the filling is encased. Using the middle string first, tie the pork belly in place with a simple double knot. (You can search ‘butcher’s knot’ online to learn how to do it professionally, but anything that holds will do.)
- Heat the air fryer to 120°C/230°F.
- Rub the baking powder all over the skin of the rolled pork belly and spray the air-fryer basket and pork belly with some oil.
- Place the porchetta in the air-fryer basket and cook it for 25 minutes, then turn the air fryer up to 200°C/400°F and cook it for a further 20 minutes, until it’s cooked through. After this, if your skin still needs a bit more crisping to your liking, cook in 5-minute intervals until you get it just right.
1 Comment
I have made this twice now and it was lovely both times.
The only change to the recipe I make, is I leave out the rosemary, as I find it can overpower.
I let the joint go cold and then slice it into water thin slices using an electric meat slicer and serve it on sandwiches 😋
Thanks for sharing the recipe.