Easy Roast Pork with Perfect Crackling
Deliciously tender roast pork topped with perfect crispy crunchy crackling is much easier than you think… This recipe takes just 2 hours from start to finish and only 5 minutes is hands on time! (Serves 4-6, depending on appetite.)
Servings 6 people
Calories 239kcal
Ingredients
Easy Roast Pork and Perfect Crackling
- 1 kg boneless pork leg or loin must be a ‘crackling’ joint with the rind left on (see note 1 for other weights)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
Roast Pork Gravy
- Pork juices from roasting tin and carving board
- 1 tablespoon cornflour
- 500 ml hot chicken stock – from a cube is fine (I use 1 Kallo organic chicken stock cube)
Instructions
Easy Roast Pork and Perfect Crackling
- Remove the pork from the fridge approximately 30 minutes before cooking (2 hours before you wish to serve the pork).
- Preheat your oven to 240C / 220C fan / gas mark 9 / 475F.
- Using a very sharp knife, score the rind with deep scores in a diamond pattern (or ask your butcher to do this), then pat the pork dry using kitchen paper.
- Sprinkle the salt and pepper over the rind of the pork and work it in to the cuts using your fingers.
- When the pork has been out of the fridge for 30 minutes, and the oven is at the correct temperature, place the pork on a rack in a roasting dish and put it into the oven for 30 minutes.
- After the pork has been in the oven for 30 minutes, turn the oven down to 200C / 180C fan / gas mark 6 / 400F and continue cooking for 50 minutes.
- Remove the pork from the oven and leave to rest for 10 minutes before carving.
- For ease of carving, remove the crackling first (it should pull away quite easily), then carve the pork into slices and cut up the crackling into chunks.
- Serve with Yorkshire puddings, roast potatoes or mashed potatoes, plus apple sauce, pork gravy and all your favourite roast dinner vegetables.
Roast Pork Gravy
- To make a delicious gravy to go with the roast pork, simply mix 1 tablespoon of cornflower with a small splash of cold water in a jug until you have a thin paste.
- Add the hot chicken stock to the jug and stir to combine.
- Tip the contents of the jug into the roasting tray and stir gently to mix the stock with the pork juices and to release the stuck-on bits from the bottom of the pan.
- Tip the gravy through a sieve into a clean saucepan and gently heat until the gravy starts to bubble and thicken. Take off the heat when the gravy is your preferred thickness. (See note 2.)
Video
Notes
- These are the timings for alternative size joints: 1.5kg/3.3lb (30 mins at 240C, 1h15 at 200C) 2kg/4.4lb (30 mins at 240C, 1h40 at 200C) 2.5kg/5.5lb (30 mins at 240C, 2h05 at 200C)
- For a thicker gravy, simply use more cornflower. If your gravy looks too thin in the pan, simply mix up a little more cornflower and cold water and add it bit by bit into the bubbling hot gravy until you reach your preferred thickness.
- Suitable for freezing.
- Nutrition information is approximate and meant as a guideline only.
Nutrition
Calories: 239kcal | Carbohydrates: 2g | Protein: 39g | Fat: 7g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 105mg | Sodium: 301mg | Potassium: 695mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 1g | Calcium: 12mg | Iron: 1mg