While nothing compares with the flavor of meat grilled over glowing charcoal, in this kind of weather when the sun shines one minute and the rain pours without warning, outdoor grilling is out of the question.
We air fried the skewered marinated pork, and the result was spectacular. If you’re wondering if you can use a stovetop grill or cook the pork in the oven, the answer to both is yes. We’re cooked this dish using both methods and, no matter how the meat is grilled, it still comes out delicious.
Two essential things for making this dish: First is marinating. The pork needs time to absorb the flavors of all in the ingredients in the marinade. What’s in the marinade should give you an idea why the pork is so tasty after cooking.
The marinade consists of dry and wet ingredients. For the dry ingredients, we have garlic, ginger, shallot, brown sugar and, of course, lemongrass. The wet ingredients are soy sauce, fish sauce and coconut oil.
You cut your pork, you add all the ingredients for the marinade and you mix them well so that every ingredient in the marinade is evenly distributed. After all, you don’t want some pieces of pork to taste too salty while others are too sweet. So, mix well. After mixing, transfer the pork into a covered container and keep in the fridge overnight.
Thread the pork with bamboo skewers. How many pieces per skewer depends on how long the skewer it. Just remember to leave the bottom part of the skewer empty so you can hold it between your fingers.
The second essential thing is cooking lemongrass pork belly is high cooking temperature to immediately sear the meat as soon it somes in contact with the heat. Air fryer does not require preheating but if you’re using the oven or a stovetop grill, make sure they are hot before you start grilling.
Full recipe below
Air fried lemongrass pork belly
Equipment
- Air fryer
- bamboo skewers
Ingredients
- 450 grams boneless pork belly
For the marinade
- 3 cloves garlic - minced
- 1 shallot - peeled and grated
- 2 stalks lemongrass - minced (peel the outer layers and use only the lower portion of the stalks)
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 2 teaspoons brown sugar
- 1 ½ tablespoons light soy sauce
- 1 ½ tablespoons fish sauce
- 1 ½ tablespoons coconut oil
For the dipping sauce
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons lime or lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon white sugar
- 2 bird's eye chilies - slit and cut up
Instructions
Marinate the pork
- Rinse the pork belly and pat dry with a kitchen towel. Cut into slices a little less than half an inch thick then cut each slice into bite-size pieces.
- Place the pork belly in a bowl, add all the ingredients for the marinade and mix well.
- Transfer the pork to a container, cover and keep in the fridge overnight.
Cook the pork
- Thread the marinated pork with the bamboo skewers.
- Arrange the skewered pork in a single layer on the rack of the air fryer.
- Air fry the pork belly at 180C for 15 minutes.
Make the dipping sauce
- While the pork cooks, mix together all the ingredients for the dipping sauce.
Serve your air fried lemongrass pork belly
- Transfer the cooked pork to a plate and serve with dipping sauce.
