Air-Fryer Roast Pork Belly with Crackling

The pork-belly roast is the British Sunday-dinner standard that intimidates many home cooks because of the crackling. The skin can go from raw to leathery to perfect to burned in a small window of heat. The air fryer makes this easier — focused high heat blisters the crackling reliably, and the lower-heat finish renders the fat without overcooking the meat.

The technique: score the skin in tight crosshatch, salt heavily, let it sit uncovered in the fridge overnight to dry the surface (or 1 hour minimum), then air-fry at 200°C for 15 minutes to puff the crackling, drop to 160°C for 50–60 more minutes to render the fat.

The dry overnight rest is critical for proper crackling. Skip it and you get leathery skin instead of glass-shatter. Salt the skin only — no oil — the salt draws out moisture and the rendered fat does the rest.

The photo shows the finished slab on a white plate: golden-amber puffed crackling with visible salt crystals embedded, one slice cut to show the white-pink pork meat and the layers of rendered fat underneath. The kind of dinner you serve to people you want to impress.