Air Fyer Lechon Kawali

 Another favorite viand in our house is lechon kawali. The problem with cooking it the traditional way was the exploding, terrifying, and traumatic hot oil spill. That's why our air fryer is my new kitchen best friend for this recipe and many other fried dishes.

Air Fryer Lechon Kawali

This is an easy recipe, similar to the way of cooking air fryer crispy pata in my last air fryer post. Here's how to do it. But first, the size of the pork belly you will buy must fit the size of your air fryer. We used about 2 kilos of pork belly here.

1. Boil the pork belly in water enough to cover the meat. Add 1 red onion sliced unpeeled, 1 whole head of garlic sliced in the middle unpeeled, peppercorns, bay leaves, and 1 tsp of salt, and simmer for 1 hour to 1 hour and a half.
2. Once the pork belly is tender, remove it from the pot, let it drain and cool down, poke the skin with a fork, rub it with enough salt (enough to draw out moisture from the pork belly skin), and refrigerate (do not freeze) overnight uncovered.

When you're ready to cook it the next day...

1. Take the pork belly out of the fridge and let it sit on the counter for at least half an hour to get it to room temperature.
2. Preheat Nutricook Air Fryer (there's a preheat setting there)
3. Wrap the sides of the pork belly with foil. Do this to avoid the meat getting burnt or overcooked. Our main goal is for the crackling to get nice and crispy. 
4. Wipe excess salt and moisture before placing it in the air fryer. 
5. Set the air fryer to 180 degrees for 45 minutes
6. Air Fry one more time at 200 degrees for 20 minutes.
7. Rest for 15 minutes and chop
8. Serve warm with plenty of rice or a side dish of your choice.

Don't forget the sukang sawsawan. Add chopped chili peppers for some heat. Enjoy