Crispy Pork Belly with Parsley Sauce
Denmark's national dish: crispy fried pork belly slices with boiled potatoes and a classic parsley sauce made with butter, flour, and milk.
Start the potatoes first, then build the parsley sauce and let it cook through. Meanwhile, heat the rack, and fry the pork in two batches so each batch can be kept crisp until serving. The key is giving the pork time to render its fat before it crisps up.
Ingredients
The Pork
- 800 g pork belly, sliced about 5 mm thick
- salt, for sprinkling
The Potatoes
- 1 kg potatoes
- 1 tbsp salt, for the cooking water
The Parsley Sauce
- 50 g butter
- 50 g all-purpose flour
- 6 dl whole milk
- 1 bunch parsley, finely chopped, about 1 dl
- salt, to taste
- pepper, freshly ground
How to make it
- Peel the potatoes and cut the largest ones in half lengthwise so all the pieces are roughly the same size. Otherwise the smallest ones will overcook long before the largest are tender. ⏱ 8 min–10 min
- Put the potatoes in a pot, cover them with cold water, and add salt to the water. Boil them covered for about 30 minutes from cold water, until a knife slides easily into the largest piece without resistance. ⏱ 30 min · passive
- Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat and whisk in the flour. Let the roux bubble for 2 minutes, stirring constantly, until it smells faintly nutty without taking on color.Chef's tip The roux should only smell faintly nutty and turn pale gold — if the flour takes on color, it loses some of its thickening power and the sauce comes out thinner than expected.
- Add the milk a little at a time, whisking vigorously, over 3-5 minutes. Wait until the sauce is completely smooth again before adding the next splash — that's the only thing that keeps lumps away.Chef's tip The first splashes matter most: keep the mixture a thick, glossy paste and whisk each addition smooth before the next. Once it's loose you can pour faster. Lumps form here and never whisk out later.
- Let the sauce simmer over low heat for 6-8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the floury taste has cooked off and the sauce runs thick and slow off the spoon.Chef's tip Flour starch needs a few minutes near a simmer to swell fully — that's both the thickening and the loss of the raw, pasty taste. The sauce visibly tightens and coats the back of a spoon.
- Turn the oven on to 100°C and place a rack in the oven with a roasting pan underneath. Here the first batch of pork can stay warm without going soft from its own steam.
- Pat the pork slices dry with paper towels on both sides so they brown instead of steaming in their own moisture.
- Place half of the patted-dry slices in a single layer in a cold, dry skillet and fry over medium heat for 12-14 minutes. Turn them every couple of minutes and sprinkle salt on both sides. They're done when the fat has rendered clear and the slices are golden and crisp at the edges. Move them to the rack in the oven, and fry the second batch the same way. ⏱ 25 min–30 minChef's tip Keep the slices in one layer with space between them — crowded pork releases moisture faster than it can evaporate and the pan drops to steaming. Two batches beat one full pan every time.
- Stir the finely chopped parsley into the sauce over low heat and season with salt and freshly ground pepper. The parsley only needs 1 minute — just until it's distributed and the sauce is an even light green. If the parsley cooks longer, it loses both color and freshness.
- Arrange the potatoes on flat plates and pour about half of the parsley sauce over them. Place the crispy pork slices alongside without sauce on top, so they stay crunchy. Put the rest of the parsley sauce in a sauceboat on the table so everyone can add more as they eat.
