Smoked Porchetta Recipe: How to Smoke Porchetta

Smoked porchetta is an Italian dish consisting of juicy, rendered pork roast flavored with herbs and encased in a crisp pork skin “crust.” Traditionally, porchetta, which translates to “little pig” in Italian, was roasted on a spit over an open fire, but home cooks now roast it in the oven. Smoking intensifies porchetta’s trademark flavors, producing a dish closer to the original spit-roasted version.

Enjoy thick slices of smoked porchetta as a main course, or thinly shave the pork roast and tuck it into a sandwich. Here are some ideas:

1. 1. Add it to pasta or risotto. Chop up porchetta—skin and all—and toss the pieces into a risotto or pasta dish just before serving. You’ve already fully cooked the porchetta, so you just need to cook it long enough to warm the meat and meld the flavors. The rich, salty pork would pair well with Chef Massimo Bottura’s recipe for pumpkin risotto.
2. 2. Build a porchetta sandwich. Thinly sliced porchetta topped with broccoli rabe and provolone is a classic Italian sandwich filling. Other options include a porchetta banh mi, porchetta on focaccia slathered with basil-mint pesto mayonnaise, or porchetta on ciabatta with copious amounts of pickled red onion to cut the fattiness.
3. 3. Eat it with grits or polenta. Polenta or grits provide the ideal smooth, creamy base for salty-crisp porchetta. Learn how to make polenta.
4. 4. Enjoy it on flatbread. Top your flatbread of choice with a creamy sauce, chopped porchetta, fresh herbs, pickled vegetables, and some crumbled cheese. Place your porchetta flatbread in a hot oven for a few minutes to melt the cheese, cut it into slices, and serve.
5. 5. Make a salad. Use chopped porchetta meat as a salad topping, or treat it like you would ham in a ham salad and mix it with some mayonnaise until it’s moistened and scoopable.
6. 6. Stir it into fried rice. Make fried rice as usual, but add the chopped porchetta toward the end, letting it flavor the rice and crisp up a bit more in the hot oil. Use this easy fried rice recipe as a guide.
7. 7. Treat it as a centerpiece. Smoked porchetta makes for a wonderful holiday or special-occasion centerpiece. Pair the pork roast with crispy roasted potatoes and greens sautéed with lots of garlic.
8. 8. Use it as a charcuterie element. Serve sliced porchetta cold or at room temperature alongside olives, pickles, jams, jellies, cheeses, and plenty of crusty bread. Learn how to make a charcuterie board.

Pork skin renders a lot of fat, which can cause flare-ups on a grill or smoker. Here’s what else to know about preparing porchetta at home:

1. 1. Be careful when smoking. To avoid flare-ups and ensure the pork skin renders and crisps instead of burning, it’s critical to understand how to balance the direct and indirect heat. Learn how to smoke meat using any type of meat smoker. To avoid flare-ups, place an aluminum pan filled with a little water underneath the meat to catch the fat drippings.
2. 2. Buy high-quality pork and strong twine. There are a few ways to assemble porchetta. You can use belly on its own, center-cut pork loin and pork belly, or wrap pork shoulder or butt with the belly. Whichever pork cuts you choose, select the best quality pork you can find, such as Berkshire. Making homemade porchetta is time-consuming, so you want to ensure your efforts are worthwhile. Purchase high-quality butcher twine or kitchen twine for tightly wrapping the meat and avoid decorative or thin string—you don’t want the porchetta to unravel while cooking.
3. 3. Score the meat. Scoring the pork skin by poking holes through the entire fat layer or marking a crosshatch pattern with a sharp knife encourages the fat to render outward and baste the pork, creating a crisp crust. If you don’t score the skin, it can warp during cooking. Use a metal skewer or knife to penetrate the fat layer, being careful not to cut into the muscle.
4. 4. Fennel is an integral flavor. Many porchetta recipes also call for fennel pollen, a yellow substance produced by flowering fennel plants. If you have trouble sourcing fennel pollen, fennel seeds also work.
5. 5. Season generously. Porchetta is meant to be salty, so season the inside and outside of the meat with a heavy hand. Serve the porchetta with creamy, fruity, and acidic accompaniments that help cut through the salt.