Easter weekend is the prime time to serve seasonal lamb, typically with all the sought-after side dishes you’d find in a traditional roast dinner. But a pork joint is a worthy alternative for those craving something else. When cooked correctly, you can scrape off a layer of savoury, crisp crackling before tucking into the tender pork meat.
As for how to cook it, Good Food’s resident air fryer expert and Senior Food Editor, Samuel Goldsmith, suggests ditching the oven. He shared his simple three-ingredient recipe: “Air-fry rather than oven-roast a pork joint to save on energy costs and ensure perfectly crisp crackling.”
The pork is versatile enough to work with any side dishes, you could even shred it into hog roast sandwiches. But to keep it classic, serve with apple sauce and your favourite sides.
Air fryer pork joint recipe
Ingredients
- 1-1.5 kg boneless pork leg or shoulder
- Half tbsp vegetable or sunflower oil
- Salt
- Apple sauce to serve (optional)
Method
First, choose a good-quality pork joint that will fit in your air fryer and store it in the fridge.
Take the pork from the fridge and leave it on a plate at room temperature for 20 to 30 minutes before cooking. Bringing meat to room temperature before cooking can improve the cooking process and result in a more even, juicy, and tender outcome.
Pat the pork joint dry with a paper towel, then score it with a sharp knife to make a diamond pattern. Be careful not to cut through to the flesh.
Take your vegetable or sunflower oil and drizzle it over the meat, rubbing it in well with your hands. Then, follow with a generous sprinkling of salt.
The best thing about cooking the meat in an air fryer is that you don’t need to preheat the appliance.
Put the joint in your air-fryer and cook at 210C for 20 minutes.
Samuel recommends reducing the temperature to 160C after 20 minutes, and cooking it for another 40 to 50 minutes (for a 1kg joint).
Cook for another hour (plus an extra 10 minutes if needed) for a 1.5kg joint.
Before removing the pork from the air fryer, check that the juices run clear or that the internal temperature reads 70C on a digital thermometer.
The crackling should be nicely crisp by this point, but if it’s not, you can remove the skin from the meat, cover it, and leave it to rest for 20 minutes while you cook the skin.
Air fry the skin at 220C for 15 to 20 minutes. Otherwise, leave the joint rest uncovered for 10 to 20 minutes.
Take your cooked pork joint and slice it up to serve with apple sauce.