Spit Roasted Pork On The Barbecue Rotisserie

Spit Roasted Pork Using The Rotisserie

Spit roasted pork on the barbecue rotisserie over direct heat is the perfect recipe for juicy flavorful meat and crispy crackling and despite the picture below, you don't have to go the whole hog to get a good result.

Having said that it doesn’t half look good doesn’t it? Your rotisserie is ideal for this type of cooking (especially if over charcoal) because the intense dry heat at the beginning of the cookout is just what's needed to get the crackling off to a good start.

Don’t worry if you’re doing this for the first time and are nervous about getting good crackling just follow my tips for perfect pork crackling and you can’t go wrong.

If you are like me you'll have failed to make crispy crackling in the past. There's no shame in it, I did it for years without working out what the problem was.

Whether you are doing it in the oven or on the barbecue the secret is to make sure that the skin of the pork is dry when you start and that the heat you apply is also dry. That's what makes the rotisserie a great tool.

Set up is different dependent on the type of barbecue you have. I have a charcoal one which allows me to apply heat from the side, I like this method because you can apply direct heat and still save all the juices for making gravy. Most barbecues these days however don't have this facility so set is for indirect cooking as shown below.

This is the indirect cooking set up to use with a rotisserie

Either keep the meat to one side of the spit rod and use the burners / coals over on the other side or keep the roast central and use the outside burners for heat.

The benefit of cooking this way is that:

The juices don't splash down onto the heat source. Coals would flare up and gas burners would need one hell of a clean at the end of the cookout.
You can use a drip tray and catch those juices!

If you are doing it in the oven, the only way you can ensure dry heat is to make sure that there's nothing else in the oven with the pork throughout the cooking.

For doing spit roasted pork at home ask your butcher for a good sized rolled pork loin. It’s a tasty cut and with the skin on offers a great opportunity for some crispy crackling.

The spit roasted pork recipe itself (in terms of seasoning) is extremely simple because what's most important about this cookout is the final textures as well as flavors.

Preparation Time:- 24 hours
Cooking Time:- 90 mins

Total Time:- 1 day

Ingredients:-

One pork loin
Salt

Image Pork Loin On The Barbecue Rotisserie

Method:

The day before cooking take your pork loin out of any wrapping, score the skin of the pork so that you penetrate the fat that is under the skin but don't go down to the flesh otherwise the meat will dry out. Place it on a cake cooling tray (over an oven tray or plate) and refrigerate. This process will dry out the skin.

Two hours before cooking, take the pork out of the refrigerator and thread it onto the spit roast taking care to ensure that you've got the meat nicely balanced on the spit rod. Let the meat rest like this so that it comes up to room temperature.

Rub the skin liberally with salt and then set the rotisserie turning. Cook for approximately 90 minutes initially over high heat to get the skin to bubble and crisp then turn the heat down so that it cooks but doesn't burn.

Check the internal temperature using a bbq thermometer for 160°F or 71°C and you're ready to remove it from the heat.

If it needs a bit longer than the prescribed 90 minutes then this shouldn’t be a problem because the loin is quite a fatty piece of meat and it won't easily dry out.

When your spit roasted pork is cooked, remove from the grill and allow it to cool for 15 minutes. There's two reasons for this:-

To seal in the juices and keep the pork moist
To allow the spit rod time to cool before you burn yourself trying to remove it!

When you've got the rod out, you're ready to carve and serve. I usually start by removing the outer shell of cracking and then slicing thinly. Cut up the crackling and place a piece on each plate. Yum!

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