Pork Leg Roast

Oven baked pork roast on white plate with greens and potatoes.

5 from 2 votes

Oven Baked Pork Leg Roast is a succulent and juicy roast perfect for dinner. With crispy crackling, juicy meat and a winning aroma!

Prep Time10

Cook Time2

Total Time2 10

Course: Dinner

Cuisine: Western

Keyword: pork leg roast

Servings:

Calories: 523kcal

Author: Adrianne

Ingredients

2-2.5 kg/4.4 pound, 5.5 pound boneless pork leg Note 1
¼ teaspoon salt Note 2
½ teaspoon black pepper also Note 2
1 teaspoon garlic powder Note 3
1 teaspoon onion powder Note 4
¼ cup/80 ml olive oil Note 5
salt amount as needed, Note 6

Instructions

Pork leg: remove any packaging from the pork and leave it uncovered on a plate in the fridge overnight to dry out the skin.
Preheat the oven: preheat the oven to 220°C/ 425°F / Gas Mark 7.
Season: flip the pork so that the meat side is facing up and place it onto a chopping board. Season this side with salt and black pepper. Then sprinkle the garlic powder over the top, followed by the onion powder. Use your fingers to massage this into the meat.
Skin: once you have seasoned the pork, flip it back to skin side up. Fold a piece of paper towel into a square and use this to pat dry the meat.
Olive and salt: next pour olive oil over the surface of the skin and use a basting brush to spread it across the skin. Then sprinkle salt directly onto the oil, ensuring an even coverage.
Oven bake: pour 2 cups of tap water into a rack in roasting tin. Then place the pork leg onto the rack. Oven bake it for 50 minutes at the temperature listed in step 2. After this cooking time is up, reduce the oven temperature to 180°C / 350-375°F / Gas Mark 4-5. Let the pork then cook for 1 hour, then use oven mitts to remove the roasting tray and place it onto a heatproof surface. Insert a thermometer into the thickest part of the meat and ensure that it reads at least 70°C (158°F). Or return to oven and test again after 5-10 minutes. Once the pork has reached this temperature, turn the oven back up to the original cooking temperature of 220°C/ 425°F / Gas Mark 7 and cook it for a final 5 minutes to get the crackling one final hot heat blast. Then use oven mitts to remove the pork and place the roasting tray on a heat proof surface.
Rest: let the pork rest (uncovered) for 15 minutes so that the juices are reabsorbed into the meat.
To serve: when ready, use a carving fork, sharp knife and chopping board to slice the meat and crackling. Then transfer to a serving plate. Serve with potatoes and steamed greens (optional).

Notes

Note 1- Pork leg: I like to use a boneless leg of pork for this recipe. You can do the same or use bone in pork leg. No need to score the skin, but if you purchase your pork roast from a grocery store and it has some score marks that is fine. Or you can ask the butcher to score the leg roast.
Note 2 - Salt and pepper: we use salt and a little bit of black pepper to season the pork before we cook it.

Note 3 - Garlic powder: we use a little bit of garlic powder and onion powder as seasoning for the meat.

Note 4 Onion powder: as above. These 2 are excellent pantry staples to have on hand and work with a wide variety of recipes.
Note 5 - Olive oil: this is the 2nd of the ingredients used to perfect the crackling. Depending on your baking tray (non stick) you might not able able to use extra virgin olive oil.

Note 6 - Salt: there are 2 key ingredients to getting the crispy crackling. They are oil and salt. They work in combination and won't work without each other. Sea salt or cooking salt (kosher salt) are your best choices, not table salt which has a much finer grain.

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