Sichuan Garlic Sauce Chicken Skin (Suan Ni Bai Rou)

Ingredients

• 600 g pork belly or chicken skin, skin-on, in one piece
• For the dressing
• 6 cloves garlic, pounded to a paste in a mortar, not minced
• 2 tbsp light soy sauce
• 2 tbsp chili oil, Sichuan-style, with sediment
• 1 tbsp Chinkiang black vinegar
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• To serve
• 1 medium cucumber, cut into julienne or thin slices

Method

1. 1
   Place the pork belly in a pot of cold water. Bring to a simmer and poach gently until just cooked through. The flesh should yield to a skewer with no resistance and the juices run clear.
2. 2
   Remove the pork from the water immediately and chill it thoroughly — refrigerate until firm and cold to the core. The fat must be set, not yielding; the meat must be cold enough to slice cleanly without tearing.
3. 3
   Pound the raw garlic cloves in a mortar until reduced to a smooth, wet paste. This is where the dish lives or dies: the garlic must remain raw and pounded — not minced, not cooked, not tempered — so that its full allicin sharpness is preserved intact in the dressing.
4. 4
   Combine the garlic paste with the light soy sauce, chili oil, Chinkiang vinegar, and sesame oil. Stir to integrate. The dressing should smell sharp and aggressive — raw garlic dominant over the chili and vinegar.
5. 5
   Slice the cold pork belly at 1–2 mm — as thin as the knife will allow — and arrange the slices overlapping on a bed of cucumber julienne. Each slice should be translucent at the fat line and lie flat without bunching.
6. 6
   Spoon the dressing evenly over the arranged slices. Serve immediately, cold. The contrast between the chilled pork and the room-temperature dressing is intentional; the dish should be cool to the touch when it reaches the table.