Prep time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 3 hours 20 minutes

Ingredients

• 3 kg boneless skin on pork shoulder, NOT scored and unrolled (I use a bone in shoulder so I get a 4 kilo one, it still cooks beautifully in the same time) 
• 3 tsp cooking salt
• 1 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 2 tsp fennel seeds
• 1 tbsp + 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 garlic bulb, separated and unpeeled
• 2 onions sliced into thin circles
• 1 1/2 cups dry white wine
• 1 1/2 cups low histamine chicken broth (recipe in my blog)

Directions

1. Pat the skin dry with paper towels. If time permits, leave in the fridge uncovered overnight (even 1 hr helps). If not, pat extra well.
2. Preheat oven to 220°C (200°C fan).
3. Sprinkle pork flesh with 1 1/2 tsp salt, all the pepper and all fennel seeds and 1 tbsp olive oil. Rub into flesh, right into all the crevices and cracks.
4. Flip pork, drizzle skin with 1 tsp oil, then rub all over with fingers. Sprinkle all over with remaining 1 1/2 tsp salt, taking care to get even coverage. Un-salted patches will not become bubbly crackling, it will be a hard flat sheet.
5. Place onion circles and garlic cloves in roasting pan. Place pork skin side up on top of them.
6. Carefully pour wine and chicken stock into the pan, being sure not to wet the skin. Transfer to oven.
7. Immediately turn oven down to 160°C (140°C fan).
8. Slow roast for 2 1/2 hours.
9. Check pork after 1 1/2 hours to see if the pork is warped and the skin's overall surface is significantly unlevelled. If so, adjust to make the skin surface as level as possible using balls of foil and moving large dislodged pork pieces to the side, this is key for crispy crackling. Then return to oven for the remaining 1 hour.
10. Check pan & salt on skin. If pan is drying out, add some water. If there are bald patches on the skin without salt (eg it fell off), brush lightly with oil, then sprinkle with salt. (Remember, salt = bubbly skin!)
11. Turn oven up to 250°C or as high as it will go if your oven won't go this high.
12. Return pork to oven for 30 minutes, rotating pan as needed, until the skin is crisp and bubbly all over. If needed, use foil patches, secured with water soaked toothpicks, to cover parts that are done and keep crisping up remaining patches.
13. Transfer pork to serving platter, tent loosely with toothpicks and foil (don't worry, crackling stays super-crisp) and rest for 20 minutes (stays warm up to 1 hour). Then slice using a serrated knife.
14. Serve with the gravy. Don't pour gravy over crackling - pour it off to the side!
     
    Gravy:
15. Skim fat from the pan juices, no need to be exact. Leave remaining pan juices including onion circles. Pull out garlic cloves and squeeze out flesh then squish flesh and return to pan. Reduce amount of gravy until desired amount. This gravy is not thick as such, however the onion helps give it texture and it has a clean flavour without the flour.
16. Season: Adjust pepper to taste, you shouldn't need more salt. Pour into serving jug. Serve with pork.

Thanks to Recipe Tin Eats for the inspiration for the recipe - it's just a little healthier and so delicious! Nagi has more notes on her recipe so please look it up if you feel like you need more guidance, especially around the crackling.