If you walk into a bar in Spain you will find these guys on the counter, mostly in my regio (Castilla y León). The traditional recipe uses a pancetta that has been marinated and dried which makes the recipe a bit different. I have tried a bunch of times this one so I will have plenty of tips and different options.
Ingredients
- Panceta (as much as you want)
- 2 spoons of oil
- salt and pepper
Steps
- Buy a thick chunk of pancetta and cut it in thick slices of 3 cm approximately and as long as they can fit in the pan.
- Add some oil in the pan, just to avoid accidentally burning the pancetta. If you don’t want to add extra fat start cooking the pancetta with the lid instead of without the lid.
- Turn on the fire and start cooking at 100Cº-120Cº. If you didn’t add any fat put the lid. Cook for as long as you want with a minimum of 20 minutes.
- Add the lid if you didn’t have it yet and cook for another 20 minutes to half an hour. We need to cook with a lid because the fat needs to render and the meat to cook.
- Remove the lid and increase the temperature to 140Cº. Now our goal is to dry the skin, ideally you should see some bubbles in the skin. Add salt and pepper
- Increase the fire to 200Cº-215Cº and fry all the sides, turning it every 2 or 3 minutes until crispy.
You can cut it with a knife and serve it with some bread. I love adding some extra salt now. You can also reheat them in the microwave but they are delicious fresh. Enjoy!