This smoked pork belly barbeque is the perfect recipe for some outdoor entertaining. Pork belly’s fatty content makes it a perfect candidate for smoking. Smoking it low and slow creates the most amazing flavours.
The art of smoking comes into building the fire, choosing the right wood chips and the amount to use. This recipe calls for French Oak Wine Barrel Sawdust which is infused with a subtle wine aroma making it the ideal product to impact a smoky flavour to your pork.
Smoked pork belly: Timing and pre-planning
As with most smoked meat recipes, this does take some time and pre-planning, so its best to start before your guests arrive. But the end result is a real crowd-pleaser!
To get good results with pork belly, you’ll need high-quality meat; do the dry-brining overnight, and put it in a smoker for about three hours.
The great thing is that you aren’t really doing anything during most of the time that the meat is in the smoker; The heat and smoke are basically doing all the work for you.
Step-by-step guide to smoking pork belly
Pork belly is cooked for at least three hours and up to six hours for even more tender pork belly. The longer the pork belly smokes, the more fall-apart tender it gets.
- Remove the skin from pork belly (if it is still attached) and score the skin in a one-inch cross pattern.
- Sprinkle the coarse salt over all sides rubbing it in, then cover the pork belly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 24 hours.
- Remove from the fridge and let the pork belly reach room temperature while you bring the smoker to 105°C / 225°F.
- Add the wood chips and once it starts to smoke, place the pork belly in the smoker over indirect heat for about three hours.
- Remove from the heat and let the meat rest for at least 20 minutes before slicing it and putting it on the barbecue.
Pork belly makes for a great appetizer! Serve it sliced in chunks with BBQ sauce for dipping.
Ingredients
- 1 pork belly
- coarse salt & freshly ground pepper
- French Oak Wine Barrel Sawdust or any other you prefer
Instructions
Prepping
- Lay out pork belly ingredients on a countertop with the rub ingredients in small bowls and the raw pork belly on a metal tray.
- The ingredients for this great recipe are very simple. You will need to remove the skin if it is still attached to your pork belly or ask your butcher to remove the skin for you before you buy it.
- Place your pork belly on a baking sheet with a rim. Then, using a sharp knife, score the fat side of your pork.
- Be sure to only cut into the fat. You don’t want to cut through into the meat of the pork belly. Now take your coarse salt and sprinkle it all over the cut of meat.
- Make sure to cover both the top and bottom, as well as all the sides. You need to gently massage the rub into the cuts you made in the fat also.
- Use a rimmed baking sheet. The pork belly will seep a fair bit of water out while it is in the fridge.
- Refrigerate overnight or for a few hours. After it has been dry rubbed and refrigerated, the pork belly is ready to go into the smoker.
Smoking your Pork Belly
- Remove the pork belly from the refrigerator and allow it to sit at room temperature for about an hour to warm up. Preheat your smoker.
- The whole pork belly covered with a dry rub is just placed into the smoker grill.
- Place an aluminum foil-lined pan under the pork belly while it smokes. This helps to catch all the fat drippings, reducing any flare-ups, as well as helps to keep your smoker box clean.
- Place the meat in the smoker fat side up, SMOKE TO A HOT TEMPERATURE, NOT A TIME, this will take about three hours.
BBQ
- Slice the pork belly when well-rested, then season well with freshly grounded black pepper.
- On a hot BBQ, place the slices on the grill, turning frequently, and in no time your pork belly slices will be ready to serve.
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