Succulent pork infused with Chinese flavours topped off with a layer of perfect pork cracking . . . if that sentence alone isn’t convincing you that you need to try this dish then scroll down to the final pictures and you’ll be ordering a slab of pork belly within seconds.
. . . let’s do this!
The Pork
For this recipe I used a 2kg Pork Belly Joint from ‘Village Butchers‘; this set me back £17.95 and was an ideal size for the family.
The Prep
Once removed from the packaging my first job was to remove the rib bones . . . the trick is to keep the knife close to the bones at all times, therefore ensuring minimal wastage.
Once the ribs were removed I patted the skin dry and then used a meat tenderizer (basically a bed of 48 spring loaded spikes) all over to produce hundreds of tiny little holes all over the skin.
I then flipped the belly over and sliced into the meat at regular intervals . . . roughly every 2-3cm horizontally and just a couple of vertical cuts (in terms of depth aim for around half as deep as your slab of pork).
Once sliced the pork was ready for some Chinese flavours so I reached for the ‘Angus & Oink – Chinese Takeaway‘ and massaged into the cut lines to ensure I achieved maximum flavour.
Once I was happy that the pork was nicely covered I placed the pork into a dish (skin side up), wiped any moisture / rub from the skin and placed in the fridge (uncovered) overnight.
Note: On reflection it would be better to make a tight-fitting foil tray to surround the pork rather than a dish that was too big. Why? The sides of the pork would be better protected and when you add the apple juice later you won’t need as much.
The Cook
Today I decided to use the ‘Kamado Joe – Joe Jnr’ that I got from ‘BBQs 2u‘.
Once things were running at around 250°f I added the pork and cooked at this low heat for an hour to ensure that skin was as dry as possible.
After an hour I removed the pork and cranked up the Joe Jnr. to around 450°f before brushing the skin with a layer of olive oil and adding a sprinkle of ‘Sea Crack – Original Sea Salt‘.
Once the pork was back in the Joe Jnr. I carefully poured some apple juice into the dish . . . stopping just before it reached the skin.
Temperatures were monitored with my ‘Inkbird IRF-4S‘ and once things were reading 185°f it was time to see what we got.
Oh yes! Well happy . . . but first the pork needed to rest at room temperature for 20 minutes or so.
Full Transparency: There was one area of the skin that hadn’t quite crisped up yet so it received a little added encouragement from the blowtorch.
Once cut into cubes I treated the pork to some good ‘ol ‘JD’s Original Hot Honey‘ and tucked right in!
Trust me . . this tasted just as good as it looks!
The Final Result
