Pork Belly Burnt Ends

Intro: These burnt-end pork belly bits are magical! Let’s waste no time with these!

Ingredients:

• 1 Tbsp Salt
• 1 Tbsp Black Pepper
• 1 Tbsp Paprika
• 1 Tbsp Garlic Powder
• 1 Tbsp Onion Powder
• 1 Tbsp Brown Sugar
• Pork belly
• ¼ cup of butter
• BBQ Sauce
• Apple cider vinegar

Let’s start off by lighting a chimney of charcoal; we’re going to be using the offset method.

We’ll want the BBQ sitting at a temperature of 108 degrees celsius or 225 degrees Fahrenheit.

Next up, we’re going to make a basic pork rub. 

In a bowl mix:

1 Tbsp Salt

1 Tbsp Black Pepper

1 Tbsp Paprika

1 Tbsp Garlic Powder

1 Tbsp Onion Powder

1 Tbsp Brown Sugar

Cut the pork belly into 3cm cubes. 

When choosing a piece of pork belly, you want to ensure it has a good 70% meat to 40% fat ratio. I personally find this gives an outstanding balance with enough fat to base the meat and every bite will have meat.

Apply mustard to the outside of the pork belly, followed by our pork rub.

Place the pork belly on a wire rack. 

This will allow the heat to cook all sides of the meat evenly.

Smoke for 2-3 hours or until the outside of the pork belly has a nice bark. I’m using apple wood to add a beautiful sweet smokey flavour.

Once the pork belly has a beautiful bark, remove it from the grill and allow the BBQ to reach 120 degrees celsius or 250 degrees Fahrenheit.

Next we want to place the pork belly pieces into a BBQ pan to braise. 

This is where the real magic happens. 

Pour over your choice of BBQ sauce.

Handy tip; rinse the sauce bottle with a bit of apple cider vinegar to get the last of it out. Then add ¼ cup of butter to take the edge off the sweetness of apple cider vinegar. 

Some folks also like to add brown sugar, but I think there’s enough sweetness from the BBQ sauce.

Cover with foil and place back onto the BBQ. 

The pork belly with braise in the sauce becomes nice and tender.

After about 1 hour and 30 minutes, your pork belly's burnt ends should be tender. Remove the foil and toss the pork through the pan to coat it with the BBQ sauce. This caramelises the BBQ sauce to the outside of the pork.

Once the sauce is caramelised to the meat's outside, they’re ready to be served up and…

There you have it, Pork Belly Burnt Ends.

These are beautiful, tender and have that delicious caramelised BBQ sauce on the outside.

Serve them up at your next party, or have them as a side dish at your next BBQ.