Is there anything better of a soft, crunchy, juicy bit of pork belly? nothing at all.
The difficulty of barbecue pork belly, in my opinion, is related to the perfect balancing of consistency.
Far too many times I snapped something chewy onside and with “stainless steel” skin.
Ingredients:
Boneless pork belly, better if 40 * 15 * 4 cm dimensions
Turbinado Sugar
5 Chinese spice mix
Ginger powder
Maldon Salt
Oil (any kind, taste will not be affected)
Which kind of Rub?
Taking into account that Dry Rub is spices mix (without any liquid) used for rubbing the food, in this case we can use as predominant spice the famous “Chines 5 spice”, sold of the shelf and very famous throughout all the Asia continent.
It is based of Szechuan pepper, Cassia Cinnamon, cloves, fennel seeds and star anice. We will add Turbinado sugar, ginger powder and maldon salt to this mix.
For me better proportion are:
6 parts of “chinese 5 spice mix”, 1 part of ginger powder, 2 parts of turbinado sugar and 1 part of maldon salt.
Turbi What!?
Turbinado sugar is derived from the crushing of the sugar cane and juice extraction. Juices are heated, causing moist part evaporation, leaving the sugar crystal behind.
Sugar crystals are, afterwards, put in a turbine cylinder (from which name is derived) that removes the residual humidity. It is sold in a slightly lighter crystal with respect to Demerara sugar.
It is also less sticky and therefore most indicated for the dry rub.
The Recipe
Rubbing the piece of pork belly with the above rub, if you like apply a thin layer of oil (Slather) for making the rub better stick to the meat (same as oil you can use water or mustard cause no trace of the flavor in the final taste), rub and rest in the fridge covered by film for at least 6 hours.
Prepare a indirect set up and a temperature of 325° F (160° C), cook the meat for about 40 minute / 1 hour, internal temperature is difficult to pick up being a thin piece of meat, as empirical indication, you need to take into account as readiness point when the skin of the pork belly will be easy to riddle.
At this stage you can riddle the skin with little holes on the surface, use the hedge tip of the knife and wrap the pork belly with heavy duty aluminum foil on each side leaving out only the skin.
Increase the temperature of the barbecue to 480° F (250° C), brush the skin with some oil, keep on with the pork belly cooking, its aluminum foil cover will hold the residual humidity on his interior part, always as indirect method with the closed lid for further 40 minutes / 1 hour. It is now time to check the skin “crispiness” and if necessary brush again with some oil for increasing the “crispy” effect, with short grilling.
If everything went fine this will be the result.
Juicy, soft, crispy, salty, fatty, delightful. It is a spectacular bite to dip into a good mustard.
