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Korean Style Pork Belly Burnt Ends - You will never be the same!

Korean Style Pork Belly Burnt Ends

Decadent pork belly smoked with a delicious Korean sauce!  Yes please!

Ingredients

  • 4-5 pounds pork belly, skin removed, cut into 2" chunks
  • favorite meat rub I used Smokehouse Bayou
  • 1 cup brown sugar, separated or 1.2 cups allulose
  • molasses
  • 1 stick butter
  • honey
  • 1 cup soy sauce
  • 4 tablespoons sesame oil
  • 4 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
  • 4 tablespoons ginger minced or grated
  • 4 cloves garlic minced
  • 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • green onions for garnish optional
  • sesame seeds for garnish optional

Instructions

  1. Get your smoker hot, ideally to 275°.  If it runs a little hot, fine, just try to keep it under 300°.  

    While that's heating up you can make your Korean style sauce.  Add  1 cup Keystone Pantry Allulose with some molasses in a large bowl, to make brown sugar. Put a bit, mix up. You're mixing for color here. If you add more molasses, you'll get dark brown sugar. Less will be light brown sugar. 

    If you're not using allulose, just use 1 cup brown sugar. 

    So the sauce:  mix together your brown sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil,  rice wine vinegar, ginger, garlic, and red pepper flakes.  Mix and let it hang out while you're doing all the other stuff.

  2. Place a cookie cooling rack over an aluminum pan to prevent a huge mess.  Lay the pork belly chunks out on a cookie cooking rack.   Sprinkle generously with your favorite rub, both sides.  

  3. Put the pork belly in the smoker, uncovered, and without the aluminum pan.  Cook for 2-2.5 hours.  You're basically looking for color here.  If at 2 hours you don't like the color you're seeing, leave it on for a bit longer.

    While your pork belly is hanging out in there, in a small bowl, mix 1/2 cup of Keystone Pantry allulose with some molasses.     If not using allulose, use 1/2 cup brown sugar.

  4. When you're happy with the color, remove them. Add them to the aluminum pan you used earlier.  Sprinkle the pork belly chunks with the 1/2 cup brown sugar you made.  Slice the butter in to 1 tablespoon slices and randomly toss around and on the pork belly.  Squeeze a generous amount of honey all over them - no science here, just do what feels right because you can't go wrong.

    Cover the pan with aluminum foil.  Put it back in the smoker for another 2 hours.  At the 2 hour mark remove.  What you're looking for, when probed, is extreme tenderness.  If you probe a large piece and it doesn't feel like probing butter, put it in for another 30 minutes, until you achieve that tenderness.

  5. Once you have your tenderness, remove the pork belly and uncover.  Whisk your Korean sauce to remove clumps.  Pour over the pork belly.  Cook uncovered in your smoker for another 20 uncovered.  

  6. After 20 minutes, remove the burnt ends from the pan.  Sprinkle with sesame seeds and green onions.  You're done!  Get ready to get rocked!

Recipe Notes

The instruction list looks long and complicated at first glance. It's not. It's 95% passive time and the reward is well worth it.

If you want to see me do it, I've included a video for your viewing pleasure.

If you're interested in the rub I used, Smokehouse Bayou, check them out here: https://smokehousebayou.com/