What You’ll Need
- Pork belly
- Olive oil
- Dry rub – You can make the one in the recipe below using brown sugar, Kosher salt, black pepper, paprika, chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, and cayenne pepper. Or just use your favorite pork rub!
- BBQ sauce – Use your favorite bbq sauce. We really like Kinder or Sweet Baby Ray’s.
- Salted butter
- Honey
INGREDIENTS
- 4-5pounds pork belly
- 2-3Tablespoons olive oil
Rub
- ¼cup brown sugar
- 2Tablespoons coarse Kosher salt (be sure to use the right kind of salt!)
- 1Tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1Tablespoon paprika
- 1teaspoon chili powder
- ½teaspoon garlic powder
- ½teaspoon onion powder
- ¼teaspoon cayenne pepper
Sauce
- ½ to 1cup BBQ sauce
- 4Tablespoon salted butter
- ⅓cup honey
INSTRUCTIONS
- Trim off the skin and top layer of pure fat of the pork belly. Cut the meat into 1 ½-inch cubes.
- Rub the meat with a drizzle of olive oil, then combine the rub ingredients and sprinkle generously over the meat, rubbing it in to cover each piece.
- Arrange the pork belly cubes on a wire cooling and baking rack, then place on the smoker and smoke between 225°F and 250°F for 2 ½ to 3 hours until dark red and a nice bark starts to form.
- Transfer the pork belly cubes to a disposable aluminum pan and add BBQ sauce, butter, and honey, stirring to evenly coat the cubes of pork belly.
- Cover with foil, then return the sauced pork belly to the smoker and cook for another 60 to 90 minutes, until the meat reaches 200°F to 205°F when a digital thermometer is inserted into the middle of one of the burnt ends or until a toothpick inserted into the burnt ends goes in and comes out easily.
- Remove the foil and cook uncovered for another 15 minutes to let the sauce thicken up a bit, then remove the pork belly burnt ends from the smoker and serve.
NOTES
Wood pellets: We like to use cherry wood for smoking our pork belly burnt ends. I’ve also read that hickory, pecan, maple, and pretty much any of the fruit woods like apple or peach are good choices for this cut of meat, but we haven’t tried them yet.
Storage: Leftover pork belly burnt ends can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days. They reheat really well in a 350 degree F oven for 15 minutes or you could always throw them back on the smoker.
