Easy Smoked Pork Belly Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How long does it take to smoke pork belly? ›

Place the seasoned pork belly on the grill and smoke until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees F (about 6 hours). Spritz with the apple juice every hour while it is cooking. Once the belly reaches 165, remove from the grill and wrap in heavy duty tinfoil with 1/2 cup of the apple juice.

Preheat the smoker to 250F for indirect cooking. Add the pork belly skin side up to the smoker and let cook for 3 hours. Once the meat is 175F internal and the skin is a light red color, brush some white vinegar over the top. Heat up your oven to 400F and place the pork belly on a baking sheet with a wire rack.

Allow the pork belly to cure for approximately 7 days. A general rule is to cure your bacon 7 days for every inch of thickness.

Smoke the pork belly slices at 225°F (107°C) for approximately 90 minutes or until they reach an internal temperature of 205°F (96°C) as measured by an instant-read hand-held digital thermometer, such as the Thermapen or ThermoPop. When finished, remove them from the smoker and let them cool for about an hour.

However, today I am going to focus on my preferred method that has become more popular as of late which includes cubing the belly before it's smoked. This allows for the meat to absorb smoke on all sides of the cube and makes for a tasty bite. Prepare your smoker at a temperature of 275 degrees.

You have to wait until the internal temperature of the meat hits 165 °F (74 °C). This should take around 6 hours. Spritz with apple juice about every hour or so—it helps! Once the pork belly reaches 165 °F (74 °C), remove it from the smoker and wrap it heavily in aluminum foil.

Absolutely — smoking for too long dries out the pork belly cubes, leaving them tough and rubbery. So, be sure to keep your smoker around 225°F and don't add too many wood chips at one time, as excessive heat from the burning wood will definitely dry the meat.

You can spray it with water, but using apple cider vinegar or even white vinegar adds a bit more flavor to the pork belly and penetrates the meat better for extra tenderness. Wrap it: Once the pork belly reaches 160 degrees, wrap it in butcher paper or foil.

Cooking over indirect heat, marinating, using a high ratio of smoking chunks to charcoal, wrapping in aluminum foil, and allowing your meat to sit for three to five minutes will help to keep it moist.

So, streaky pork bacon is pork belly, but pork belly isn't bacon. Instead, pork belly is the whole slab cut from the fleshy underside of a pig. Streaky pork bacon is cut from this slab. Pork belly is unsmoked and uncured, while much bacon found in the U.S. can undergo a lot of processing—not ButcherBox bacon, though.

Do you need to brine pork belly before smoking? ›

If you want to give extra flavour to your pork belly, you could brine it or marinate it beforehand. In this pork belly recipe, the meat is brined, which enhances its natural flavour. Afterwards, the pork belly is slowly cooked on the Big Green Egg, and the addition of smoking wood gives it even more flavour.

Remove the meat from the heat once it reaches 190-195°F to prevent overcooking, plus don't add too many wood chips and overdo the amount of smoke. Do you cook pork belly fat side up or down? Fat side up! This way, the drippings will coat the meat as the fat renders and protect the surface from drying out.

Our top choices are brisket, pork shoulder (for pulled pork), pork chops, and ribs. You can also give our St. Louis Ribs a try in your new smoker. Beef brisket, pork shoulder, and ribs are three cuts that offer sufficient fat to keep them juicy and tender when done.

Smoke. Set the wire rack directly onto the grill grates and smoke between 225°F and 250°F for 2 ½ to 3 hours until dark red and a nice bark starts to form. Sauce the meat. Transfer the pork belly cubes to a disposable pan and add BBQ sauce, butter, and honey, stirring to evenly coat the cubes of pork belly.

With your smoker running steady at 225 degrees F, you can typically plan about 2 hours of cook time per pound of pork. For example, an 8-pound pork shoulder will take about 16 hours from start to finish. Quick note! Every cut of meat is a little bit different, so plan ahead for variations in cook time!

Step 3: Rest is important.

Remove the pork belly from the smoker and allow it to cool at room temperature for about 45 minutes, resting on a cutting board loosely wrapped in butcher paper. Using foil will create too much steam, and ruin the bark.