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Pork Belly Burnt Ends

Are you looking for a crush worthy, meaty starter to your barbeque? These pork belly burnt ends may be the answer. Any time the Bastards make these meaty morsels they are gone before you know it.

Servings:

Keywords: pork belly, barbeque pork, bbq pork, barbecued pork , pork

  • Prep Time: 45 mins
  • Cook Time: 4 hours 0 mins
  • Total Time: 4 hours 45 mins

Ingredients

Instructions

Ingredients

MEAT

  • 8 lbs pork belly

RUB

  • favorite rub
  • 1 ½ sticks butter, sliced
  • ½ cup brown sugar
  • ¼ cup honey

SMOKE

  • lump charcoal
  • favorite wood chunks for smoke, like cherry, apple or pecan

GLAZE

  • 1 cup BBQ sauce
  • ¼ cup apple juice
  • ¼ cup apple jelly
  • 1 tablespoon hot sauce

Instructions

PREP

  1. Remove skin from pork belly, and cut into 1" x 1" cubes.
  2. Generously season all sides of the pork belly cubes with a rub of your choice. Let sit and 'sweat in' for at east 15 minutes.

GLAZE

  1. In a small sauce pan, combine the bbq sauce, apple juice, apple jelly and hot sauce.
  2. For a BBQ sauce, Sweet Baby Ray's Original works fine. We like to go a little on the sweet and heat side for these pork bites. Also, for the hot sauce, we recommend a tried and true original, like Frank's Red Hot Sauce.
  3. Whisk all the ingredients together and bring to a gentle simmer.
  4. Remove from heat and set aside until ready to use.

GRILL PREP

  1. Get your Big Green Egg, or smoker, dialed in at 250-275 degrees.
  2. Add your favorite chunks of wood for smoke. We like Cherry, Apple or Pecan.

SMOKING

  1. Organize pork belly cubes (fat side down) onto a wire rack allowing just enough room between each so that smoke can hit it on all sides. Place on grill grate for smoking.
  2. Smoke pork belly for 2 - 2 1/2 hours, until it hits an internal temperature of 190 degrees.
  3. Give the burnt ends an apple juice spritz every 45 minutes or so, roughly 4 times during the cook.
  4. Place the burnt ends into an aluminum 1/2-inch pan. You may decide to lightly season with a rub again.
  5. Sprinkle with brown sugar, drizzle with honey and scatter the butter pieces evenly among the burnt ends.
  6. Cover pan with aluminum foil and return to your BGE or smoker for 1 1/2 hours or until the pieces are tender. If you prefer, you could also finish in the oven at this point since all the smoke magic has already happened.
  7. Move the burnt ends to a clean pan and add the glaze. Toss gently to coat each piece and return to the smoker (or oven) for 10-15 minutes. You want that glaze to get set and a little tacky.

SERVE

  1. Remove from heat.
  2. Let cool if you're the patient type. If not, dig in and get it on!

Notes

RECOMMENDED TOOLS:

- cooling rack, or wire rack

- spray bottle

- instant read thermometer

- (2) 1/2-inch aluminum pans

- aluminum foil