
It’s really hard to go wrong with pork belly, and this recipe is no exception. There are tons of online recipes to make burnt ends, and this is a combination of what I thought looked best.
Yes, it would be great to make this with a smoker, but if you don’t have one, cooking them in the oven yields really good results, too.
Enjoy!
What you’ll need
- As much pork belly as you want to make—about 1.5 or 2 lbs for 2 people
- 0.25 cups light or dark brown sugar
- 2T smoked paprika
- 2t ground black pepper
- 1t kosher salt
- 1t onion powder
- 1t garlic powder
- 1t chili powder
- 0.25t cayenne pepper or 0.5t white pepper
- About 1 cup BBQ sauce
- Liquid smoke, to taste
- 0.33 cups honey or 0.25 cups maple sugar
- 2T butter, softened
- Several Ts of apple cider vinegar—for spraying (optional)
What to do
Preheat your oven to 250°F. Cut the pork belly into one-inch cubes and place them in a large bowl. Line a baking sheet with foil and spray a cooking rack with cooking spray.
For the rub, combine in a small bowl: the sugar, smoked paprika, black pepper, salt, onion, garlic and chili powders and cayenne pepper. After it’s well mixed, pour the rub over the cut pork belly, working the rub into the pork belly with your fingers.
When each side of each piece is covered with the rub, put the pork pieces on the cooking rack, which should be placed on the baking sheet.
Put the baking sheet in the oven and cook for about 2 – 3 hours. Some recipes call for spraying the pork belly with apple cider vinegar every hour. I did this, to good effect.
After the pork belly is dark and cooked through, remove it from the oven and add it to an oven-safe vessel, to which you should also add the BBQ sauce mixture. Toss the pork belly to coat.
Put the coated pork belly back into the oven for about 20 – 30 more minutes. Let it rest for 15 minutes after removing from the oven. Serve hot!

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