Jerk Pork Belly Bites

hey welcome back to how to barbecueright I’m Malcolm Reed today I’ll bedoing some jerk pork I’ve got thisbeautiful Cheshire pork belly that I’mgoing to cut into some cubes getting ajerk marinade render the fat on thesmoker toss it in a spicy jerk Caribbeanstyle sauce think of pork belly burn inJamaican styleI’m calling this jerk pork belly bitesand they’re gonna be deliciouslet’s get to cooking so the pork belly Ihave today is chesh our pork all-naturalskinless pork belly this is kind of thecenter cut portion you can see it’s kindof the same thickness all the way acrossthat’s what I’m looking for when I wanta pork belly and this Cheshire our porkis amazing it’s got a lot of good fat init that fats gonna render down it’sgonna really flavor this lean meatprobably the best piece of meat on ahaul right here and I’m excited to cookit today what we’re gonna do to makethese jerk belly bites is I’m gonna cubeit up first and you want it to end upabout a 1 by 1 inch cube but for that tohappen we’ve got to cut it a little bitbigger because these bites are reallygonna render down so I’m just gonna kindof take my knife here and start cuttinglong strips across this pork belly it’sa little bit wider than an inch but weknow that it’s going to shrink down asit cooksnow we’re right in the center of thispork belly these are where your reallyreally great pieces come from and itdoesn’t that look just like bacon youget at the supermarket it hasn’t beencured this is its raw form the porkbelly form but you would cure this andturn it into bacon cut it into strips itwould look just like that Supermarketbacon you buy now what I’m going to dois we’re going to come back and we’regoing to cube these let me move some ofthem out of the way so you can kind ofsee how I’m cutting these so we’re justgonna cut it into these cubes take abite sized piecesthey’re gonna melt down they’re gonnarender down they’re gonna get stickythey’re gonna be sweet they’re gonnahave that Caribbean heat to them fromthat jerk so I’m just gonna knock theseout here and this is the last strip ofpork belly and you can see I’ve got amountain of these awesome Cheshire porkbelly cubes right now what we’re gonnado next is make a marinade to put thesein and I’m gonna make a fresh jerkmarinadeshow you how I put it together so thejerk marinade that I’m making today isall about fresh ingredients I mean I’vegot onion garlic ginger habanero pepperpimento all the Lit’s of jerk we’re gonna make a pureeout of this in the food processor got tohave some jerk seasoning in it I’m usingmy jam and jerk it’s gonna give us thoseJamaican notes but we need some liquidas well so I’ve got fresh lime juice soysauce we’re rounding it all out withwater we’re just gonna puree this for afew minutes in the food processor it’sgonna be a little chunky it doesn’t haveto be perfectly smooth that’s what youwant so now we’re gonna move all thesebelly cubes over to one of these zip topmeat bags it’s a perfect bag formarinating for brining that’s a lot ofpork belly now we’re ready for themarinade over the top and if you cansmell this I mean you can just get allthe freshness from the ginger the garlicthe onion all those flavors combined thepepper in it and it’s wonderful pouredit right over the top of the pork bellyyou just want to get all the air out yougot plenty of space in these big bagsand then we’re just going to kind oftake and work the marinade around makesure every cube of that pork belly hasthe marinade on it that’s really what’sgonna give it some flavor and just checkout how those look in the bag you cansee the pimento the green onion allthose flavors working on that pork bellybut we need some time really for it toabsorb all that good jerk flavor sixhours minimum is what you want these tosoak if you want to go overnight they’llbe even better now I’m ready to getthese in the refrigerator and when wecome back we’ll take them out and I’llshow you how we’re gonna cook them so Ilet these pork belly hang out in therefrigerator overnightI wanted the flavors to really get inthere and it’s a day I want to cook iton my trailer pellet grill I’ve got theTraeger fired up I’m starting it out on250 degrees and I’ve got to blend thepellets in there there’s some cherrysome Hickory and a little maple andreally give us a nice fruit flavor withthat hardwood smoked I’m just gonna dumpthem in the big aluminum pan here youcan tell how the outside of that porkbelly has changed how they’ve reallyabsorbed some of that flavor from themarinade we’ve still got the spices onthe outside of it they smell fantasticso I like to use these small raisedracks I call them chicken racks as wecook chicken and contest on open we’regonna spray each one of these racks withjust regular cooking spray so that thepork belly doesn’t stickbad to them so now we just want toarrange them fat side up on the rack noright or wrong way I just like to dothem fat up so it kind of renders downas I get these racks loaded up I’m justgonna take them put them right on thetrigger you want to give a little bit ofspace in between them but they are gonnashrink a lot we’re gonna render down sojust give a little room for some air toflow around them these are looking rightso I’ve got the Trager running at 250degrees I’m just gonna set our rackright on here so I’m gonna set the lastrack I put the upper shelf in because Ijust ran out of room we’re gonna shutthe cooker dooralright I’m gonna leave them in thesmoke on the Traeger about three hoursit’s really gonna set the color on theoutside I’m gonna spritz them aboutevery 45 minutes with some pineapplejuice give it some more flavor and I’llshow you how we’re gonna break them downafter that alright let’s check on ourpork belly starting to get some color onthem they’ve been on just a little over45 minutes not quite an hour but we’restarting to see some of that fat renderyou can see they’re shrinking down nowwe’re getting to see space around themthis is where I just want to give them alight spritz oh I’ve got some pineapplejuice cut with a little bit of water youcould go straight pineapple juice I justgave it a little more volume we’re justgonna spritz them keep letting them rollthey’re looking fantasticalright I want to check on these jerkbelly bites again and you can see we’rereally getting some color fats lookinggood it’s starting to render give themanother little spritz with our pineapplejuice mixture I think at another 45minutes we’re gonna be able to renderthese dudes I’m gonna show you how we’regonna do that let’s get the lid closedkeep letting them cookalright we’ve been three hours on ourpork belly bites now it’s time to getthem tender let’s take them off a coupleracks at a time here oh man he’s tryingto jump off look at that dudethat’s not a beautiful body pork bellyalready we’re not quite through thoughwe got to get them tender I’m just goingto take them over and transfer them to alarge size of luminal pan let’s get themover to the cutting board look howbeautiful they areand at this point we’re justtransferring them to the pan we don’tcare if they get jumbled around cuzwe’re gonna mix them up with some brownsugar some jerk sauce let me get therest of them over here now we’re gonnaadd some dark brown sugar and I’m justsaying about two cups we’re about half abag that’s about what you want on themthis is gonna caramelize down this isreally what’s gonna make them sticky theheat when we cover them up back on thesmoker it’s gonna break this brown sureand make us almost like a caramel sauceI’ve taken some green onions some garlicsome habanero or scotch bonnet peppersauteed that down in some butter addedsome pineapple juice some lime juicesome ketchup we just worked it alltogether with some of our jerk seasoningand I’m pouring it all over the top ofthese pork belly burn the ends and thenI’m gonna take my hands and we’re justgonna work these around we don’t want tobreak them up we just want to mix themmake sure everything’s covered every oneof them is gonna be sauced it’s gonnahave the sugar element on it they’regonna be sweet they’re gonna be spicythey’re gonna be rich as that fatrenders down now this is a messy partyou want to wear some glove on it’sbecause they’re screaming hot but lookhow good they look you don’t have toworry about standing them up orarranging them we’re just gonna cookthem in the pan now and I’m gonna coverit up with some aluminum foil I’m readyto get these bites back on the pit Ijust pulled the upper rack out so wedon’t need it anymore slide this panright back in the Traeger and I’m gonnahold the tip steady at 250 all right ourjerk pork belly has been on for about anhour covered in the foil this is thepoint where I want to check it so whatI’m gonna do is just carefully take thefall off see let’s steam rolling out youcan see they’re looking really reallygood get the full completely off so I’vegot some nitro gloves on but I’ve gotsome glove liners on underneath becauseit’s extremely hot you can see how muchthis sauce is bubbling and all I’m goingto do is just carefully kind of tossthese ends around in the sauce it’s hotso you want to work quick we just wantto get them good and coated that looksperfectwhat we’re gonna do now is just scootthem back in a little bit close the lidwe’re gonna let that sauce cook down letit caramelize some more let it thickenup on there it’s going to glaze thesejerk pork belly bites all right we’vebeen glazing for about an hour we’ve gotthat beautiful color that mahogany onthe outside when I pick one of thesepork belly by its up you can squeeze itand your fingers go almost do it I meanthey’re really rendered I’m gonna pullthem off here we’re gonna get them overto the cutting board and then I can’twait to try on and we’re gonna takethese out of the sauce let them drainjust a little bit and I’m gonna pilethem up right here on the board and ifsome of them’s fallen apart that’salright that looks good to menow these bites are really rendered downcaramelized on the outside now I startedout they were a pretty good-sized cubeof pork belly and now you can seethey’re aboutone inch by one inch that’s exactlywhere I wanted them to finish oh manthis is just luscious this right hereI mean screaming-hot rendered down porksoft as it could be I can’t wait to tryone you can see we’ve got a reallyreally good-looking bark on the outsideof them the brown sugar kind of Brownsthem up that jerk flavor is gonna comethrough and just check these out I meanthey are cooked to perfection they’resoft as they can be the juice is justrunning out of themtender the fats rendered and I’m gonnatry this one I can’t help myself mmmthat’s sinful it’s so good it just meltsin your mouth and that’s what pork bellyis all about all the flavor the richnessof good pork the sauce the sweetness ofthe brown sugar the smoke it all comesthrough on these oh man this is whereit’s atI’m telling you don’t try another onewow that’s flavor you get a little bitof the spice but they’re not soupthey’re not hot they have that jerkflavor reminds me of going to Jamaicaand trying Jamaican Jerk pork all theessence of it right here in this porkbelly fantastic treat you couldn’t eat alot of them they’re so rich and the fatjust leaves that wonderful juicinessright behind it but they’re tender asthey can be that’s what makes it almostlike pork candy mmm dynamite I don’thave anything else to say about thoseare that good Wow if you’ve never triedpork belly get you some of that Cheshireour pork you can find pork belly at yourgrocery store you may have to ask yourbutcher for it keep it up get someseasoning on it give this jerk method atry I promise you’re gonna love it it’sfantastic your friends will thank youfor it – thanks for hanging out with ustoday here how to barbecue right if youlike what we’re doing subscribe to ourchannel you can find us on FacebookInstagram Twitter and Schelling I’lltalk about this recipe all the otherdelicious stuff we do on our weeklypodcast every Friday ya’ll tune in forthat toowe’ll see y’all next time my goodnessChelle these are here will hurt you theyare justlittle pillows of heaven come on