Calling All Cooks

[MBWC41]

I’ve got some pork belly.

I don’t want to smoke it. I want to make tacos.

Anyone have any tips or a recipe?

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

My next door neighbor is a chef and made some killer pork belly tacos last summer. Took it out of the fridge and seasoned the pork belly with salt, pepper and a *little* minced garlic, cut criss-crosses into the layer of fat. After he let it sit with the seasoning for about 20 minutes, he the pork belly on a cooling rack set in a baking sheet, and put that in the oven for 30 minutes on 425°F, and then dropped the temp to 325°F for another 30 minutes. They were cooked through after the hour, but he ended up putting them back in on broil for just a little longer - maybe 6 or 7 minutes, tops - to get the fat nice and crispy.

While the pork belly was cooking he sliced up some red onions and put them in a mixture of apple cider vinegar and sugar to pickle them, and he made a tomatillo sauce in the blender...tomatillos, red onion, jalepenos, fresh garlic, and a little salt.

Each taco got about a 1" x 4" slab if crispy pork belly, fresh cilantro, pickled onions, a thin slice or two of avocado, and a squirt of tomatillo sauce. They were fantastic.

[rjs4470]

Pork Belly is one thing I've never cooked.  Come to think of it, I'm not sure I've ever even really seen it in stores to buy. I've had it in restaurants a couple of times and liked it, so I'm thinking this may be on my to do list sometime soon.  Where can you buy pork belly?  A traditional butcher shop?

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

2 hours ago, rjs4470 said:

Pork Belly is one thing I've never cooked.  Come to think of it, I'm not sure I've ever even really seen it in stores to buy. I've had it in restaurants a couple of times and liked it, so I'm thinking this may be on my to do list sometime soon.  Where can you buy pork belly?  A traditional butcher shop?

You can definitely get it at a butcher shop, and I'm pretty positive that I've seen it in the meat case at Costco a few times.

[mcpapa]

Once in a blue moon they’ll have it at Kroger.  

[Mustang]

Huh!!!   I always thought that pork belly was bacon.

Learn something new every day.

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

3 hours ago, Mustang said:

Huh!!!   I always thought that pork belly was bacon.

Learn something new every day.

Pork belly is used to make bacon. Just gotta cure it.