Smoked Pork Belly, w/ Crispy Skin, Glass or Chicherone???

[jjdbike]

Hello Pit Masters,

I have done smoked pork belly burnt ends several times and we were pleased.

I am motivated to try to make smoked pork belly w/ skin on and crisp it.

One complaint about pork belly by some (i.e. my wife), was they had too much globy squishy fat. I watched a vid by Chudds where he smoked them low and slow for a long time, i.e. 7 hours. He said that much of the fat rendered out.

He also said that he created a "glass like" crispy skin as opposed to a puffy chicherone skin. I think I would like to make the chicherone like skin. I believe it would be nice in tacos, and dipped in quac as an appitizer.

I am hoping that my fellow pit masters will share experiences, techniques, and suggestions.

Respectfully,
JD

[jjdbike]

Torch skin or broiler?

[Hulagn1971]

I think a broiler would be better. Direct heat from a torch might be too much and end up burning it due to the fat content. Never done it though.

[Jerod Broussard]

[shify]

If you want a chicharron like skin, you need to 1) dry out the skin; and 2) finish it with high heat.

Most commonly the way to do that is to both prick and score the skin and rub with a lot of salt and leave uncovered overnight to dry out. Then smoke as preferred, and then finish under the broiler or pour hot oil over the top to get really crazy blistered chicharron like skin

[texastweeter]

Or flip upside down and immerst just top bit in deep fryer. I do that on duck breast

[jjdbike]

Hey @texastweeter,
That sounds fantastic! I love crispy duck.
JD

[wrgilb]

Check out this video from ArnieTex. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTxgRdfA8RE

[jjdbike]

I’m a big fan of Arnie Tex, really like his spin on Tex Mex fusion.

[Ace]

Here's one from America's Test Kitchen Also.

Good ideas on all videos posted.

How to Make the Crispiest Pork Belly Ever

[SheilaAnn]

I got nothing…. What they said above ☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼

I would just be repeating!

[jjdbike]

Thanks shify , Jerod Broussard texastweeter, wrgilb , Ace, SheilaAnn ,

One question, if I do the puffy chicherone style crispy skin, will it stay crispy if I freeze it?

I like to cook in big batches and freeze in portions to enjoy at later dates.

My plan is to poke holes in skin with jacard, score skin into serving size strips, dry in fridge for a day or two. Score meat side into the same strips as the skin for more smoke and seasoning surface. Cook on pellet grill at 184 for two hours, crank up to 225 till desired color. Place the belly on a cooling tray over a baking pan with water to keep moist. Cook till probe tender, 200 ish.
Crisp skin in oil in pan. Cool & serve.
I’ll post pics and report.
Cheers,
JD

[SheilaAnn]

I don’t think so…. But I could be wrong. When we made them at the butcher shop, they were consumed right there or at least day of.

[texastweeter]

No.

[Henrik]

Nope

[jjdbike]

Thanks shify , Jerod Broussard texastweeter, wrgilb , Ace, SheilaAnn ,

One question, if I do the puffy chicherone style crispy skin, will it stay crispy if I freeze it?

I like to cook in big batches and freeze in portions to enjoy at later dates.

My plan is to poke holes in skin with jacard, score skin into serving size strips, dry in fridge for a day or two. Score meat side into the same strips as the skin for more smoke and seasoning surface. Cook on pellet grill at 184 for two hours, crank up to 225 till desired color. Place the belly on a cooling tray over a baking pan with water to keep moist. Cook till probe tender, 200 ish.
Crisp skin in oil in pan. Cool & serve.
I’ll post pics and report.
Cheers,
JD

Thanks SheilaAnn ,
Maybe I need to just smoke them a freeze them. Fry to crisp before serving.
JD

[Ace]

That should work I would think. Pork Belly isn't a cut that you would need to worry about over cooking on the reheat so as texastweeter says above, reheat it close to safe temp then flip it over and fry the fat cap in oil to desired texture. 😊

[texastweeter]

This is the way.

[jjdbike]

Thanks Ace, SheilaAnn & texastweeter ,
Headed out to Costco Business center a little later today.
Best Regards,
JD

[jjdbike]

Hey everyone,

I bumped into a video by Harry Soo that looks awesome.

https://youtu.be/LbY7KPJJvII?si=1Aa5EYovyS9pU6hw

He seasons the skin on pork belly three different ways.

Chinese sweet wine binder & Chinese 5 Spice rub .

Texas BBQ salt, black & white pepper, celery. MLK

Harry’s Slap your daddy competition rub.

I’ll do Asian for rice bowls , BBQ for sliders, and Mexican for tacos.

Cheers,
JD

[jjdbike]

This morning I unwrapped the pork belly. Cut into three pieces, trimmed toweled dry. Tried to use my jacard but it wouldn’t penetrate the tough pig skin. Used tip of knife to poke lots of holes. Wrapped in foil with skin exposed till Saturday cook.
3 days should give skin a good head start drying.
While I see most seem to fry the skin in oil, I feel more comfortable using a broiler. I don’t want to add any more oil to top.
JD

[jjdbike]

Thanks texastweeter !
I would have never known that.
I appreciate that.
JD

[Henrik]

The broiler will be fine, and a lot easier if you haven’t done the hot oil thing before. That is best done once or twice without guests first to get comfortable with it. It’s not hard, but takes some planning on how and where to pour the oil, including where it goes after it runs off the pork.

[jjdbike]

Thanks @Henrik,
I wasn’t going to pour the hot oil over the pork. I was going to put the pork skin side down into a large skillet with a shallow layer of hot oil in it until the skin puffs and bubbles up.
Pouring hot oil over anything sounds messy and dangerous.
JD

[jjdbike]

Hello folks,
checking in on the process.
Wednesday morning I removed the belly from the cryo, toweled it off as much as I could. Placed in fridge in a foil boat to cover meat while leaving skin uncovered.

Thursday morning I trimmed, portioned it out. I made cuts into meat portion size, but not through the skin for more surface area for smoke and seasoning on the bottom side of meat.

I tried to use my Jaccard to poke holes in the skin. No dice, it was too tough.i had to use the tip of my boning knife instead.
I also did my best to cut shallow cross hatch’s in skin, Harry Soo style. I say try because again, it was ver tough to cut through, and more often than not, I wound up cutting too deep because I had to apply so much pressure. One unintentional side effect of cutting cross hatches is I can not do the salt cap to protect and dry the skin. I found it interesting that Harry Soo suggested spraying the pork belly with water every 30 minutes. That seemed counter intuitive if drying the skin was the goal.

It is now Saturday morning. The skin is like leather, almost like a cow hide dog chew. The pit, equipment , seasonings, etc are all prepped.

I’m doing three different flavor profiles: Mexican for tacos, Asian for rice bowls, BBQ for sliders.

After morning chores and we exercise, I’ll slather & season and get the pellet cooker to 200. After an hour, I’ll take it up to 225. Once it hits 165, I’ll place a baking pan under the rack with water in it to protect the meat from drying out. I’ll take it to probe tender. After which I’ll let cool to room temperature, refrigerate, wrap after fully cooled before wrapping as to not create condensation. Tomorrow before I serve, I’ll warm and crisp the skin in a skillet with hot oil.

I’ll post a report, hopefully I’ll remember to take pics.

Cheers!
JD

[jjdbike]

Here is the report,

They were trimmed, portioned out, left uncovered in fridge for three days for skin to dry.

The skin was scored with crosshatches, the bottom was scored to create more surface for rub.

I seasoned them three ways:
BBQ, slathered with yellow mustard, seasoned w/ Killer Hog The BBQ Rub.

Mexian, slathered with/ avocado oil, seasoned with/ McCormick Premium Taco seasoning & "Spanglish Asadero Fajita" seasoning.

Asian, slathered with/ Shao Hsin wine & toasted sesame oil, rubbed with/ combo of sugar, five spice, and sugar.

On the 200 degree pellet cooker, w/ water pan, Smoke Daddy Big P.I.G. smoke generator for two hours. That thing generates a good deal of smoke.

Spritzed and turned up to 225.

Spritzed every hour for three more hours, very dark, stalled at 155 - 160 for hour and a half.

Placed racks over baking pan w/ water in bottom to steam, turned up to 250.

Pulled at probe tender, i.e. 187-192.

Cooled uncovered in fridge overnight.

I was very nervous about how long it sat in the smoke bath and how dark the Smoke Daddy made them. I was worried they would be overstocked and dry. Also concerned about the skin. I warmed a piece meat-side down in apple juice and butter.

Melted bacon fat and fried skin. It puffed up a tiny bit. Was like crunchy leather. Not bad, I enjoyed the crunch. It's not very visually appealing. I wonder if I over or under fried it? I also wonder is it is possible that the skin was dried too much & or too much at rendered?

The overall flavor was good, porky, tender, and rich. I died it in Braswell's Carolina tangy mustard BBQ sauce. It was the perfect sauce to offset the richness. I was surprised at how little the flavor of the rub came through considering how generously I applied it. I'll dust them with rub when I'm frying the skin.

See pics below.

Cheers!
JD

[SheilaAnn]

Whenever we did chicharrones at the butcher shop, we seasoned while they were still sizzling. These sound so good!