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Momofuku pork belly sliced on cutting board with knife and chopsticks
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4.86 from 35 votes

momofuku pork belly

There is nothing hard about making Momofuku pork belly. Just follow a few basic steps and it's pretty much impossible to go wrong. This recipe calls for a specific type of kosher salt. If you are going to try it with regular table salt roll back by almost half.
Prep Time12 hours
Cook Time4 hours
Total Time1 day 4 hours
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Chinese, Japanese
Keyword: momofuku, pork belly
Servings: 8
Calories: 893kcal
Author: romain | glebekitchen

Ingredients

  • 3 lbs meaty pork belly

The cure

  • 1/4 cup kosher salt - specifically diamond crystal brand.
  • 2 tbsp white sugar
  • 1 tsp black pepper

Instructions

  • Combine the sugar, salt and black pepper and mix well. You will likely have too much so don't feel like you have to use all of it. You want to coat liberally. Not pack it in the cure mix. Don't use table salt. Diamond crystal kosher salt. If you want to try it with table salt please roll way back on the amount of salt you use. It's tested with diamond crystal. It works with diamond crystal.
  • Remove the skin from the pork belly. You can get your butcher to do this for you. If you want to do it yourself it's not that hard if you have a good knife. Run the blade along the skin, pulling the flap of skin up as you go along. If you screw up don't worry. Just try again. It's not like it has to be perfect. It's a pork belly...
  • Pull out a cookie sheet. Put the pork on the cookie sheet and coat the pork belly liberally with the sugar, salt and black pepper mixture.
  • Refrigerate the pork belly, uncovered for 12 hours. Try not to go less than 10 hours. Don't go much over 14. A long cure is not what you are looking for here.
  • Pre-heat your oven to 290F.
  • Remove the pork from the fridge, brush any remaining cure from the surface (or give it a quick rinse) and place it in a baking pan large enough to hold it comfortably. If you don't have one, use your cookie sheet. Cover with foil and place in the oven.
  • Cook to an internal temperature of 190F. I can't tell you how long this will take because I don't know how thick your pork belly is. Maybe 4 hours. But start checking after two hours. This is like BBQ. It's done when it's done.
  • Remove the pork from the oven and let rest 10-15 minutes. Slice and serve.
  • To re-heat, steam slices if you want it meltingly tender. Pan-fry slices if you want a bit of crust. All good...

Notes

This recipe will give you meltingly tender pork belly every time. It will not give you a crispy crackling pork belly so don't even try...
Use this in ramen, pork buns and sandwiches. Anywhere you want some pork belly goodness!
The drippings will be too salty to use. Discard them.

Nutrition

Serving: 8g | Calories: 893kcal | Carbohydrates: 3g | Protein: 15g | Fat: 90g | Saturated Fat: 32g | Cholesterol: 122mg | Sodium: 1500mg | Potassium: 314mg | Sugar: 2g | Vitamin A: 15IU | Vitamin C: 0.5mg | Calcium: 11mg | Iron: 0.9mg