Asian Pork Belly Bao Buns

[BB-que]

So I was trying make crispy pork belly out of a small slab of belly but I dropped the ball and didn’t dry the skin well enough pre-cook. I was hoping for cracklins but it didn’t happen - salted skin didn’t draw enough moisture cause i wrapped overnight and shouldn’t have, and it was windy in Chicagoland so had a he’s time keeping the kettles temp up. Anyway I called an audible and it turned out good.

first thing I did was a heavy layer of salt in the skin and into the refridge over night. However I was possibly inebriated and wrapped when it needed to be left open to dry the skin.

Wiped the salt off the skin and Got the Weber chugging along, but winds made it hard to get to 500+ which ideally is what I wanted. Put on the belly

Skin wasn’t crisping up so said screw it snd let it ride to about 185 IT

Sliced and into steamed bao buns with red cabbage, green onions, and Asian sauce (ginger, soy, garlic, red pepper flake, etc). We really liked em but next time I’ll nail the cracklins

 

[kilo charlie]

Looks damn good to me! Keep practicing!!

 

[Fueling Around]

I'm no expert on pork belly, but they cook and chew easier if you remove the skin as first step.
Traditional cracklin's are made by baking the skin (only) in the oven.
I usually slice mine and render down in a skillet

 

[civilsmoker]

Bao buns are perfect for pork belly!

I do pork belly without skin then I like to further sear/render in a pan & sauce.

 

[Hamdrew]

Did you poke the skin with anything?? If not, that's probably the biggest factor/where you "went wrong". You might see something like this at an Asian market-

That's what they're for. You can of course use anything. I've just used the needle from meat injectors the couple times I've tried. Worked very well, albeit much slower than one of those things.

 

[BB-que]

Did you poke the skin with anything?? If not, that's probably the biggest factor/where you "went wrong". You might see something like this at an Asian market-
View attachment 494983
That's what they're for. You can of course use anything. I've just used the needle from meat injectors the couple times I've tried. Worked very well, albeit much slower than one of those things.

Yeah I have a retractable tenderizer that I poked all over. I’m pretty sure not resting it correctly to let that salt pull out the moisture is where I went wrong. I will say they were a hit regardless