Smoked Pork Belly Burnt Ends
Big cubes of pork belly rubbed and smoked for three hours, then braised in barbecue sauce, honey, and butter until the sauce turns to lacquer.
- Smoker
- 225°F
- Total time
- 5hr 15min
- servings
- 30
Pork belly should be coming out of the refrigerator, fully defrosted. That said, it’s easier to cut a slightly frozen pork belly into cubes.
Method
A line, step, tool, or note tagged Filled in was added by the editor because the original left it out.
- Start smoker and get it to 225 degrees and turn on Super Smoke.
- While preheating, trim any skin and excess fat from the pork belly.
- Cut the pork belly into ~ 2” cubes.
- Put the pork belly cubes into a bowl and add 3 tbsp of olive oil.
- Mix the olive oil into the pork belly so that the cubes are lightly coated.
- Add the dry rub and mix the rub and the cubes until all cubes are fully coated with the dry rub.
- Put the cubes onto a rack basket or directly on the grate and smoke for 3 hours. After 3 hours, remove the pork belly from the smoker. The cubes should have a bark and a deep red color.
- Put the cubes into a foil pan. Mix 1 cup of the BBQ sauce and the honey in a mixing bowl and pour over the cubes. Stir it all together so the cubes are evenly coated. Slice off 4 tbsps of butter and distribute the chunks.
- Put the lid on the foil pan, seal well, and place back into the smoker for 90 minutes.
- After 90 minutes, remove the lid, stir the cubes around and smoke uncovered for another 15 minutes to let the sauce caramelize on the cubes.
Notes
Tips
- The original doesn’t give an amount for the honey. A quarter cup is figured here; use more if you want them sweeter.Filled in
- No lid for the foil pan? Cover it tightly with aluminum foil.Filled in
Storage
- Warm leftovers in a covered pan in a 300 degree oven so the sauce loosens instead of burning. The federal chart says to reheat leftovers to 165 degrees.Filled in
Nutrition Facts
30 servings per recipe
Serving sizeabout 1 cube
Amount per serving
Calories620
% Daily Value*
- Total Fat 59g76%
- Saturated Fat 22g110%
- Trans Fat 0g
- Cholesterol 80mg27%
- Sodium 760mg33%
- Total Carbohydrate 12g4%
- Dietary Fiber <1g3%
- Total Sugars 10g
- Includes 10g Added Sugars20%
- Protein 10g
- Vitamin D 0mcg0%
- Calcium 20mg2%
- Iron 1.1mg6%
- Potassium 270mg6%
* The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a serving of food contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
How this label was figured
| Ingredient line | Counted | USDA food | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6-8 lb. Pork belly | 3,175 g | Pork, fresh, belly, raw | Figured at 7 lb, the middle of the range. |
| 3 tbsp olive oil | 41 g | Oil, olive, salad or cooking | |
| 1 1/2 cups of pork BBQ dry rub | 273 g | A home blend of brown sugar, paprika, salt, black pepper, chili powder, garlic powder, and onion powder | |
| 1 cup BBQ sauce | 279 g | Sauce, barbecue | |
| 1/4 cup honey | 85 g | Honey | |
| 4 tbsp unsalted butter | 57 g | Butter, without salt |
- The label counts all of the pork belly’s fat, including what renders out in the smoker and what is trimmed away, so a real serving comes in lower.
- The pork belly is figured at 7 pounds, the middle of the range.
- The dry rub is figured as a home blend of brown sugar, paprika, salt, pepper, chili powder, garlic powder, and onion powder. A store-bought rub will differ, mostly in sodium.
- The USDA lists no trans fat for pork belly, olive oil, or butter, so that line counts none from them.
- The USDA lists no vitamin D for pork belly, so that line counts none from it.
Can burnt ends be pork?
The original is beef brisket, and pork belly is a stand-in that some barbecue people refuse to call burnt ends at all.
By the strict definition, these are not burnt ends. Feast Magazine reports that present-day purists define them as “cubed chunks of beef cut from the point half of a slow-smoked brisket, served without sauce.”
The cut has already changed once. KMUW, the public radio station in Wichita, says the first burnt ends came from the thin part of the brisket’s flat, and that barbecue restaurants moved to the point when they needed more of them for their menus. The same piece asks what other thin, fatty cut could do the job, and answers: “The answer is pork belly.”
Sweet glazes on pork belly have a home too. Tasting Table notes that Memphis restaurants toss pork belly burnt ends in honey or maple glazes.
Not everyone is persuaded. Doug Worgul, the author of The Grand Barbecue, a history of Kansas City barbecue, told Feast: “Burnt ends are brisket and that’s it. There’s no such thing as pork burnt ends.”
The story of the beef original is on the Candied Pork Belly Burnt Ends page.
