Momofuku Style Pork Belly Tacos: 28 Days of Super Bowl Recipes
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Serves: 4-6
 
Simple pork belly in tortillas makes for a heck of special taco.
Ingredients
  • 2 pound pork belly, skin removed
  • ⅓ cup kosher salt
  • ⅓ cup sugar
  • Fresh pickled vegetables:
  • 2 small cucumbers
  • 2 carrots, peeled
  • 4-5 radishes
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • Flour tortillas
  • Scallions, chopped
Instructions
  1. Mix together the salt and sugar. Use a roasting pan that fits the pork belly as snugly as possible and then massage the meat with the salt and sugar, discarding any remaining seasoning.
  2. Cover and refrigerate, at least 8 hours but preferably overnight to 24 hours.
  3. When ready to roast, preheat the oven to 450º.
  4. Remove the pork belly from the fridge. Rinse off the the salt and sugar brine from the pork belly and pat the meat dry with a clean kitchen towel. Discard any water and brine from the bottom of the pan and dry. Place the meat back in the roasting pan fat side up.
  5. Roast for one hour, basting the pork belly with the rendered fat after 20 minutes and basting again every 10-15 minutes until the meat gets a nice golden cover.
  6. After an hour, reduce the oven temperature to 250º and cook for another hour or until the pork belly is tender and starts to offer a resistance to pressure, but not falling apart.
  7. During this hour, build a barricade at the kitchen entrance to prevent your partners, friends, neighbors, pets and random velociraptors from swooping and stealing the pork belly as its delicious smell travels and soon your four friends who RSVP'd will suddenly become forty.
  8. Once the pork belly is done, remove it from the oven and allow to cool on a cutting board or plate to cool slightly. Once the meat has cooled a bit, taste a small bite. Now you know why you built that barricade, because you're not going to want to share a single bite.
  9. After the meat has cooled a bit, wrap in plastic to refrigerate again. Why let the meat rest again? Because if you try to slice the pork belly now, it will fall apart and you'll lose all the wonderful juices inside the meat. (This is pretty much a pork confit at this point.)
  10. While the pork belly is chilling, make your pickled vegetables.
  11. Slice the carrots, cucumbers and radishes about ⅛ of an inch thick. In a medium bowl, toss together with 1 tablespoon sugar and 1 teaspoon kosher salt. Cover and refridgerate for about an hour, which is about the time it will take for your pork belly to firm up.
  12. Once ready to serve, warm the tortillas in the oven for a few minutes to soften and drain the water from the quick-pickled vegetables.
  13. Slice the pork belly and heat for a couple of minutes on each side in a pan.
  14. Put a couple of slices of pork belly in each tortilla along with the pickled vegetables and the chopped scallions.
  15. Serve with hoisin sauce and hot sauce for guests to season as preferred.
Notes
Prep time includes resting the pork belly. I've seen people say to use ¼ of both salt and sugar for the pork belly, all the way up to ½ cup each when they adapt David Chang's recipe. ⅓ cup seems like a good middle and has never done me wrong. If you're making more pork belly, obviously increase the amount of sugar and salt used using a 1:1 ratio.
Recipe by sarah sprague at https://sarahsprague.com/2012/01/17/momofuku-style-pork-belly-tacos-28-days-of-super-bowl-recipes/