There’s nothing like tender smoked pork belly piled into soft tacos, especially when topped with tart homemade pickled onions and sweet candied jalapeno peppers (cowboy candy). Don’t forget to prepare your onions and peppers a day ahead—leaving them in the fridge overnight will really help the flavours pop.
Monitoring Pork Belly Temperature
The target temperature for melt-in-the-mouth pork belly is 96-98 °C. This takes around 4-5 hours to achieve, and there are a couple of different tools you can use to ensure you get to this perfect temperature.
Thermapen
If using a Thermapen, check the temperature of the pork every hour. Once it reaches 86 °C, check every 30 minutes until it hits 96-98 °C. You can also use your Thermapen to gauge the tenderness of the meat by feeling its resistance.
Leave-In Meat Thermometer
If you use a smart or alarm thermometer like the DOT, Smoke, Signals or RFX, you won’t need to keep opening the lid and checking on your pork; the thermometer will let you know when it’s done. This also means you can keep your pit temperature steady.
Pork Belly Tacos Recipe
Ingredients
For the Pickled Onions
- 1 large red onion
- 300ml apple cider vinegar
- 3 tbsp golden caster sugar
- 1 tbsp sea salt
- 5 black peppercorns
- 1 star anise
For the Cowboy Candy
- 6-8 jalapenos
- 200g granulated sugar
- 1 tsp yellow mustard seeds
- ¼ tsp celery seeds
- 120ml apple cider vinegar
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp tumeric
For the Pork Belly
- 1.5kg boneless, rindless pork belly (an unrolled slab)
- 1 tbsp American mustard
- 4 tbsp dry rub (I used Angus & Oink Dirty Cow)
To Serve
- Tortillas
- Coriander
- Feta
Method
To Make the Pickled Onions
- Using a mandolin or sharp knife, slice your pickled onions into thin slices or rings. Put these into a heatproof bowl and cover with boiling water. Let this sit for 1 minute and then drain. This helps take some of the bite out of the onions and softens them slightly.
- Pack your onions into a kilner jar.
- In a saucepan, add your apple cider vinegar, sugar, salt & peppercorns. Heat over a low heat and stir until the sugar and salt have dissolved. Pour over your onions, drop in the star anise and close the lid. Once cooled, refrigerate overnight.
To Make the Cowboy Candy
- Thinly slice your jalapenos.
- Add your apple cider vinegar, granulated sugar, mustard seeds, celery seeds, turmeric and salt to a saucepan. Heat and stir until dissolved. Add your jalapenos and simmer for 10 minutes, until the liquid has reduced by about 1/3.
- Pour into a Kilner jar, let it cool and refrigerate overnight.
To Make the Pork Belly
- Set your BBQ up for indirect cooking/smoking and preheat it to 135 °C.
- Rub your mustard over all sides and season heavily. The mustard will help the rub adhere to the meat.
- Put the meat into your BBQ and leave for 2 hours.
- Check the internal temperature, and if it looks dry, spritz with apple cider vinegar. You’re looking for an internal temperature of 96 °C. Check every hour until you reach 86 °C. Once you hit this temp, check every 30 minutes. This cook usually takes 4-5 hours, but this time is just a rough guide. Once you hit 96 °C, the meat should feel tender. If it doesn’t, let it go a little more. 96-98 °C is the sweet spot for this cook.
Assemble the Tacos
Once the meat is cooked, let it rest for 15 minutes before slicing into it. Build your tacos with a tortilla, a slice of meat, pickled onions, and cowboy candy. Top with some crumbled feta and a few pieces of coriander.
