Chocolate Espresso Pork Belly

So everyone knows I love bacon but I don’t want anyone to think that I discriminate against any of the other amazing things you can do with pork belly.  Lately, I have been working hard at mastering my own homemade bacon but I haven’t perfected it enough to share yet.  Since I had a plethora of pork belly though I decided I would make a new, simple recipe that everyone can enjoy.  If you have a smoker, great, if not you should probably buy one ;).  Just kidding, you can totally roast this in the oven as well.  I included instructions for both so everyone can be happy with this delicious swine.

I get emails and questions all the time asking how learning how to cook or what flavors to combine.  Truth is, I know just as little as most of the people asking me do, I just experiment and learn my lessons along the way.  One of the things to remember when cooking is, simple will always be better.  If you are always striving to use the highest quality ingredients that you can, you want your food to be the star and not your seasonings to mask something.  Don’t ever underestimate the value of salt and pepper on anything.  Whether it is this pork belly, your burgers, or an amazing grass fed steak.  Some of the most amazing restaurants around the world only season with salt, pepper and love.

Point is, don’t ever be intimidated to try something new and when in doubt just keep it simple.  With that being said, I am simply out of things to talk about besides how amazing this tasted.  So scroll down a bit, and get to work.  Also don’t forget that if you want to keep receiving my recipes via email in case you can’t check my website every now and then, ensure you subscribe to my newsletter.

George Bryant (Civilized Caveman)

Chocolate Espresso Pork Belly

4.67 from 3 votes

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 3 hours hrs

Total Time 3 hours hrs 10 minutes mins

Servings: 5

Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients

  

• 3 pound pork belly skin removed
• 2 tablespoons Choffy see notes
• 2 tablespoons espresso or ground Hug In A Mug Coffee
• 2 teaspoons sea salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper

Method

 

Smoker

1. Before you prepare your pork belly, preheat your smoker to smoke at 225 degrees Fahrenheit (107 Celsius)
2. While your smoker is warming up, wash your pork belly with cold water and pat dry
3. Score the fat side of the pork belly in a checkerboard pattern without cutting into the meat
4. Mix your choffy (or cocoa powder), coffee, sea salt, and black pepper together and liberally season your pork belly over the checkerboard. Ensure you get seasoning into the grooves
5. If you have a leave in meat thermometer, now is the time to insert it
6. Place your pork belly on your smoker and go take a nap
7. Let your pork belly smoke for 4-5 hours
8. You can pull your pork belly off when it reaches an internal temperature of 150 Degrees Fahrenheit (66 Celsius) or you can leave it up til 170 degrees Fahrenheit (77 Celsius)
9. Once it is done, remove it from the smoker and slice to serve to the size you prefer
10. I like to serve my roasted pork belly with roasted root vegetables like my carrots or sweet potatoes to contrast the saltiness and cut the richness

Oven

1. Before you prepare your pork belly, preheat your oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit (218 Celsius)
2. While your oven is preheating, wash your pork belly with cold water and pat dry
3. Score the fat side of the pork belly in a checkerboard pattern without cutting into the meat
4. Mix your choffy (or cocoa powder), coffee, sea salt, and black pepper together and liberally season your pork belly over the checkerboard. Ensure you get seasoning into the grooves
5. If you have a leave in meat thermometer, now is the time to insert it
6. Place your pork belly on an elevated rack over a cookie sheet or pan and place it in your preheated oven
7. Roast for 30 minutes and then reduce the temp to 350 degrees and roast for 2 1/2 - 3 hours or until the internal temperature reaches anywhere between 150-170 Degrees Fahrenheit (66-77 Celsius) which is your preference. It is almost impossible to overcook pork belly
8. Once it is done, remove it from the oven and slice to serve to the size you prefer
9. I like to serve my roasted pork belly with roasted root vegetables like my carrots or sweet potatoes to contrast the saltiness and cut the richness

Notes

You can use your own ground and roasted cacao or cocoa powder if you want to get some more chocolate on it

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