This perfectly charred, succulent BBQ Pork Belly would be the star of Asian BBQ food scene! You want to pick up bottles of wine and enjoy every moment of the summer breeze with this smokey deliciousness.
Our summertime in Japan was nothing, but a sweet and precious one. Our children had a wonderful time reconnecting with their grandparents. We mostly enjoyed my mom’s simple yet delicious home cooked meals and once in a while we took my parents out to enjoy well-marbled wagyu meat in yakiniku restaurants. One of the things we did miss though is firing up the grill in our backyard, smelling the delicious smoke mixing with the summer air, and watching Mr. JOC with his grilling utensils in action.
Now that we are back in the States and my children have started school, we took advantage of the weekend and grilled up one of our family favorites BBQ Pork Belly with a little extra flare.
How To BBQ Pork Belly
There are many ways to grill the pork belly. Mr. JOC is the grill master of our household and he swears by this technique of using charcoal with Weber Char-Basket Charcoal Briquet Holders. You start off by piling charcoals on one side of the holders. When ready to grill, sear the pork over charcoal using high heat on both sides (~1 min), before moving them over to the other side of the grill with low heat and then slowly grill them with cover on. This gives the meat an irresistible smoky charcoal flavor.
If you get 1/4-inch thick slices of pork belly like I did, I highly recommend using an outdoor grill so that the extra fat will melt off and the finished product won’t be as oily and fatty.
For those of you who live in the bay area, I go to a Korean meat shop in Sunnyvale (check out Angus Meat Market) to get short ribs, pork belly, and other cuts. Their meat quality is amazing and you won’t be disappointed.
Japanese grocery stores sell slices and blocks of pork belly as well. However, the slices are 1/8-inch thickness (like bacon) and they get burn easily with the outdoor grill. You could definitely use it if you plan to cook on the stovetop.
Sometimes you can only find a block of pork belly. But not to worry, you can slice your own (See the tutorial). If you don’t see them at the display, ask the helpful butcher at the counter for pork belly, because it’s often stored in the freezer.
Delicious BBQ Pork Belly Marinade
Most of the ingredients and condiments that are used to make this marinade for BBQ Pork Belly are staples from the Japanese pantry.
The flavor of this marinade is more savory, instead of sweet and spicy. If you like it spicy, you can increase the amount of red chili pepper. If you prefer a sweeter taste, you can add grated apple or Asian pear or more honey (or brown sugar) to the marinade.
Last but not least, it’s important to include grated onion as it tenderizes the bbq pork belly and adds flavors to the marinade.
Not a fan of pork belly or pork? You can definitely use this versatile marinade in beef or chicken.
Wines to Pair with BBQ Pork Belly
Before the best of summer is gone, we wanted to enjoy our meals outdoor as much as possible, with glasses of white wine and rosé in hands of course. For the BBQ pork belly, we paired the dish with Cline Family Cellars’ 2016 Sonoma Coast Estate Grown Pinot Gris and 2016 Ancient Vines Mouvèdre Rosé.
Both wines complemented the pork belly perfectly. The pinot gris was light, refreshing, with hints of pear, honey, and citrus. I really liked the taste because it was not too sweet. The rosé was on the drier side, but equally delicious and bright. With each sip, you can almost taste the sweet fruits of summer with notes of cherries and berries. Both wines cut through the rich and succulent bbq pork belly and that probably made us ate more than we should.
For the price (~$12-15), both wines are fantastic value and I recommend them for a summer party or simply enjoy them at your patio.
I hope you get to try out this recipe and enjoy the remainder of the summer!
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- 2 lb sliced pork belly (¼" or 0.6mm thickness - See Notes)
- ½ onion
- 1 inch ginger
- 1 green onion/scallion
- 4 Tbsp soy sauce
- 4 Tbsp sake
- 3 Tbsp honey
- 1 Tbsp Ketchup
- 4 cloves garlic (minced)
- ½ Tbsp toasted white sesame seeds
- 2 dried red chili pepper (chopped)
- freshly ground black pepper
- Grate onion and ginger and add in a medium mixing bowl.
-
Add chopped green onion, soy sauce, sake, honey, and ketchup.
- Add minced garlic, sesame seeds, and chopped red chili pepper.
- Add the pork belly and marinade in the large baking pan or container. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 and up to 12 hours.
- Prepare a hot (450°F / 230°C) charcoal or gas grill fire. Clean and lightly oil the grill grate. For the best flavor, go with charcoal grill. Remove the pork belly from the marinade and let any excess drip off; discard the marinade. Grill the pork belly, flipping once, until done to your liking, about 2-4 minutes total. Transfer to a serving platter. You can pan fry or use cast iron skillet to grill the meat indoor as well.
Sliced Pork Belly: I purchased the sliced pork belly from my favorite Korean meat shop in Sunnyvale. The thickness is ¼ inch and it's perfect for grilling. Previously I was using Japanese pork belly slices, but they are 1/8 inch thickness. It's great for stove top cooking, but when you grill outside, it gets burn easily.
Recipe by Namiko Chen of Just One Cookbook. All images and content on this site are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without my permission. If you’d like to share this recipe on your site, please re-write the recipe in your own words and link to this post as the original source. Thank you.
Disclaimer: We received no compensation for the wine review. We received Cline Family Cellars wines from Jarvis Communications, free of charge to use in exchange for an honest review.
Editor’s Note: The post was originally published on August 27, 2012. The images, recipe, and content have been updated in August 2017.
I’ve decided that every time I make one of your recipes I will post to let you know how it went! 🙂 I had thinly sliced tenderloin in the fridge and was looking for a recipe to use. Picked this, but since I had 2 lbs to work with, I took the easy way out and used the blender for the onion, garlic and ginger. 🙂 I used 4 times of everything but 3 times the liquids. It was snowing outside in Montreal so I used my cast iron grill. It turned out fabulously! Thanks for an amazing recipe!
Hi Angie! I’m terribly sorry for my late response. I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe and it’s great that you adapted this recipe very well! Thank you so much for taking your time to write a feedback, and I truly appreciate it! 🙂
This sounds super tasty and I was wondering if it would work well as a marinade for a boneless Boston pork butt joint I have? It’s about 3 lbs. thank you in advance! 🙂
Hi Diana! I haven’t tried the meat with this recipe before. Hope it will work. You will need to marinate for longer time. 🙂 Hope it will be tender and delicious. Fatter piece will for the recipe. 🙂
I bought sliced pork belly at hmart and I’ll be making this for dinner tonight. Thank you! Just what I needed.
HI Elisa! Hope you enjoy(ed) this recipe! 🙂
This looks delicious! Does this work on normal pork? I’all try it as soon as the grocery stores open again after Harvey leaves
Hi Erin! Oh no, I hope you and your family are safe. I recommend fatty pork parts. 🙂 Please take care, Erin!
I love korean short ribs and gogi
Me too! 🙂
I recently subscribed to your site and I am so happy I found you! I have an ignorant question. I hope you don’t mind helping a novice Asian cooking enthusiast. Is port belly the same as thick sliced bacon? Is it also the same as what we call “fat back” in the South? This too comes in blocks or slabs. However, in the above picture, it looks like the port belly is much more meaty. Thanks for any help.
Hi Linda! Welcome to JOC! I’m happy that you found us! Thanks for asking, a lot of people have the same question here. From googling, I realized that fat back has thick fat, too. Pork belly has more pink meat area with a little bit of fat on top, right under the rind/skin. So if you slice the pork belly, it looks like bacon. Bacon is already processed, but pork belly is the part of the meat before processing. In Asian cooking, we often use this fatty pork belly piece. Do you think the butcher knows how to prepare this part? Basically, ask for pre-bacon block. In the Asian supermarket, we often can buy thinly sliced or block as our recipes use both types. Hope this helps!
We are a keen eater of ramen, do you have a recipe for making the thick yellow noodle for ramen?
Hi Sim! I’ve never made the ramen noodles… maybe one day I’ll challenge myself to make it. Thank you for your request. 🙂
Hi Nami
Do I have to modify this recipe if I’m using Hokkaido pork loin for yakiniku? I’ll be using cast iron grill pan on gas stove. Your recipe looks delicious!
Hi Josephine! The pork loin is lean (less fat). It tends to get tough easily from cooking it, so do not overcook it. In Japan, if it’s good quality pork, we don’t always marinate it (ruin the original flavor). Your “Hokkaido” pork loin sounds precious, so you may want to decide if you want to marinade… The marinade also burns the food easily, so I may cook the pork perfectly, and right before it’s about to finish pour the sauce to coat it. That would be my suggestion. 🙂
Dear Nami
Thank you for your reply! I am going to try your suggestion tonight:)
Good luck, and enjoy! 🙂
Very good. And making on grill is even better.
It was a bit quick on the grill but I guess it’s all about the ventilation adjusting.
Ower son would say a bit more honey still the combination with the spice and sweet makes this recipe worth waiting for 12hrs
Hi Lars! Thanks so much for trying this recipe and for your kind feedback. 🙂