Honey Pork Belly

Honey Pork Belly is a fast and delicious recipe of juicy, pan-fried meat glazed in an easy sweet-and-salty sauce. My family loves it served donburi style on a bowl of hot steamed rice with spinach, Japanese mayonnaise, and ichimi togarashi. Only five ingredients!

Recently by coincidence, I have been receiving a lot of feedback about my recipes from my friends and family. They knew about my blog when I first started, but I had no idea that they have been actually following my blog and cooking my recipes! Some of them also asked me to keep sharing more quick and easy recipes for them. So friends and family, this fast and delicious recipe is for you!

Well, it’s for everyone of course. We are all busy with work, children, social activities, and all the responsibilities we have in our lives. As I’m a mother of two young children who are considered “very active” according to people who know them well, I am always busy crossing out my To-Do list. On top of my children’s activities, playdates, and studying, I want my house to be kept clean and tidy and have fresh ingredients in the fridge to cook meals for the family. The list goes on and on and I’m sure you probably know exactly how I feel. On a busy day when I simply run out of time, I tend to cook donburi (Japanese rice bowl) dishes with quick miso soup. It’s super easy to make but it’s delicious and way better than eating out or taking out food. It’s nice to have several go-to recipes to count on when our busy lives don’t allow time for cooking. If you ask me my favorite among all the donburi recipes I shared so far, here are my picks:

• Unagi Don
• Pork Curry Donburi
• Tori Soboro Donburi
• Crispy Tonkatsu Donburi
• Negitoro & Avocado Donburi
• Oyakodon
• Gyudon

They are all easy to make, and more importantly, they take very little time!

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Honey Pork Belly

4.84 from 30 votes

Honey Pork Belly is a fast and delicious recipe of juicy, pan-fried meat glazed in an easy sweet-and-salty sauce. My family loves it served donburi style on a bowl of hot steamed rice with spinach, Japanese mayonnaise, and ichimi togarashi. Only five ingredients!

Print Pin

Prep Time: 5 minutes mins

Cook Time: 20 minutes mins

Total Time: 25 minutes mins

Servings: 2

Ingredients

 

US CustomaryMetric

 

1x2x3x

• ▢ ¾ lb pork belly
• ▢ neutral oil

For the Seasonings

• ▢ 2 Tbsp honey
• ▢ 2 Tbsp soy sauce
• ▢ 1 Tbsp oyster sauce
• ▢ 2 cloves garlic

For Serving (optional)

• ▢ spinach
• ▢ Japanese Kewpie mayonnaise (you can make your own Japanese mayo)
• ▢ ichimi togarashi (Japanese chili pepper)

Japanese Ingredient Substitution: If you want substitutes for Japanese condiments and ingredients, click here.

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Instructions

 

• Gather all the ingredients.
  
• Slice crosswise ¾ lb pork belly into pieces ¼ inch (6 mm) thick.
  
• Grate 2 cloves garlic (or you can use a garlic press).
  
• Heat neutral oil in a large frying pan. When the pan is hot, start cooking the pork belly slices on high heat.
  
• The oil might splatter, so you can use a splatter screen to avoid a mess in your kitchen.
  
• Flip over the slices when they are browned on one side and continue to cook. When the other side of the pork belly is nicely browned, turn off the heat.
  
• Use paper towels to wipe off the excess oil from the pan completely.
  
• Turn the heat back on to medium. Then, add the seasonings: 2 Tbsp honey, 2 Tbsp soy sauce, 1 Tbsp oyster sauce, and the crushed garlic.
  
• Cook over medium heat until the meat starts to have a nice glaze. Try not to burn the sauce.
  

To Serve

• Enjoy the juicy, flavorful meat with blanched spinach to balance out the palate. Our family’s favorite way to eat Honey Pork Belly is donburi style (rice bowl). Place the blanched spinach over a large bowl of hot steamed rice. Lay pieces of pork belly on top and drizzle with Japanese Kewpie mayonnaise and sprinkle ichimi togarashi (Japanese chili pepper) on top. The mayonnaise goes amazingly well with the salty-sweet sauce.
  

To Store

• You can keep the leftovers in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days or in the freezer for 2 weeks.

Nutrition

Calories: 966 kcal · Carbohydrates: 17 g · Protein: 22 g · Fat: 91 g · Saturated Fat: 33 g · Polyunsaturated Fat: 10 g · Monounsaturated Fat: 42 g · Cholesterol: 122 mg · Sodium: 793 mg · Potassium: 1283 mg · Fiber: 4 g · Sugar: 9 g · Vitamin A: 15958 IU · Vitamin C: 49 mg · Calcium: 184 mg · Iron: 6 mg

Author: Namiko Hirasawa Chen

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Japanese

Keyword: pork belly

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