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!
Wish to learn more about Japanese cooking? Sign up for our free newsletter to receive cooking tips & recipe updates! And stay in touch with me on Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, and Instagram.
Honey Pork Belly
Ingredients
- 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)
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.
Nami, WOW! This recipe is incredible. I am trying to eat cleaner as of the new year, but I prepared this for a special occasion, served it with hard boiled egg, greens, and your ginger rice. SOOO worth it.
O M G. so delish. A+.
Hi Maeve! Awesome! I’m so happy to hear that you enjoyed this recipe. Thank you for trying and for your kind feedback! 🙂
Hi. Thank you for the recipe! A quick question.. When do you add the garlic? I see that you grind them in step 2 of the recipe but didn’t see it mention it again.. Thanks!
Hi Ryan! Sorry it was a little confusing… “Seasoning” includes 4 items, soy sauce, honey, sake, and 2 cloves of garlic. You add “Seasonings” at Step 7 (and you kind of see a tiny bits of garlic in the photo). Thanks for asking! 🙂
Hi, can we use lean meat?
Hi Yvonne! It is possible that the meat gets tougher without much fat. It’s very tricky, but if you use lean meat often, and know how the texture will be like, you can definitely use it. 🙂
tried cooking this just now and ended up burning the sauce haha
thanks for the recipe… will try again soon 😀
Hi Haya! Oh oh! Sorry to hear that. Next time lower the heat a bit – that probably helps. 🙂 Hope you enjoy it next time!
When I cooked this the flavor was perfect. However, the meat was very chewy and tough. What am I doing wrong?
Hi Preston! First of all, thank you so much for trying my recipe! Since I haven’t seen the meat so it’s hard to say for sure, but maybe the meat you chose may not have enough fat. I don’t think you did something wrong if you have followed my recipe. Besides the quality of the meat, meat can get chewy when you over cook it. As long as the meat is no longer pink, you should not cook any longer. Hope this helps!
I tried it, Nami. Really yummy! I thought I cooked too much, but we finished all! You are right, it is not chewy or hard but rather crispy. I squeezed in a bit of lemon lemon juice to zest up the taste!
Hi Rina! I’m so glad you liked this recipe! Thank you so much for your kind feedback. Squeeze of lemon juice sounds refreshing! 🙂
Really gooooood!
Thank you Ling!
This food was glorious! 10/10 would eat again!
Hi Calum! I’m so glad you liked it! Thank you so much for your kind feedback! 🙂
hi Nami, I just made the honey pork belly today following your recipe with minor changes, I boiled the pork a little bit to get rid of the smell, and the fried the pork. Also instead of waiting for them to be brown on both sides to wipe off the excess oil, I wiped off the excess oil during the frying process,
about the seasoning, I followed the exact amount of honey, soy sauce and oyster sauce but also added my version of hot chili pepper oil,
I have to Say : IT tastes LIP SMACKINGLY DELICIOUS, I do not like eating pork that much, but this recipe I can say it is a bomb,
Thank you Nami
Hi TA! YAY!!!! Really happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe! It’s really simple dish to make, too (not that complicated). My husband usually adds spice after as kids and I don’t eat spicy food. Your comment just made my day! THANK YOU! xo
Your honey belly pork recipe is superb. My family enjoys it and it has become a weekly ‘must’. Thank you very much for sharing. Good health to you n family.
Hi RuiBin! Thank you so much for trying this recipe and I’m really happy to hear your family enjoyed it. You made my day!! 🙂 xo
Just made this with chicken wings – amazing!! Also didn’t have honey so used agave syrup. Yum!!!
Hi Madame A! Thank you for trying this recipe! Really happy to hear that you enjoyed this recipe. Thank you for your feedback! 🙂
Thank you very much! We enjoyed this dish thoroughly (as in I doubled it and it’s all gone now).
Hi Lisa! I’m so glad to hear you liked this recipe. Thank you so much for your kind feedback. 🙂
Thank you so much for this amazing (simple, delicious, fast!) recipe. I had pork belly in the fridge and didn’t want to make the usual Vietnamese caramelized pork dish, so I googled pork belly and saw your beautiful photos. The promise of a fast meal had me sold. My husband was incredibly happy – apparently this dish is very reminiscent of one of his favorite childhood dishes. So thank you thank you thank you! This will be a staple.
Hi Asante! I’m so happy you and your husband enjoyed this dish. We can’t have enough quick and delicious recipes for busy weeknights and I’m glad you two liked this recipe. Thank you so much for your kind feedback! 🙂
Hi
It seems your recipes were not match with the picture. I cliked on the ice cream with green color, they show me the recipe of the peanut butter ice cream, or I want the red egg recipe, it shows me the devil egg, so disappointed.
lana
Hi Lana! I’m sorry but the recipes (links) you were checking are NOT in my blog. It’s a link exchange program between websites and those recipes are on someone’s site. I’ll let the program know that the pictures and links were not matching. Thank you!
I don’t think I’ve mention donburi as one of my favorite Japanese dishes, yet. Especially on week days when I’m tired from work. I really LOVE to make the honey pork belly recipe that you have here, but I make other toppings for my bowls too.
Thank you S. Howard! Donburi dishes are all really easy to make (and clean after dinner!) and very fulfilling too! Thank you for the kind comment! 🙂