Fried Pork Belly Chicharron
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You can find chicharrónes on the tables in Mexican, Filipino, Argentinian, Cuban, and Spanish, especially during special occasions. What is a chicharron? This dish begins with pork belly or rinds.
Depending on your location, a chicharron may become pork belly with skin attached, and others only use pork rinds. In both cases, the skin receives a hardy helping of seasonings and is fried until crispy.
What to Expect
When it comes to flavor, chicharron packs a wallop. It is savory, rich, and sensual. After you recover from that first bite, you’ll notice the crispy texture married to soft meat. It’s somewhat like bacon. Some people (me) fall in love with fried pork belly, and my opinion is mirrored in restaurants and on TV.
Tip
Use maple, apple, a hickory-apple blend, or cherry-pecan blended smoking wood or pellets.
Ingredients
- 2 lbs. pork belly (feeds about 4 people)
- Cuso’s Lemon Pepper Seasoning
- 2 avocados, ripe
- 1/2 small white onion, finely diced
- 1 Roma tomato, diced
- 1 tbsp fresh chopped cilantro
- 1 Serrano pepper
- ½ lime, juiced
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp sugar
- ¼ tsp vinegar
- 1 c sour cream
Instructions
- Preheat the smoker to 275F
- Lay the meat flat on a cutting board and begin scoring on both sides with a Chef’s Knife (take care not to cut through).
- Poke holes in the fat
- Apply the lemon pepper seasoning evenly all over (don’t miss those cracks from your cuts)
- Let the pork belly smoke for 2 hours (check your meat thermometer - you need 180F)
- Those two hours give you plenty of time for making guacamole (you can’t beat fresh)
- Remove the flesh from the avocados and give them a good smush.
- Mash them using a kitchen fork
- Prepare the onion,
- Slice the avocados in half and remove all the flesh into a mixing bowl
- Mash the avocado flesh using a fork
- Chop up your tomato, onions, cilantro and serrano pepper
- Stir the lime salt, vinegar, sugar, and sour cream into the mix
- Chill
- Set your deep frier for 350F
- Once you take the pork belly from the smoker, now it’s time to fry that meat
- Each side needs about six minutes for that crunch you desire
- Serve it with guacamole on the sides
PitMaster’s Memo: Guacamole - An Aztec Treasure
Leave it to the creative Aztecs to come up with the blend for Guacamole around the 1500s, and the ingredients weren’t much different from those you see in modern recipes. Tip to lovers: the Aztecs say this is a potent aphrodisiac.
Sides
Blistered Shishito peppers
Couscous corn salad
German potato salad
Pineapple pico
Quick pickled onions
Deserts
Bread pudding
Caramel flan
Churros
Cranberry crumble
Peanut butter cookies
From the Bar
Apple martini
Ginger ale
Horchata
Mexican beer
Reisling
