Pork belly burnt ends… On a 14

Designer

Even a little Smokey Joe can smoke your favorite burnt ends on a camping trip.

Sometimes life just gets in the way and you forget to do things. Maybe you defrosted some pork belly the day prior and were going to smoke some pork belly burnt ends, but you forgot to throw them in the smoker until later in the day.

Well shucks. Will just have to do it tomorrow.

Except you are leaving to go camping and won't have time to do it beforehand.

What are you going to do?

Que the little 14-inch Smokey Joe you haven't bothered to take out of its box for a year. You got a killer deal on it, 50% off, but you haven't come across a situation where you would need to use it.

We have a little knockoff Blackstone we use for almost everything while camping and the need to fire up charcoal, wait around and slap some steaks on a little mini grill never came up.

But what if you could get a little smoke action going on your defrosted and forgotten about pork belly?

Turns out, it works great. Just bundle up the coals on one side using some kind of hand-made barrier. I used some little grease trap tins I found cheap and cut the bottom out. Once the coals were rolling, I put some pre-soaked applewood chunks on top and she rolled for a few hours until I switched to the pans.

My usual pans wouldn't work because they were too big for the little Smokey Joe. I ended up using two of the smaller grease trap tins and loaded them up with honey, butter, barbecue and brown sugar and let them slowly cook away for a few more hours.

After that, I just finished them in a big tin on the flat top, and they turned out great.

With some minor tweaks, you too can smoke some pork belly while enjoying the great outdoors. The sky's the limit, if there is room, that is.

1 slab pork belly

8 oz maple syrup

2 cups pecans, chopped in food processor until fine

1 cup barbecue sauce

2 Tbsp honey

1 Tbsp brown sugar

4 Tbsp butter

½ cup pork rub

1. The night before, trim off any extra fat and cut the pork belly into 1-2" cubes and place inside of a large Ziploc bag. Add the maple syrup and pecans and mix until everything is coated. Squeeze out the extra air and place in your refrigerator overnight.

2. The next day, preheat your smoker to 250 degrees Fahrenheit.

3. Place cubes onto a wire rack or directly on the smoker and smoke for two hours. Look for a darker red color and modest bark to develop.

4. In a small bowl, mix together barbecue sauce, honey and brown sugar. Stir until combined.

5. Remove the pork belly cubes from the smoker and place into a foil pan and then toss in barbecue sauce until covered. Slice butter into small slabs and place on top of pork mixture. Cover the pan with aluminum foil and place back on the smoker. Cook for an additional 90 minutes or until about an internal temperature of 200 degrees.

6. Remove the foil, close the lid to the smoker and smoke for another 15-30 minutes to let the sauce thicken up.

7. Enjoy!

Designer