Jerk Pork Belly Bites Recipe
Pork Belly Burnt Ends may in fact be the best bite of barbecue you will ever experience. Tender bites of belly meat cubed and smoked until it’s melt in your mouth tender, and then glazed in a sweet and spicy sauce….it’s pretty much pork heaven! For this recipe I’m putting a Caribbean spin on pork belly burnt ends by marinating them in a fresh, authentic jerk marinade and finishing them off with a caramelized spicy Jerk sauce… You know it has to be good!
I’m starting with a Cheshire Pork whole, skinless pork belly. The first step is to cut the pork belly into large cubes. I want the finished bites to be about 1×1 inches so initially the cubes are a little larger, but they will render down during the cooking process so don’t worry if they seem a little large at first.
Next they go into a fresh Jerk marinade. You’ll need a food processor or blender for this step. Dice up a medium size onion, 5-6 cloves of garlic, fresh ginger, and green onion place it all in the food processor. Also to keep it authentic throw in some pimento pepper and scotch bonnet or habanero pepper (watch these because the heat can get pretty warm). Add a couple tablespoons of Jerk seasoning (my Jammin’ Jerk Seasoning is perfect here) and fresh lime juice, soy sauce, honey, and water. Puree the whole thing for 2-3 minutes and it’s ready. The marinade should have some texture to it, and it’s very fragrant.
Place the cubes of pork belly into a large zip top bag or container and pour the marinade over the meat. Work the cubes around so that everything is covered. Place the bag into the refrigerate for at least 6 hours but overnight is best.
After the flavors have time to work on the pork belly it’s time for some smoke. I fired up my Traeger pellet grill set for 250 degrees. Use your favorite wood pellet. Authentic jerk is cooked over pimento wood, but you can use any wood (as well as any type pit just keep the heat indirect and the temp around 250).
Place the pork belly cubes on wire Chicken Racks sprayed with a little cooking spray to keep it from sticking. Using these racks makes transporting them from the cooker to the cutting board easy. You could place them straight on the pit but it’ll take way more time to load/unload this way.
Smoke the bites for 3 hours or until the get some color on the outside and the fat starts to render. At this point transfer them to a full size aluminum pan and add a couple cups of dark brown sugar and the jerk sauce. You can find the recipe for the sauce below (it’s the same sauce I used in the jerk chops recipe).
Toss the cubes around to mix the brown sugar and sauce. Cover the pan with aluminum foil, and place it on the pit for about an hour. Remove the foil and continue to cook so the sauce caramelizes and reduces. This will make the Jerk Belly Bites sticky and delicious. They’ll need about an hour to finish at this point.
Carefully take the Jerk Pork Belly Bites out of the pan (I highly suggest wearing hand protection – a cotton glove with a nitrile glove over it works great – you can check out the details on my glove setup here >>). Just pile them up on a cutting board or serving platter and let folks dive right in!!!!
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Jerk Pork Belly Bites Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 whole skinless pork belly
- 20oz Jerk Marinade *recipe below
- 2 cups Brown Sugar
- 16oz Jerk Sauce *recipe below
Jerk Marinade
- 1 medium white onion diced
- 4 green onions chopped
- 6 cloves garlic minced
- 2 Tablespoons ginger minced
- 1–2 Habanero or Scotch Bonnet Peppers chopped
- 2 Tablespoons pimento pepper
- 2 Tablespoons Jammin’ Jerk seasoning
- 8oz fresh lime juice
- 8oz water
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 1/4 cup honey
- Place all ingredients into a food processor and puree for 2-3 minutes.
Jerk Sauce
- 1 cup pineapple juice
- 1 cup ketchup
- 1/2 cup fresh lime juice
- 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
- 2 Tablespoon butter
- 2 Tablespoon Malcom’s Jammin’ Jerk seasoning
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 3 green onions thinly sliced
- 1 habanero or scotch bonnet pepper finely chopped (more or less depending on desired heat level)
- In a small pot melt butter and sauté garlic, green onion, and pepper for 2 minutes. Add brown sugar, Jammin’ Jerk seasoning, ketchup, pineapple and lime juice. Stir to combine and bring to a slight simmer. Remove from heat and pour in a jar.
Instructions
- Cut pork belly into large cubes. Place cubes into a large zip top bag or container and cover with Jerk Marinade (*recipe below). Toss cubes in marinade to cover and refrigerate for 6 hours up to overnight.
- Prepare Traeger pellet grill or other smoker for indirect cooking at 250 degrees using your favorite wood for smoke flavor.
- Remove the pork belly cubes from the marinade and place on greased wire cooling racks. Use multiple racks if necessary. Place the racks on the Traeger Grill and smoke for 3 hours.
- Transfer the pork belly cubes into a large aluminum food service pan, top with brown sugar and jerk sauce (*recipe below). Toss the cubes in the brown sugar/sauce mixture and cover the pan with aluminum foil.
- Place the pan back on the pit and continue to cook for 1 to 1 1/2 hrs. Remove the foil and cook for 1 additional hour uncovered to reduce and caramelize the sauce.
- Carefully remove the pan from the pit once the sauce has thickened and the pork belly bites have a deep mahogany color. Serve immediately.
Jerk Pork Belly BitesHave a Question About This Recipe?
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Malcom it says we can find the recipe for the sauce below but it doesn’t appear to be there.
I found the recipe for the marinade and jerk sauce on the jerk pork chop recipe
jason bennett cant find the recipe
Recipe please and thank you
added!
You are awesome!
Just awesome and easy
Really enjoy your website. Would like to know your thoughts between a Rec Tec and Yoder pellet grill.
Get a Memphis!
Thank you for sharing your knowledge of all things BBQ. It means alot to beginners to use what we learn from you to make better BBQ without all the mistakes. Thanks again for all your help
Way to much line juice. Never had a jerk sauce that was this hammered with lime juice. A+for creativity but imo this sauce should pack a punch and with the excessive lime juice its very unbalanced.
Back off James. Malcom is my newly found mentor and spirit animal. Keep up the great work Malcom! Love what you’re doing!
Sto, I agree. James can fuck off. 5/5
★★★★★
Hey Smoke Daddy,
I got some of your rubs, sauce, and cup for Christmas that I am so excited to try out! My question is that I want to try this recipe but only have an electric box smoker. Would I need to modify anything with the cook?
★★★★★
tried the Texas style Pulled pork shoulder. I use to smoke til 145 and put in a covered foil pan….not no more thanks to you:) did use my own rub but I smoked with fat cap down and wrapped in pink butcher paper at 165..finished at 203 and put in cooler for an hour….first time I tried it…what a difference…. was way better than my old technic and I see why texas doesn`t use barbeque sauce,,,tasty with out any sauce.
thanks…looking forward to trying each recipe that you have on your webpage.
Kenny(Ohio)
My pork has been in for 2 hours (at around 250-270); it’s looking pretty dark / back but the fat is not rendering enough yet. I feel like the pork is on the very edge of being burnt but do not want chewy fat. This requires an instant answer I guess…. but take off soon and put in the foil tray? I’m going for another 30 mins which will be 2h35m. Cheers and keep up the good work….learned SO much and impressed a lot of people using this site.
I would go ahead and wrap it. It will get tender in the wrap and won’t continue to get dark. Might be cooking too hot on your cooker. I would suggest getting a cheap oven thermometer to make sure your grate temp is reading correctly.
I just want to start this by saying that my husband was the first one to learn from your site. Thank you for teaching us how to truly ”render” a pork belly. Our Jerk belly bites turned out beautiful, as if you were right there guiding us. Thanks for the education.✌️I wish I could share the pics with you?
God Bless you and your family
How big was that belly in pounds?
What was the weight of the pork belly?
Is there a reason not to use the leftover marinade as a base for the jerk sauce? Seems like you should be able to just add butter, brown sugar, ketchup, and pineapple to the used marinade and toss it in the pan with the pork after the initial smoke. The sauce would simmer in the pan which would cook it and make it safe.
I made this over the weekend and made some changes.
Cut the pork into smaller pieces. I cut the cubes about half the size he did and would recommend that. It makes them bit size. I still smoked for three hours but it could be cut down with smaller pieces.
The fat renders down a lot more when its in foil. When you uncover and cook longer the fat prevents the sauce from thickening too much. I would recommend doubling the sauce. Use half the sauce like the recipe calls for. Drain the pans when you remove the foil and put the other half of sauce on top to thicken while uncovered. The sauce is AMAZING. I used Island time jerk seasoning since it was on amazon. I also sprinkled more seasoning after it was sauced to add more jerk flavor.
Thanks for the recipe. I saved your site and will try more recipes.
New to this, but going to try my hand…
Better than the normal pork belly burnt ends
★★★★★
how big was the pork belly?