Sticky Pork Belly Burnt End Sliders
Pork belly burnt ends get you brisket-level payoff in about a third of the time. Smoke at 275°F until the bark sets, braise covered in butter, brown sugar and BBQ sauce, then finish uncovered so the sauce reduces into a lacquer. Piled on toasted slider buns, they disappear fast.
If you've never made pork belly burnt ends, this is the cook that changes what you think a slider can be. Same idea as brisket burnt ends, but the belly gets you there faster and the fat does most of the heavy lifting.
The whole thing runs in three stages, and each one has a job. First you build bark. Cube four pounds of pork belly, toss it in yellow mustard so the seasoning has something to grab, then hit every side hard with Bless Yer Heart BBQ Rub by The Spice Guy. Press it in. Space the cubes out on the grate at 275°F and let them ride uncovered for two hours, until each one has a deep mahogany exterior and a bark that's firm all the way around.
Then you braise. Into a foil pan with butter, brown sugar and half a cup of Sticky Fingers Classic Original BBQ Sauce, tossed to coat and sealed tight so no steam escapes. Sixty minutes covered. The trapped steam and rendered fat break down the connective tissue from the inside out, which is what pushes these past good and into melt-in-your-mouth territory.
Get the third stage right and people will ask you about these for weeks. Foil off, another quarter cup of sauce, back on uncovered for 30 to 45 minutes. You're reducing the sauce until it stops being sauce and starts being a lacquer. Glossy and wet means they need more time. Sticky, tacky and deeply caramelized means they're ready.
A note on the sauce
This recipe uses three quarters of a cup of Sticky Fingers Classic Original, and it goes in at two different points for two different reasons. The half cup in the braise works alongside the butter and brown sugar to break the belly down. The quarter cup at the end is there to reduce and cling. It's a tangy, cherrywood-smoked sauce that tightens instead of running off the cube, which is exactly what this stage needs.
Wood and gear
Cherry or pecan are the picks here. Both bring a natural sweetness that plays off the richness of the belly and give you color without the bitterness a heavier wood leaves behind on a four hour cook. One more thing worth doing: pork belly cubes shrink as they render, and a few will find the gap in your grates. A nonstick mesh grilling mat under them solves it and makes the transfer to the foil pan a lot less fiddly.
What you need from us
Pork belly, butter, brown sugar, mustard, buns, pickles and crispy onions come from the grocery store. These come from us.
- Bless Yer Heart BBQ Rub by The Spice Guy builds the bark
- Sticky Fingers Classic Original BBQ Sauce does the braise and the glaze
- Cherry Wood Smoking Chips by Camerons for the sweet smoke this cook wants
- Nonstick 16" Mesh Grilling Mat so no cube goes through the grates
Both the rub and the sauce are in the Sticky Situation BBQ Box along with three more products and six pitmaster recipes, this one included. Free US shipping.
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