Maple Bourbon Pork Belly Burnt Ends
On May 26, 2022 (Updated October 18, 2024)
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These pork belly burnt ends are seasoned with my signature sweet rub and braised in a delicious maple bourbon BBQ glaze for a little bite of meat candy that will have all your neighbors drooling.
What Are Pork Belly Burnt Ends?
Ingredients for Pork Belly Burnt Ends
One reason I love these pork belly burnt ends is that they only require a few ingredients. In fact, you only need to snag 5 things from the store or your pantry to make them! It doesn’t get much easier than that! Here’s what you’ll need to make these tasty BBQ morsels.
- 5 pounds pork belly
- 1/4 cup Hey Grill Hey Sweet Rub. You can make your own sweet rub from my recipe for BEST Sweet Rub here on Hey Grill Hey, or you can save yourself time and effort and purchase a bottle from the Hey Grill Hey Store!
- Avocado oil or canola oil
These guys are braised in the following:
- 1/2 cup Maple Bourbon Grilling Glaze. Just like with my sweet rub, you can make Maple Bourbon Glaze at home, or purchase a bottle from the Store! We also have a Store Locator to help you find a store near you!
- 4 Tablespoons butter
How to Make Pork Belly Burnt Ends
Here’s how to make pork belly burnt ends at home in your own backyard. While they don’t require many ingredients, you do need to plan to dedicate some time to making these. Despite this, patience will definitely pay off with a tasty final result!
- Preheat. Turn on your favorite smoker and preheat it to 250 degrees F. You can use whatever wood you have available or pick your favorite hardwood for this recipe.
- Season. Spray the pork belly with cooking oil and season liberally on all sides with Sweet Rub.
- Smoke. Place the cubed pork belly on a cooling rack with space in between each cube. Place the rack on the grates of your smoker, and smoke for 3-4 hours. Pull the pork belly off the smoker when they have reached 165 degrees F.
- Braise. Place the pork belly cubes into a 12-inch cast iron skillet. Cover with Hey Grill Hey Grilling Glaze and 4 Tablespoons of cubed butter. Cover the skillet with a lid and place it back on the smoker. Smoke for another 1 1/2 – 2 hours or until the pork belly burnt ends reach 195-205 degrees F and the thermometer slides in like softened butter.
- Rest and serve. Remove everything from the smoker and rest for 15-20 minutes. Serve with extra sauce and enjoy!
How Long to Smoke Pork Belly Burnt Ends
These pork belly burnt ends will smoke for an initial 3-4 hours until they reach an internal temperature of 165-175 degrees F. Next, you’ll put them in a maple bourbon & butter glaze and continue smoking for 1 1/2 to 2 hours or until the internal temperature reaches 195-205 degrees F.
All together expect 4 1/2 to 6 hours from start to finish to smoke these burnt ends. Keep in mind that each cut of meat and each time you smoke food will take a slightly different amount of time to get to your final target temperature. The best way to determine when your food is done is to go by temperature. Invest in a good internal meat thermometer to help guide you through your cook.
More Burnt Ends Recipes
Also known as “meat candy,” burnt ends are a special bite of meat that tastes more like a treat than a main course. If you love burnt ends as much as we do, try out these other variations below!
Pork Belly Burnt Ends Recipe
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Maple Bourbon Pork Belly Burnt Ends
Video
Ingredients
- 5 pounds pork belly skin removed and cut into 1.5 inch cubes
- ¼ cup Hey Grill Hey Sweet Rub recipe in notes
- avocado or canola oil
Pork Belly Burnt Ends Braise
- ½ cup Maple Bourbon Grilling Glaze
- 4 Tablespoons butter cut into pieces
Instructions
- Preheat. Preheat your smoker to 250 degrees F with your favorite hardwood. I like Maple wood for this recipe, but apple and cherry would work great as well.
- Season. Spray the pork belly on all sides with cooking oil and seasoning liberally with the Hey Grill Hey Sweet Rub.
- Smoke. Arrange the pork belly squares on a flat cooling rack so there is enough space for airflow between each piece. Place the entire rack on your smoker grates, close the lid, and smoke for about 3-4 hours or until the internal temperature reads 165-175 degrees F.
- Braise. Transfer the smoked pork belly to a 12-inch cast iron skillet. Drizzle with about 1/2 cup of Hey Grill Hey Maple Bourbon Glaze and top with 4 Tablespoons of butter, cut into pieces.
- Finish smoking. Cover the cast iron skillet with a lid and return to the smoker. Close the lid and continue smoking at 250 degrees F for an additional 1.5-2 hours, or until the internal temperature of your pork belly burnt ends reads between 195-205 degrees F. The internal temperature is an important indicator, but most importantly you’re looking for tenderness and it can happen anywhere in that 10-degree F range. You want your thermometer to feel like it’s sliding into your pork belly burnt ends super easily. It should feel like it is sliding into softened butter.
- Rest and serve. Once the pork belly burnt ends are at your desired texture, remove them from the grill and let them rest for 20 minutes or so until the sauce tightens around the outside and they cook slightly. Serve with extra Maple Bourbon Grilling Glaze and plenty of napkins.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Spectacular
Brought the skillet into the kitchen from the grill. Turned my back and son in law was seen running out of kitchen with sample. House full of family desended on the skillet. Lasted about 3 minutes. The smallest of kids were fighting to get the meat candy. Lucky someone got me a taste before it was gone. Second time I made. Rated by the family- 11 out of 10
Made these today. Came out very good. LOVE the Maple Bourbon glaze. Made it at home.
Susie,
Not exactly sure what happened. I had the WSM smoking between 240 & 260 (ThermoPro) degrees. When I checked the temp at the 2-hour (maybe a bit after but not 2.5 hours) mark and the Pork Belly cubes were already up to the 200-degree mark. I had to sauce them & put them into a foil covered tin & cut the temp down to below 200. This salvaged the pork. They were ok, but certainly overcooked.
Question … why the cooling rack?
Easier than putting them on the smoker grates. Pick up a whole tray rather than one at a time
I took the grate out of my WSM & put the meat on it, then put the grate back on the grill. When it came time to put the pork belly in a foil pan, I removed the grate and transferred them. This let me keep the lid on the smoker so the temp wouldn’t get away from me.
urrrr mrrrr grrrd. These were amazing and so easy to smoke. I’m using an offset stick smoker so had to keep an eye on the temps and it’s sometimes hard to get an accurate internal temp from such a small cubes so I recommend using temp and feel.
3-4 hours???? Mine were at 190° in 1.5 hours. Hope they don’t overcook.
It sounds like your grill was running hotter than you thought it was. I’d give it an accuracy check with an external thermometer!
I’m smoking 2 cured pork belly’s using your bacon recipe to 160F. Thinking of using one for bacon.Then refrigerate the other, cube it up and smoke to 205 using the recipe above or your char sui recipe glaze. Is that a terrible idea?Thanks. Your vertical spit Al pastor ROCKS!
I think I pulled mine off a little early and the fat could have used a little more to render but they were delicious. That maple bourbon glaze recipe was top notch. I used Canadian whiskey as that’s what I had and it was great.
I am going to try this with rum because that is what I have. I also have some single malt scotch but I am not going to use that when I can sip that during the cook.