Mouthwatering Smoked Pork Belly Bacon Burnt Ends Banh Mi

If you are a fan of banh mi, you will love this unique BBQ spin featuring smoked pork belly.

Banh Mi is a Vietnamese sandwich similar to a po’ boy, hoagie, or sub. Only better. It hits all the notes—succulent pork, spicy jalapeños, savory mayo, and tangy pickled veggies.

The Vietnamese fell in love with French baguettes and mayonnaise during French occupation from the 1880s through 1956 and Banh Mì translates roughly into baguette or bread. They are typically stuffed with pork, beef, chicken, or sausages, with pork belly among the most popular. Pickled vegetables are also a common and we think they’re necessary to balance the fat of the belly and the mayo.

Instead of simply roasting the pork belly as is the Vietnamese custom, we’re going to do a little fusion here by stealing a technique from American competition barbecue cooks. When they cook beef brisket they often cut off the upper, fattier “point” muscle and cut it into cubes, give it an extra dose of smoke, and douse it with a glaze. They call these cubes “burnt ends” but they are neither burnt nor ends. Originally burnt ends were made by removing the thin edges of the brisket that often got overcooked while waiting for the thicker center to cook. Since they come from the point, modern competition burnt ends are tender and succulent, never overcooked, and often preferred to the slices of brisket. Well we’re going to use the same technique on cubes of smoked BBQ pork belly. They will make your knees buckle.

It is crucial that you use a smoker or cook the meat over indirect heat on your grill. We used the trusty Pit Barrel Cooker, probably the best buy in a smoker. If you cook directly above coals or gas burners, the melting fat will cause flareups reminiscent of solar flares, and your meat will burn to a meteor-like crisp.

Smoked Pork Belly Burnt Ends Banh Mì Recipe

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Banh Mì is a Vietnamese sandwich similar to a po’ boy, hoagie, or sub. Only better. It hits all the notes—succulent pork, spicy jalapeños, savory mayo, and tangy pickled veggies.

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Prep Time 1 hour hr

Cook Time 5 hours hrs

Servings: 4 6 inch (15.2 cm) sandwiches

Course: Dinner, Lunch, Main Course

Cuisine: Vietnamese

Difficulty: Moderate

Ingredients Method Video Notes

Ingredients

 

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Meat and Rub

• 3 pounds pork belly, skin removed
• ½ teaspoon Five Spice Powder
• ½ teaspoon ginger powder
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar, medium or dark
• 1 teaspoon Morton Coarse Kosher Salt (read more about the science of salt here)
• ½ teaspoon ground black pepper

Quick Pickled Vegetables

• ¼ cup unseasoned rice wine vinegar
• ¼ cup water
• ¼ teaspoon  Morton Coarse Kosher Salt 
• 3 tablespoon white sugar
• ½ cup radishes, preferably daikon if you can find it, cut into matchsticks
• ½ cup carrots, peeled and cut into matchsticks
• ½ red onion, thinly sliced

Mayonnaise

• ¼ cup mayonnaise
• ⅛ teaspoon sesame oil or 1 teaspoon soy sauce

Glaze

• ⅓ cup honey
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• ½ teaspoon sriracha or hot sauce of your choice

Bread and Garnish

• 24 inch baguette
• 2 thin sliced red or green jalapeños
• ¼ cup cilantro or Thai basil
• 6 inches cucumber, thinly sliced
• ½ cup shredded cabbage

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Method

 

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1. Prep. Mix the rub in a bowl. With a sharp knife, cut the pork belly into 1 inch (2.5 cm) cubes, moisten the surface with wet hands, and liberally season with the rub.
2. Fire up. Prepare the smoker or grill for low and slow indirect heat at about 225°F (107.2°C). When you are ready to cook, toss on a couple hard wood chunks or a handful of chips on the fire.
3. Cook. Place the pork belly cubes on the indirect side of the smoker or grill. Smoke for an hour, roll them around and smoke for another hour.
4. Prep again. While the pork is cooking, mix the water, vinegar, salt, and sugar in a pan and bring to a boil to dissolve the salt and sugar. Turn off the heat and add the matchsticked radishes, matchsticked carrots, and sliced red onions while the pickling liquid is still hot. Let them steep and cool for 15 to 30 minutes and then chill. More on the subject here: Quick Pickles.
5. Mix the mayonnaise ingredients and refrigerate until needed.
6. Mix the glaze and let it sit at room temp.
7. Cook again. After two hours of bathing in smoke, remove the pork belly cubes, place them in a pan, and roll them around in the glaze. Cover the pan with aluminum foil then place in indirect heat for another 90 minutes to steam and tenderize the pork. If you want you can move it indoors. Remove the foil and roast for about another 30 minutes in the pan to crisp the edges. Check every ten minutes to make sure the glaze does not burn. After a total cook time of about four hours, your pork belly burnt ends are ready to eat.
8. Serve. To prepare the sandwich, slice the baguette lengthwise but don’t cut all the way through.  Apply a layer of the prepared mayonnaise on the bottom half. Lay down a layer of shredded cabbage on top of the mayonnaise. Next, place the cucumber slices, the pickled vegetables, and jalapeños. Then pile on the pork belly burnt ends and top with cilantro or Thai basil.

Video

Notes

About the pork belly. Pork belly is usually mostly fat, but some sections are closer to 50/50 meat to fat and a few even have more meat than fat. For this recipe, the more meat the better.

Some like it hot. Add a few squirts of your favorite hot sauce to the mayo.

About the salt. Remember, kosher salt is half the concentration of table salt so if you use table salt, use half as much. Click here to read more about salt and how it works.

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