Crunchy Crackling Pork Belly Tacos

Crunchy Crackling Pork Belly Tacos

Crunchy crackling, tender and juicy pork belly, crispy veggies, tangy and spicy sauce, sweet and creamy mayo all in a soft flour tortilla! Is this the perfect pork package?

Ingredients:
Pork belly with skin on (don't be afraid, leftovers are also good, do at least a 1kg belly roast!)
Salt (preferably Kosher or flaked Sea Salt)
1 Cucumber
1 Carrot
1 Red Onion
1/2 Cup Apple Cider Vinegar
1/3 Cup Caster Sugar
1 Pack flour tortilla's (I use the small Street Taco size one's)
Lane's SPF53 Seasoning
Lane's One Legged Chicken Sauce
Kewpie Mayo

Quick pickled veg:
- Quick pickle veg is easy to do, and like it sounds, it's quick!
- Peel your red onion, then chop into quarters, and thinly slice
- Julienne chop the carrot (little strips)
- Mix 1/2 cup of water and 1/2 cup of Apple Cider Vinegar, then add 1/3 of a cup of Caster Sugar and a tsp of Salt. Warm gently in a saucepan until salt and sugar are dissolved.
- Place the carrot and onion in separate bowls, then add your pickle solution until you have covered the vegetables completely
- Rest on the bench for 2 hours, then drain the pickle solution off with a strainer
- This is not a full pickling process but it will add sweetness and tang to your veg as well as soften them up. These will store for up to a week in the fridge in a sealed container. You can try doing this with capsicum, radish, cauliflower, or just about anything else you want to try and it is a lot of fun experimenting with cutting your veg into different shapes as well
Pork belly:
- Cooking your pork belly starts the night before. You want to dry off the belly as much as possible, then score the skin with a blade (I like to use a Stanley Knife, it is super sharp and easy to grip), tight score marks 5mm apart are the best. This will really help the crackle develop
- Then, place your belly on a cooling rack placed over a tray, with the skin side facing up. Add a ridiculous amount of salt to the skin so it is completely covered and leave in your refrigerator overnight
- The next day when you are ready to cook the belly, remove from the fridge and brush all the salt off the skin of the pork belly. Coat the bottom and sides of the belly with some Lane's SPF53, then gently coat the skin with olive oil and give another sprinkle of salt
- I find the best way to cook for crackle development is in a really high indirect heat. Either a Weber Kettle, or Kamado, or even your basic oven at home, pre-heat the cooker to 220c/430f
- Place the belly in the cooker on a roasting rack with the skin side up. It should take somewhere between 45m to 1hr15m at this heat depending on the thickness of your belly. Remove from the cooker once you are happy with the crackle, and the belly has reached at least 74c/165f internal temp. You can push the internal higher if the crackling is not developed enough but it will use moisture. Let the belly rest for 15 minutes on the bench top
- Slice the belly using the scoring lines as a guide, I find a serrated knife is really handy here if you need to cut through some crackle
Taco assembly:
- Pre-heat your tacos
- Slice your cucumber into strips
- When building I like to take a tortilla and add the following:
- A few slices of pork belly
- Pour on some Lane's One Legged Chicken
- Add the pickled veg and cucumber to the side of the belly
- Squeeze on some Kewpie mayo
- Smash in to your face and enjoy!
Recipe by Tom Damin, Smoky Pastures BBQ