Twice Cooked Sticky Pork Belly
This twice-cooked sticky pork belly recipe is a must-try! When it comes to pork belly, what’s not to love?! Pork belly has a delicious, rich and meaty flavour thanks to the layers of fat that surround the meat. Although it has become more fashionable over the past few years, pork belly is still an affordable cut. With some time and care you will be rewarded with tender meat and irresistible, crunchy outside bits – delicious!
We enjoyed making this pork belly recipe in the test kitchen and we have made a lot of delicious pork dishes! Packed with a lot of flavour, this sticky pork is a great dish for entertaining or when you are looking to impress that someone special but it’s easy enough for a midweek meal as the slow cooker does a lot of the work.
First, the pork belly is cooked low and slow until beautifully tender, then it is glazed and crisped up with a Chipotle honey made using our Gran Luchito Chipotle Paste mixed with good quality honey. It’s also very satisfying to use the delicious stock leftover from cooking the pork to make the accompanying rice super-tasty.
Serve this sticky pork belly with rice cooked in the slow cooker stock and you’ve got yourself an awesome meal.
If you like the sound of this sticky pork recipe, you should also check out our Pork Belly Tacos, crispy pork Carnitas or our Mexican Pulled Pork all of which we think are pretty irresistible pork dishes!
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Prep time
2 hours
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Cook time
30 mins
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Total time
2 hrs, 30 mins
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Ideal for
Dinner -
Make it
Mexican -
Serves
2
Nutrition: Per serving
kcal 164 fat 12g saturates 3.1g carbs 6.9g sugars 2.9g fibre 0.5g protein 8.3g salt 1.1g
Found in the
Mexican Section
Ingredients
For The Pork:
- 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
- 500g / 1.1 lb pork belly, cut into bite-sized chunks
- 4cm / 1 inch piece root ginger, peeled and grated
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- ½ tablespoon sugar
- ½ tablespoon white wine vinegar
- 500ml / 2 cups chicken stock
- 2 bay leaves
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
For The Glaze:
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 2 tablespoons Gran Luchito Chipotle Paste
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2cm / ½ inch piece root ginger, peeled and grated
To Serve:
- 200g / 7 oz Thai jasmine rice
- 1 handful sesame seeds, toasted
- 1 red chilli, finely chopped
- 2 spring onions, finely chopped
How to make it
To Slow Cook The Pork:
- Heat the oil in a frying pan until hot, add the chunks of pork belly and fry over medium/high heat until browned all over.
- Transfer the seared pork to the slow cooker and add the ginger, garlic, sugar, white wine vinegar, stock, bay leaves and a good pinch of salt and pepper.
- Mix and cook on high mode for 4 hours, or until the meat is very tender. If you don’t have a slow cooker, place the ingredients in a baking dish. Tightly wrap with tin foil, and cook in the oven at 160°C / 325°F / Gas 3 for 3 hours. Make sure it doesn’t run out of liquid, so add a bit of water if necessary.
- Once ready, remove the pork belly from the slow cooker, or baking dish, and reserve the stock.
To Make The Sticky Pork Belly Sauce:
- Heat the oil in a frying pan until very hot. Add the tender pork belly and leave to crisp up (it will spit a lot, so use a shield or a lid). Once crispy, carefully flip them over so they get crispy all over. Lower the heat to medium.
- In a bowl, mix the Chipotle Paste with the honey, soy sauce and ginger, then season with salt and pepper.
- Add the mixture to the pork and cook for 5–10 minutes until it all goes sticky.
To Finish:
- While the pork is cooking in the glaze, put the rice in a pan with the reserved stock, top it up with water, if necessary, and boil for about 8 minutes until tender. Drain.
- Sprinkle the pork with the toasted sesame seeds, red chillies and spring onions and serve with the rice.
What To Serve With Twice Cooked Sticky Pork Belly
This recipe is best served with rice cooked in the same stock that was used for slow cooking, as this will enhance the flavour. Additionally, our Mexican Salad with a variety of vegetables and textures would make a delicious accompaniment.
Download Our Free Guide To Mexican Classics
Your free guide will be emailed to you immediately. We think the best way to cook the pork belly is first to brown all over, then cook low and slow in a slow cooker allowing the fat to render over time resulting in tender meat. Then we like to crisp it up in a pan with our delicious chipotle glaze until sticky. This multi step approach ensures tender pork belly meat with a crispy finish - pure pork belly perfection! Pork belly comes from the belly of the pig and juicy layers of fat wrapped around the meat. This fat gives it loads of flavour. If cooked properly then the meat becomes very tender. Pork belly is essentially bacon that hasn't been cured, smoked and sliced. Subscribe now for a free copy of the Gran Luchito e-cookbook filled with delicious, authentic Mexican recipes and join our mailing list for all the latest recipes, news and blog updates.
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Comments / Questions / Tips
I found the receipee to be a bit confusing. I have followed it to a tee. I am cooking it at the moment in my slow coker, but i can’t see for the life of me where the 500ml of stock is going to dwindle it do a thick stickepork belly.
We are sorry to hear you found this recipe disappointing Gwenda! The pork belly is meant to be taken out of the slow cooker and crisped up in a wok and then a glaze is added towards the end. This bit of the recipe is under “To Make The Glaze”. Thank you for trying out the recipe and we do hope you try out some others!
Omg these are so good! Made them for tea tonight, definitely be on the menu again soon. Didnt find recipe confusing at all. Couldn’t get chipotle honey so used honey & chipotle paste.
Thank you for your feedback Ruth! So glad you enjoyed them. Let us know if you try any other recipes 😀
My husband really enjoys these. Take a while to make but worth it. Struggle to find the chipotle honey but mixed honey and chipotle paste which worked well. Will definitely make them again
Totally worth it! And yes, you can mix honey with our paste if you don’t have Chipotle Honey. There will be more coming to our webshop soon!
Love this recipe, perfect for any weeknight. Just throw the pork in a slow cooker in the morning and it’s simple and quick to finish when you’re ready to eat. Flavour is amazing much better than any ready meal or take away and about the same time to get ready.
It sure is the dream weeknight meal.. slow and low is best, and great tip re popping in the slow cooker in the AM
Pretty easy to follow instructions…don’t know what people are complaining about. This was really nice, great way to bring previously cooked pork belly back to life. Don’t but chilli in the glaze or the stock like I did tho…the slow cooking and ginger will intensify!