These Pork Belly Tacos Are Almost Unfair

Pork belly tacos are already a damn good idea, but smoke them until tender, then crisp the hell out of the edges and hit them with a jalapeno lime crema, now they're almost unfair. Almost, because, yes, almost unfair. I don't know, what would make them totally unfair? Totally unfair was if I made them, came over to your place, went like this, under your nose, and you went to take a bite, and I pulled them away and then left. That would be totally unfair, right? Yes. Fair because you can make them, and you can make them even more fair because I'm not sending you out to buy a pig and then raising it and then slaughtering it and then dismantling it and starting with a whole slab of pork belly, skin on bones, all that, and cutting that down, because look what you can buy in the stores these days. See that? Strips of pork belly, beautiful pieces, you can do anything you want with. Of course, we're gonna smoke them today, but you could cut them up, you could saute them, you could braise them, you could do whatever. No skin to deal with, just lovely, beautiful pieces. Okay? Okay, let's make a little rub, then they go in the smoker. It's a very simple process, pretty much. A little harder, I'm gonna crack that thing one day. Okay, here's what we start with. Kosher salt and pepper, everything you already have in your pantry. Garlic powder, cumin, smoked paprika, or as Max likes to call it, smoked papi, and we mix. You wanna add some other stuff to this? You can add some other stuff to this. You wanna take this in another direction, make it Chinese, add five spice powder, stuff like that? You could do that. I'm just going with these, all right? Pork belly comes back, and we don't need anything as a binder, they're gonna be just fine. Just do this all the way around till everybody's covered. And we'll use our Gordon Ramsay line at the end. Sides, top, bottom, back, everywhere. And we know Chef Ramsay likes the term literally because he literally uses it all the time, but in this situation, he would like to say, and you literally mop up what's left on the deck. And now I literally like to put them on a rack to take over the smoker, let's go. And by the way, no smoker, no problem, oven directions below. See, who's got your back? Or as Tully Savalas would say, who loves you, baby? You know who Tully Savalas is? No, no, he doesn't. He was a, Tully Savalas was an actor in a TV show in the 70s, Jill, 70s? Oh, Tully Savalas. In the 70s, the show was called Kojak. Can you guys just get a little older and understand what my life was, please? And smoker's at 275. Here's why I like the rack, because you can just do this. It's perfect, makes it nice and simple. We shut the lid and away it goes. Okay, that's it. That's probably gonna be about an hour and a half. We're gonna smoke those strips until they're about 175 degrees. Then we're gonna take them off, put them in a pan with a little liquid, a little foil, let them finish off in there, get them super soft and unctuous and stuff. And then we carry on with them. So for now, you've got nothing to do. Just chill. I'll be back just like that. Oh, mother may I. Look at these guys. They're all between about 175 and 180. We're moving on to step two. Here we go. So pretty, huh? So pretty, but check this out. Look at the underside. Oh, even better, even better. Wow, that's nice. Okay, here's the move. It's a brazing step. So these guys are gonna go in a pan, could be a foil pan, doesn't matter. Nobody wants to fit, huh? Yes, I see what's going on here. Wait a sec, don't play games with me. Wait a sec, you went to college. Is there a way that they'd all fit nicer than I'm fitting them? This is not like, okay, there, that's good. Okay, we add one thing, a little chicken broth. We cover it with foil and we go back on. Oh, you know, half hour, 45 minutes until they hit about 205 degrees. Then the magic happens. It's crema time and it looks like this. Sour cream, mayo, jalapeno, just rough chopped, cilantro, lime juice, and a little pinch of salt because, all right, let's whiz, shall we? Variable speed, high speed, low speed, high speed, low speed. Now we're talking. Oh yeah, oh baby, that's gonna be great. All right, pork time. Should we see how we've done? Look at this, oh my gosh. Okay, well, these are panned from before. Let's just gently take them out because you can see they want to break. Look at that, oh my. That was hot, don't grab that pan. And now, if we wanted, we could just do this and have this bite just so we know what we're dealing with. Oh, it's hot, ----, a little bit of fat. Oh my God, pork belly, the belly of my dreams. Okay, we have one step to go. We're gonna chop this up, get it in a pan, a little crispy, then we build. Here we go. I just gave Max some. All we want to do is stand here and eat this, but we can't, can we, Max? We can't. So I'm gonna make these sort of decent sized pieces. I mean, they're super unctuous, look. They're just squeezed down to nothing and they're going in the pan to get a little more crispy. I don't want little tiny bits. I want substantial, I want this to be a taco that you're like, holy ----, man, I'm proud to be having that guy. These three pieces were all between 205 and 210 degrees when I pulled them out. So let's get them on here and let me get a pan and we crisp. All right, I got a smoking hot pan. Let's get crisping. I think there's enough fat in these pieces that we don't need oil, right? When you get them in, you just want to give them a little crisping on all sides if you can. It's not gonna take long, but that, this is what is happening. This is what should be happening. Why haven't we made these before, Max? Look how gorgeous. All right, another few seconds. Whoever gets to eat these is gonna be very like, hey, that's gonna be me. All right, I say we build, let's go. And here we go. Corn tortillas on the grill because they should be. I know I made some tacos, fish tacos recently that had this similar green cabbage. Well, guess what? It's my cabbage of choice. I could have used red, but I always have some of this in the house. So go start your own show for good sense. Wow, holy smokes. So I think a little avocado in here is always a nice thing. Another little splash of the crema, of course, and a little fresh lime over everybody. And boom, we're there. Okay, there you go. What more do you want? Well, I can't wait anymore. So this kid is all mine. Wow, that's a fatty, as they say. I mean, it's kind of ridiculous. The pork is so soft, so unctuous, so tender, so squishy, beautifully smoked, but it's rich. And then that jalapeno crema in the lime just gives it that little finish piece. And then you've got the crispy cabbage. Only a few ingredients really in the end, but so, so good. All right, leave us a comment on what you want to see us make. Hit the like button, subscribe to the channel if you haven't. We're pouring our hearts out here for you. Who does this? Oh yeah, we do. See ya.