I recently finished watching the first season of Chef Academy on Bravo TV.   In this “reality” show on Bravo TV world famous Michelin starred chef Jean-Christophe Novelli opens a chef school in Los Angeles.  Over the course of this docu-series he takes nine students through his school.

One of the recipes they learned to cook was Slow Braised Honey and Cider Caramelized Pork Belly. I was inspired by this recipe and just had to try to come up with a version of this recipe for my smoker.  There were a couple of immediate challenges for me.  One of which was that Chef Novelli’s recipe calls for “dry cider.”  Since I have an alcohol free home I had to come up with a substitute.

“Dry cider” is an apple based alcoholic drink that is low in sugar content.  So a suitable substitute is basically non-existent.  What I came up with was to use “Simply Apple” juice.  This juice product is just apple juice.  No additional sugars or other fillers added.  It’s still pretty sweet, a great deal sweeter than what a “dry cider” would be so I cut down on the honey in Chef Novelli’s original recipe.

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