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.

Here is my version of Chef Novelli’s recipe…

Shown here are the two pieces of pork belly I purchased. The bottom piece still has the rind on.

After the rinds had been removed from each piece I seared them on both sides in a cast iron skillet on the stove.

Now with a light sear the pork belly is ready for some smoke.

I put the pork belly on the MAK Grill I'm testing and smoked it at 225 degrees for just under two hours. Not a lot of smoke but just enough to give a little smoke flavor.

In the last couple of minutes of smoke I fried some fennel in the drippings left over from searing the pork belly.

The fried fennel then went into the cast iron skillet underneath the pork belly. I added 16 ounces of apple juice, 3 ounces of honey, 1 teaspoon of crushed anise seed and 1 tablespoon of Johnny's French Dip Concentrated Au Jus and four sprigs of fresh thyme. The whole thing went back on the smoker.

The pork belly was on the smoker for an additional three hours. During those three hours the pork belly was basted in the liquid every 20 minutes. This gave the meat a nice caramelized color.

A couple of large slices plated with a little parmesan couscous.

Not sure what Chef Novelli would think of what I did with his recipe, but it sure tasted good.  I’ve become a huge fan of pork belly and I have Chef Novelli to thank for that.

© 2010, The BBQ Grail. All rights reserved. On republishing this post you must provide link to original post.