The title of this recipe basically says it all. Oh, I should add one thing. After the pork belly is diced I tossed it and the chanterelles in a bourbon peach barbecue glaze. Holy f~*&! It’s good, folks. Really f%#$ing good.
Step One: Smoked Belly
This step is as much personal preference as anything. I am not a professional barbecuer and I am sure many of you out there have nicer smokers or more honed recipes for your dry rub, your wood chips, what type of charcoal you use, etc. I’ll briefly describe what I did here and if that’s not enough, just google smoked pork belly and choose a recipe you love the most.
What I did: The day before I planned to smoke the meat, I coat the belly (I used about a one pound piece) with yellow mustard. Then I liberally dumped a dry rub all over it. Normally I would just make my own dry rub, with predominantly sugar and salt and a good amount of cayenne, paprika, chili powder, garlic powder, etc., but I had some premade stuff in the pantry I wanted to get rid of so I went with that. Massage the dry rub gently into the mustard coated meat and sprinkle a little more rub on the meat if necessary. Slap the slab of belly onto some plastic wrap and wrap the meat tightly and refrigerate 24 hours.
Next day, started the charcoal on my smoker and used a combination of apple and cherry wood chips, soaked for between half an hour to an hour in water, sprinkled those on the grate over the coals. My smoker has a drip pan that you fill mostly full of water, so I did that. Get the temperature to be in the range of 200 to 225 or so.
Keep adding wood chips and more charcoal as needed so that over half the time the meat is being smoked. This part will take 3 to 4 hours, depending on the size of your pork belly, so steps below can be done concurrently. Let the belly smoke until it reaches an internal temperature of 165, then immediately pull off and let rest.
Step Two: Peach Bourbon Barbecue Glaze
3 peaches, peeled and pitted
½ c bourbon
½ c your favorite bbq sauce
½ c sugar
½ c water
¼ c honey
½ c apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp dijon mustard
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp soy sauce
½ tsp fresh minced or grated ginger
A few dashes of hot sauce or to taste
Take the 3 peaches and in your hands crush them over a small saucepan (about 1.5 quarts). Next add the sugar, water, honey and mix well. Heat on high heat until mixture begins to boil, then turn down to a simmer. Add mustard, soy, ginger, and hot sauce. Stir occasionally, making an effort to eliminate any large chunks of peaches. Simmer for about twenty minutes. Turn off heat, add butter and fully incorporate. This can be prepared in advance and then simply reheated when supper is almost ready in just a few minutes. Yields about 4 cups.
Step Three: Prepare the Chanterelles
1.5 lb of chanterelle mushrooms (or other wild mushrooms such as hedgehogs, lobster, black trumpets, etc.)
Two sprigs fresh thyme
Olive oil
A pinch of Salt
2 tbsp Butter
If very wet, dry saute the chanterelles first on medium heat. After liquid has wept out of the chanterelles and they have wilted slightly, either discard water if there’s a lot, or simmer it off. Add enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan, flake fresh thyme over mushrooms as well as salt and saute on medium. Once mushrooms have softened and begun to brown slightly, turn heat to low and add 2 tbsp of butter. Once butter is fully melted and chanterelles have absorbed a little bit of that buttery goodness, turn heat off and set aside momentarily.
Step Four: Tying it all together
Take rested pork belly and cut into a medium dice (cubes about ½ inch thick). Throw cut belly, chanterelles and 2 to 3 cups (or to your liking) of the Peach Bourbon BBQ glaze into a medium bowl. Toss it all together. Serve over a large piece of Texas toast or eat straight out of the bowl if you want!