Intro

Disclaimer: I’m not Korean, which is why I’ve filed this recipe under the “Abroad” section vs “Heritage” even though the recipe is my own. I wouldn’t technically call this “fusion” since I’m not mixing Mexican and Korean flavors...I would call this more a “reformatting” of Korean food similar to the way Kogi BBQ, Korilla, etc. have made popular over the past decade or so!

Grease flare-ups are almost unavoidable for this recipe but can be used to your advantage

Let’s talk grease flare-ups vs grease fires. Usually, “grease flare-ups” and “grease fires” have a negative connotation when BBQ-ing because in American-style BBQ, you’re cooking big slabs of meat for long periods of time; in these cases you’d end up with burnt-ass BBQ and no one wants that. For this recipe it’s a little different since we’re using maximum ½-inch-thick slices of meat with lots of fats and flavors that taste amazing seared and barely-charred (think of the brown sugar, sweet & spicy gochujang, mirin, Korean pear). That being said, once the small flare-ups start, I’m constantly moving the meat — either flipping it or moving it to a cooler area — so that the meat is only cooking in the flame and not burning.

For this recipe I like to cook with one side of the grill on High heat and the other with just a Medium-Low heat. Again, flare-ups are almost unavoidable for this because of the marinade and fattiness of the pork but you shouldn’t be afraid of it! Use it to get a nice char on your pork belly. I’d recommend you give it a try over high heat and if you start to feel uncomfortable, just turn off the heat and/or move the meat to the cooler side of the grill.

Something “weird” about me: I prefer flour over corn tortillas. Growing up in SoCal around lots of Mexican food and friends, I got a lot of flack for this because I guess corn tortillas are, for some reason, “better.” Maybe it’s because I’m Taiwanese and I like the more chewy texture of flour tortillas due to years of eating scallion pancakes? Who knows << shrug >> Anyways, one clearcut reason I do prefer flour tortillas is because they tend to break less. Since I first made this for a small group of friends and I know I’m usually the odd one out, I bought a mixture of corn and flour tortillas (I use store-bought because I don’t think I can make tortillas as well as those who really know what they’re doing; that being said, try to pick up fresh tortillas from an actual Mexican restaurant if possible!).

One final note: you can just make this as a Korean BBQ dish, just skip the steps after you BBQ the pork and enjoy as is!

What You'll Need

For the marinade/pork:

*I used ~ 2 lbs of pork belly and ~ 1 lb of pork jowl*

~ 3 - 3½ lbs of pork belly (sliced at least ¼” thick and no more than ½” thick) (or a combo of pork belly and pork jowl)
1 medium yellow onion, halved and then sliced thinly
8 cloves garlic, finely minced
3 scallions, cut into 1” pieces
2 TBSP mirin (or cane sugar)
2 TBSP dark brown sugar
1 medium Korean pear, cored and cut into chunks*
7 TBSP gochujang
3 TBSP soy sauce
1 TBSP gochugaru
1 TBSP sesame oil
1 cup Napa cabbage kimchi
2 large (gallon-sized) Ziploc bags

* Size of the chunks doesn’t really matter, as long as they easily fit into whatever blender/food processor you are using; I’ve never tried this but I’ve heard you can also use a Bartlett pear if you can’t find Korean pear

For the tacos:

Corn and/or flour tortillas
Green and/or purple cabbage, thinly shaved
Lime wedges (optional)
Kewpie mayo (optional)
More Napa cabbage kimchi (optional)

Instructions

Marinade the pork (24 hrs before):

Add the Korean pear into a food processor/blender and blend on high until smooth (you can also use a grater to achieve the same effect if you don’t have one/don’t want to use it)
Combine the sliced onion, minced garlic, scallions, mirin, dark brown sugar, black pepper, blended Korean pear, gochujang, soy sauce, gochugaru, sesame oil, and kimchi in a large mixing bowl; mix well to combine
Take your pork belly* and/or jowl and divvy them equally into the 2 Ziploc bags; add in half of the marinade per bag and give both a good mix so the marinade fully coats the meat; refrigerate overnight

* Even though we won’t be using the full pieces of pork belly in the tacos, I wouldn’t cut the pork into smaller pieces until after you BBQ otherwise the pieces will fall through the BBQ grate; same goes with the kimchi

Making the tacos:

BBQ the pork — I did this on High heat on half the grill and Medium heat on the other half; it’s really difficult to account for everyone’s grill strength and pork thicc-ness so I don’t have any cooking time associated with this unfortunately...the good news is you can easily cut the meat to check doneness and adjust accordingly; if you don’t have access to a BBQ (or if it’s just raining), you can also cook this meat in a pan over a stove
[Optional: if you have a cast iron pan, you can also heat this up on the grill and sautée the onions and kimchi from the marinade; just make sure to cook very thoroughly since it was in contact with raw pork! You can also do this over a stove in a regular/non-stick pan]
Once all the meat is cooked, put it aside until it’s cool enough to handle; in the meantime, thinly shave some green or purple cabbage, cut up some lime wedges, and heat up your tortillas (I did this in a non-stick pan, one at a time; no oil necessary)
When the pork has cooled enough to handle, cut up the pork into smaller pieces for the tacos

How to Enjoy!

Spicy Pork Belly Tacos pictured here with Kewpie mayo

I like to make these tacos with a little shaved cabbage topped with some of the BBQ’ed pork, a squeeze of lime (optional), and some more fresh kimchi (either on the tacos or on the side). Sometimes, I like to add some Kewpie mayo on the tacos =]

Enjoy with Hite, Cass, or OB beer (Korean lagers)!