Here is the simplest way to cook pork belly (Samgyeopsal 삼겹살) Korean style. In Korean cuisine, pork belly is usually either boiled in water or cut into thin slices and grilled. When boiled in water, ginger is mostly used. In addition, people have been adding Korean Soy Bean paste, coffee grinds, onions, garlic… all sorts of ingredients to make it taste better. I tried coffee grinds, soybean paste, .. just about everything. However, when my mother-in-law cooked this dish for me recently – it was the best tasting Samgyeoksal ever!
Ingredients
4 servings, approx 1 hour needed
- 2 lb pork belly
- 1 large onion (2 medium onions)
- 10 Korean green onions (대파 Daepa) with roots if possible or scallions with roots
Directions
1. Cut the onions into 1/2 inch thick slices so that you have enough onion slices to cover the bottom of a thick iron or good quality pot that does not burn easily.
2. Cut the pork belly into 2-3 inch wide pieces and put it on top of the onions. The picture shows the skin side up but you can lay the meat skin side down if you do not wish to have the meat side too burned.
3. Clean the green onions or scallions and cut it in half. You should have enough green onions to cover the meat. If you can, save the root end of the green onions, clean it well and also add it to the pot. The green onion used here is much bigger and wider than the green onions you get in the US. Use 1/2 leeks and 1/2 green onions if you’d like. But the smaller green onions should not make too much of a difference.
4. Turn the heat to medium high and COVER the pot. Let it cook for few minutes (10 min or so) until you smell the onions burning a bit. So you may wonder.. no water? no oil? No worries..You will get the fat dripping from the pork belly so you actually don’t need any additional liquid.
5. Now lower the heat to low and cook for about an hour until the meat is cooked thoroughly. Pictured below is when the pork is fully cooked. The onions look burnt but it’s ok. You are not going to eat the onions but just the meat. You can test how well the meat is cooked by piercing the meat with a chopstick or fork. If the chopstick or fork goes in without too much resistance and if there’s no blood, it is completely cooked.
6. Take the meat out of the pot, let it sit for few minutes. Discard onions. Cut the pork into about 1/4 inch slices (thicker or thinner however you like it) . Eat pork with one of the following condiments:
- soy sauce and vinegar (초간장)
- ssam-jang (쌈장 ) – recipe already posted
- kimchi
- sae-woo-jeot (새우젓 ) – this is a salted and fermented tiny shrimp–tastes fabulous with pork!
Be sure to buy good quality pork belly. If available, 흑돼지삼겹살 (black pig pork belly) is a great choice. Along with the condiments, I recommend you eat this pork with rice, lettuce wraps (see ssambap) and kimchi.
Pork Belly Cooked with Onions
Ingredients
- 2 lbs pork belly
- 1 large onion (or 2 medium onions)
- 10 Korean green onions (Daepa, with roots if possible or scallions with roots)
Instructions
- Cut the onions into 1/2 inch thick slices so that you have enough onion slices to cover the bottom of a thick iron or good quality pot that does not burn easily.
- Cut the pork belly into 2-3 inch wide pieces and put it on top of the onions. You can lay the meat skin side down if you do not wish to have the meat side too burned.
- Clean the green onions or scallions and cut it in half. You should have enough green onions to cover the meat. If you can, save the root end of the green onions, clean it well and also add it to the pot. Use 1/2 leeks and 1/2 green onions if you’d like.
- Turn the heat to medium high and COVER the pot. Let it cook for few minutes (10 min or so) until you smell the onions burning a bit. So you may wonder: No water? No oil? No worries. You will get the fat dripping from the pork belly so you actually don’t need any additional liquid.
- Lower the heat to low and cook for about an hour until the meat is cooked thoroughly. The onions may look burnt but it’s ok. You are not going to eat the onions but just the meat. You can test how well the meat is cooked by piercing the meat with a chopstick or fork. If the chopstick or fork goes in without too much resistance and if there’s no blood, it is completely cooked.
- Take the meat out of the pot, let it sit for few minutes. Discard onions. Cut the pork into about 1/4 inch slices (thicker or thinner, however you like it) .
- Eat the pork with one of the following condiments: soy sauce and vinegar, ssam-jang, kimchi, or sae-woo-jeot (salted and fermented tiny shrimps). Along with the condiments, I recommend you eat this pork with rice, lettuce wraps (see ssambap) and kimchi.
Tips & Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Enjoy and cheers!
Hi, really want to try this for the family! Sounds delicious! The pork in the top picture looks caramelized but not in the last picture where it’s in the pot. Does the pork need to be broiled for that color? Thanks!
Oh, it’s because it was turned upside down for the top picture. The bottom part gets caramelized but not the top part. So if you would rather have the skin side be caramelized, you should have that go to the bottom. If you love caramelization, you could brown the top part a little under the broiler or in a pan. Good luck and enjoy!
I was craving some soul food and I saw this on your insta feed so thought I’d try it.. well, it was deeeeeeelicious!!! Might actually prefer this to the boiling technique I grew up with. I had to doctor mine up just a bit because the pork belly was just regular pork belly and I dont really enjoy the porky taste of that so much. Also, mine was skinless. I used 3x 2″ by 5″ pieces.
1) punctured entire fat bottoms repeatedly with a fork (not entirely sure why I did that, but it all worked out :P), 2) rubbed a good amount of salt all over pork belly pieces, 3) placed layer of onions first in enameled dutch oven then the pork belly – fat up, 4) few drops of mirin over top of fat 5) few thin slices of ginger on top of each pork belly 6) covered entire surface with ~5″ pieces of regular green onions – total: 10 green onions. Cook time: ~10 minutes covered med-low heat, ~40 min covered med-high heat. **Note: there was about 2 inches of liquid from veggies and pork when it was done. No scorched bottom at all.
Thanks for the great recipe and technique! I’m sure i’ll be making this repeatedly. And i am looking forward to having my mom try it out. I’m pretty sure she hasn’t tried this style.
I ate this with 잡곡밥, 새우젓, and 김치찌개. It was heart-warming soul food – I was bouncing in my seat while eating. <3
This is so awesome!! I LOVE the little changes you made to the recipe – sounds so lovely and mirin, ginger will just add even more flavor and help with porky flavor. I am going to have to try your changes sometime. Thank you so much for sharing it back with me!
Hi! The photo of sliced pork at the top is making my mouth water. Looks so good! Gonna try this. Did you cook it with the lid pot on or off? I don’t think you mentioned it in your post. I assumed lid on, but then I could be wrong. Thanks and have a great day!
Thank you SO much for asking!! I did forget to mention that-definitely lid on. Remember that this will generate a lot of steam and even a bit of smoke at the end as the onions and the fat start to burn at the bottom. Don’t be too afraid of the smoke, the meat is not burning. If you can, use a really thick, good quality pot with a lid. A dutch oven kind of a pot will work great. I was also just thinking recently that you could also probably roast it in the oven in similar manner (thick slices of onions on the bottom) in an oven baking dish, covered. You can probably find a good roasting recipe for that. Anyway, it was just ridiculously good!! Hope you like it and have a great weekend!
Hmm this is really interesting! I’ve never seen pork belly cooked this way before. I also use coffee grinds, doenjang, garlic, etc., but this is almost like a 찜. I would love to try this recipe, but since the meat is not seasoned with salt, isn’t it a bit blander than pork belly cooked the typical way? I love your blog btw 🙂
Me too! If I am going to boil my pork belly, I have used coffee, doenjang, ginger…and they are good in their own way.Yes, you are right – this one is more like 찜 and I find the flavor is more concentrated(?). Well, when you boil pork the typical way, no salt is added there anyway so it will not be any blander than pork cooked the typical way. We eat this kind of Korean pork belly with saewoojeot or some kind of soy sauce anyway.. And if you think about it, there is no liquid to take away any of the pork flavor so the pork flavor is more intense. The only thing about this method is that it does create a bit of a burn on the bottom of the pot which is a bit of a hassle to clean up but you should definitely try it. I was surprised by how good it tasted.
Oh and thank you for your comment!! 🙂
This looks really good! I guess the onions infuse the meat with its flavor so I can’t imagine how good the meat will taste like! MMMMM
Yes, it does taste really good. In addition to the onion flavor, I love how all the fat gets drained away from the meat while it cooks. Hope you like it! Thanks for stopping by.