Pork Belly Lettuce and Tomato Sandwich
Crispy skin pork belly replaces the bacon in this beautiful twist on a bacon lettuce and tomato sandwich! To me, a BLT is mostly about the tomato, and less about the bacon and lettuce. That is why I only really have them in August and September. That is also why I don’t mind swapping one of the main ingredients, bacon, for this lucious tender on the inside and crispy on the top pork belly.
The inspiration for this sandwich
The PB stands for Pork Belly. But in that case, all BLT’s are PBLT’s because bacon is made from pork belly. I saw a Crispy pork belly sandwich in Food and Wine this month, and that same day passed some beautiful pork belly at a Korean grocery store. I knew it was a sign. I didn’t want to make the exact sandwich from the magazine though. I decided to make it my own. Slow cooked in some oil, vinegar, and gochujang, then broiled the skin until crispy! This pork belly was fantastic on its own, but when placed on a fresh sourdough slice with some lettuce, summer heirloom tomato, and mayo, it really became magical.
Prepare the pork belly
I scored the skin of the pork belly slab and let it sit in the fridge overnight to dry. Then made a mixture of fat, vinegar, gochujang, soy sauce, and salt to cook it in. Make sure the liquid does not get on the skin! Cook the pork belly low and slow for about 2.5-3 hours until tender but not falling apart.
Let it sit in the fridge overnight again to dry even more! Then crisp up the skin in the oven.
Slice the crispy pork belly
Once it has cooled slightly, slice it up for the sandwich! The crispy pork belly skin will be so good with the lettuce and tomato in the sandwich!
Build the pork belly lettuce and tomato sandwich
I mixed some garlic and gochujang into the mayo. Toast the bread, then slather on the mayo! I like the tomatoes and the pork touching the mayo, so the lettuce goes in the center.
Serve the pork belly lettuce and tomato sandwich
perfect late summer sandwich! The pork belly is an upgrade from the bacon in my opinion! The fresh summer tomatoes are so good with the fatty pork!
A good local sourdough bread is also super important! I like a BLT to cut the roof of my mouth slightly. Maybe that’s just me!
Twists on this recipe
I used these two recipes as a guide to make my crispy cracklin pork belly skin. I am surprised even myself to say that I have not done this technique before! You may notice one of those recipes did not score the meat. I would grade my crispy skin a 7 out of 10 so I am excited to revisit until I can make it a full 10. Either way it was incredible already and I can’t wait to make it better.
For more pork belly goodness, check out my pork belly adobo sandwich, or this pork belly mac and cheese!
Pork Belly Lettuce and Tomato Sandwich
Ingredients
Pork Belly
- 2 pounds skin on pork belly
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons gochujang
- 1 teaspoon salt
Sandwich
- 1 loaf sliced sourdough bread
- 1 cup mayo
- 2 tablespoons gochujang
- 1 clove garlic grated
- 4 heirloom tomatoes sliced
- 4 leaves red leaf lettuce
Instructions
Pork
- Use a sharp knife to score the skin of the pork belly. Make sure you do not cut through the fat, only making very shallow slits in the skin.
- Allow the pork to rest in the fridge overnight, skin side up, to dry out.
- Preheat oven to 300.
- Mix the oil, vinegar, soy sauce, gochujang, and salt in a bowl. Pour it into a shallow baking dish that will fit the pork. Add the pork to the liquid making sure the liquid only goes half way up the pork.
- Bake the pork for about 2.5 hours until tender but not falling apart.
- Allow to cool for 30 minutes on the counter. Remove the pork from the cooking liquid. Allow the pork to rest again in the fridge overnight, skin side up, so it can dry further.
- Preheat oven to 500. Roast the pork for 30 minutes. The skin should puff and crisp as it cooks. You can also broil it if you feel like you need to.
- When the pork cools, slice it into 1/2 inch slices
Make the sandwich
- Toast the sourdough slices
- Mix the mayo with the gochujang and grated garlic
- Spread the mayo on the bread
- Add pork slices to one half of the bread and tomatoes to the other. Add a pinch of salt to the tomatoes.
- Put the lettuce on top of the tomatoes and fold that half over on top of the pork to form the sandwich. Cut in half and serve.
You always use the greatest spices in your dishes. I need to be more adventurous in that arena!