Crispy Pork Jowl Buns

Crispy Pork Jowl Buns

Crispy fatty slices of pork jowl served on a soft steamed bun with flavorful pickled veggies! This little sandwich is a perfect snack, appetizer, or even full meal! Pork jowl has a lot of fat, similar to pork belly, and the fat can caramelized and get nice and crispy when you cook it. I utilized that technique to make this steamed bun with a great combination of flavors and textures!

The inspiration for this recipe

The last time I went to the Somerville Winter Market I was lucky enough to find Pork Jowl at the Austin Brothers Farm stand. I have a history with Austin Brothers, I actually drove out to their farm in Belchertown, MA to buy pork belly when I made my own panchetta. I knew I had to buy the jowl and figure out what to do with it later. Don’t you love impulse buys? A craving for pork buns a few days later was all I needed to get going with this recipe.

Make the quick pickled veggies

I like to use radish, cucumber, and carrot for the veggie mixture on this steamed bun. Slice them up, and put them in a jar with some rice vinegar, gochugaru, salt, and honey.

make the pickled veggies

Marinate the pork jowl

You may notice, pork jowl kinda looks like pork belly (kinda looks like bacon). That’s cause they are very similar cuts of meat, even though they are from very different places on the pig. Pork jowl is most commonly used to make guanciale, which is cured like pancetta. I marinated this in gochujang, rice vinegar, and soy sauce.

marinate the meat

Cook the crispy pork jowl

I rinsed the marinade off of the pork which is something I almost never do in cooking. The reasoning behind doing it here is that we want the pork fat to render and then get crispy and the marinate gets in the way of that and will burn and stick to the pan. Cook the pork jowl for about 25 minutes on medium heat until it gets crispy and is ready to be stuffed inside the buns!

cook the crispy pork jowl

Serve the crispy pork jowl buns

Lately I have been using store bought frozen bao buns and they work great for me. I used to make them but lately I have been more about the convenience, and the store bought ones are high quality and delicious!

crispy pork jowl buns

I made a little gochujang mayo for the bottom of the bun, then added the crispy pork jowl, and then the pickled veggies on top.

crispy pork jowl buns

This is so tasty! The textures are all so different and work so well together. The crispy fatty pork is a great balance with the bright fresh pickled veggies.

crispy pork jowl buns

Twists on this recipe

If you want to make your own buns, this is a great recipe.

For more great recipes on buns like this, check out my breakfast version, and these amazing sloppy joes.

Crispy Pork Jowl Buns

Slices of flavorful fatty pork jowl cooked until crispy and served in a soft steamed bun with pickled veggies
Prep Time30 minutes
Cook Time25 minutes
marinate time5 hours
Total Time5 hours 55 minutes
Servings: 4 buns
Calories: 1347kcal

Ingredients

Veggies

  • 2 carrots cut with a julienne peeler
  • 5 radishes cut into very thin matchsticks
  • 1 Persian cucumber cut into very thin matchsticks
  • 1 cup rice vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon gochugaru chili flakes

Pork

  • 1.5 pounds sliced pork jowl
  • 1/4 cup gochujang
  • 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon sesame oil
  • pinch of salt

Buns

  • 1/2 cup mayo
  • 1 tablespoon gochujang
  • 4 lotus leaf buns store bought or homemade

Instructions

  • Mix all the veggie ingredients in a bowl. Cover and set aside in the fridge for a few hours until ready to use.
  • Mix the pork with all the pork ingredients in a bowl. Cover and allow to marinate for a few hours.
  • Rinse the marinade off the pork. This is an odd step but I tested doing this a few ways and this was the best way to get crispy flavorful pork.
  • Pat the pork dry. Season it again with just a pinch of salt.
  • Bring a griddle or pan to medium heat. Cook the pork slow and steady. The fat will render and when the pork is cooked though, you can turn up the heat a little and start getting the browning on the edges.
  • When the pork is fully charred and crisp, remove from the pan into a serving bowl.
  • Mix the mayo with the gochujang. Steam the buns.
  • Spread the mayo on the buns and then add the pork. Top with veggies and serve.

Nutrition

Calories: 1347kcal | Carbohydrates: 47g | Protein: 23g | Fat: 117g | Saturated Fat: 37g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 24g | Monounsaturated Fat: 48g | Trans Fat: 0.1g | Cholesterol: 134mg | Sodium: 1096mg | Potassium: 548mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 13g | Vitamin A: 5188IU | Vitamin C: 7mg | Calcium: 43mg | Iron: 12mg

12 Comments

  1. Umm yeah, now I’m jealous that I don’t have a lazy Sunday coming up for a couple of weeks! But these are so gonna happen =)

  2. Did you you FRESH jowl? I have fresh ones that I bought without knowing what to do with them. I read about guanciale but I don’t have the ability do that whole process. I need to figure out what else I could do!

  3. I find this very confusing. The 7-hour cook is just for the sauce–or are is the pork jowl in it?

  4. Looks excellent! Just about to try it (but will use slow cooker because the weather just got warm). I would love to know how you are steaming your buns. I’ve never made them and don’t have a steamer basket so am considering my instant pot? Is that what you used?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.