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.
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.
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!
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!
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.
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.
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
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.
Uhhh… why wasn’t I around for these things? They look so incredible it’s unbearable.
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 =)
that sounds divine, but does it really need 7 hours to cook? Have you tried 2 – 3 hours?
nice recipe…great pictures….
Gross
No salt is needed?
Yes salt to taste always.
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!
Yes, this recipe was with fresh! You can treat it like pork belly in most recipes.
I find this very confusing. The 7-hour cook is just for the sauce–or are is the pork jowl in it?
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?
I just use a regular bamboo steamer! Any steamer should work