Pork Belly Egg and Cheese Bao Buns
This twist on a bacon egg and cheese that has pork belly egg and cheese on a fluffy steamed bao bun is a brunch dream come true! I wanted a breakfast sandwich on a bao bun but instead of bacon I thought it would be fun to do some slow cooked pork belly. Making pork belly doesn’t need to be intimidating. I just toss it with some spices and sauces and pop it into the oven for a few hours. For this version I did some bbq sauce, cumin, allspice, and thyme.
The inspiration for this recipe
Georgina and I have been obsessed with these frozen lotus leaf bao buns for the past few months. I consider it a nice and easy dinner hack! All you have to do is make a main filling and veggie topping and you have a fantastic dinner. Ths sloppy joe is one of our faves! Georgina has been suggesting many different sandwiches to serve on these buns and the other day she said how about a bacon egg and cheese on a bao? I said yes! but of course I swapped out the bacon for pork belly!
Prepare the pork belly
Toss it in the bowl with all the spices and sauces. I used salt, pepper, cumin, allspice, garlic powder, celery salt, thyme, apple cider vinegar, and bbq sauce.
Mix it all together and add to a baking sheet! Add more cider vinegar if needed so that there is a good half inch of liquid on the bottom of the pan.
Bake at 300 for about 3-4 hours, flipping occasionally, until beautifully browned on all edges and perfectly tender in the middle. You want them to be falling apart when you press on them so that when you eat the egg and cheese bao, the pork belly falls apart!
Build the pork belly egg and cheese bao
Steam the bao buns, then add the cheese and some pork belly. Smoosh the pork a little so it flattens enough to fit the egg. Then add the egg on top!
Serve the pork belly egg and cheese bao
All this pork belly egg and cheese bao needed was a little hot sauce and it was so good! Fold it up and let the egg yolk form a beautiful sauce.
Thank you Georgina for coming up with this one I think it needs to be in the full brunch rotation!
Twists on this recipe
I mentioned I have been using frozen lotus leaf buns. I find them at the Korean grocery store near me. If you want to make your own bao buns, I have used this recipe and it is easy to follow and comes out great.
For more great pork belly recipes check out my pork belly burnt end benny, pork belly mac and cheese, or this awesome pork belly udon carbonara!
Pork Belly Egg and Cheese Bao Buns
Equipment
Ingredients
Pork Belly
- 1.5 pounds boneless pork belly cut into large cubes
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cracked black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon celery salt
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon allspice
- 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 cup bbq sauce
- 1/2 cup cider vinegar
Sandwich
- 4 lotus leaf bao buns frozen or homemade
- 4 eggs
- 4 slices cheddar cheese
- hot sauce
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 300.
- Toss the pork belly and all the seasonings and liquids together in a bowl. Pour it onto a baking sheet and spread the pork out evenly with the fatty side up.
- bake for an hour and a half, then flip the pork. Bake until tender, about 2 more hours, flipping every half hour to allow all the edges to brown.
- Steam the buns (from frozen or from above linked recipe)
- Add the cheese to the buns but keep them in the steamer turned off so that the cheese can melt.
- Fry the eggs your favorite way. I did sunny side but made some scrambled too.
- Add two pieces of pork to each bun, then the egg, then hot sauce, and serve.