Samgyeopsal (Korean Grilled Pork Belly)
Samgyeopsal is pork belly with no marinade and nothing to hide behind. You grill thick slices on a hot flat-top, render the fat, snip them into bites, and crisp the edges. Garlic sears right in the pork fat. Wrap it in lettuce with ssamjang and eat it standing up.
- Method
- Flat-top grill
- Total time
- 30 min
- Target internal temp
- Cooked through, edges crisp
- Gear
- Flat-top or tilted griddle plate, Folding Tongs, kitchen shears
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Serves
- 4
Ingredients
- 2 lb thick-cut pork belly, skin off, sliced about 1/2 inch
- 1 head garlic, cloves sliced
- Green onions, sliced thin
- Butter or green leaf lettuce, washed
- Ssamjang and gochujang
- Kimchi, to serve
- Sesame oil with salt and pepper, for dipping
The Cook
- 01
Heat the flat-top to medium-high. If you have a tilted plate, angle it so the rendered fat pools at the low edge. That pool is your garlic fryer.
- 02
Lay the belly down. Do not move it. Let the fat start rendering and the underside go golden, about 3 to 4 min.
- 03
Flip and drop sliced garlic into the fat pool. The failure point is crowding. Cook in batches or the plate floods and the pork steams instead of crisps.
- 04
Once both sides are colored, snip each slice into bite pieces with shears right on the plate. Lay the cut edges down to crisp.
- 05
Pull when the edges are brown and crisp and the fat is soft, not chewy.
Doneness
Pork is cooked through with no pink, fat rendered soft and translucent, edges browned and crisp. Garlic chips golden, not burnt.
Pro Tip
The common miss is cranking the heat too high too fast. The fat burns before it renders. Start medium-high, let the fat melt, then push the heat to crisp the edges at the end.
Questions
Cooked By Our Readers
Real cooks, real fire.
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