This grilled pork belly is a party waiting to happen, so set everything out together on a platter with kitchen shears and let people cut pieces and assemble lettuce wraps themselves. Look for whole-cabbage kimchi (often labeled poggi kimchi), which features whole, halved, or quartered heads of cabbage, as opposed to the cut-up version (labeled mat kimchi) featuring smaller, bite-size pieces. If working with a whole head, you’ll halve it lengthwise yourself, then grill the halves to achieve bits of char on the edges and warm the cabbage through. The constant turning of the pork belly may seem fussy, but it’s the key to golden brown color on the strips—the technique mirrors what you might find at a Korean barbecue restaurant grilling up traditional pork belly, or samgyeopsal.
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What you’ll need
Ssamjang Soy Bean Paste
$5 At Weee!
Soy Sauce
$13 At Amazon
Kosher Salt
$12 $10 At Amazon
Oxo Good Grips Multipurpose Kitchen & Herbs Scissors
$22 $20 At Amazon
Recipe information
Total Time
35 minutes
Yield
4 servings
Ingredients
Preparation
Step 1
Prepare a grill for medium heat; oil grate with vegetable oil. Place 2 lb. 8"–10"-long skin-on pork belly, sliced into ½"-thick slabs, in a large bowl and season with kosher salt. Drizzle with 1 Tbsp. vegetable oil and turn to coat.
Step 2
Place one 16-oz. jar whole Napa cabbage kimchi, drained, halved lengthwise, in a medium bowl and drizzle with remaining 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil.
Step 3
Whisk 2 Tbsp. soy sauce, 1 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar, and 1 tsp. light or dark brown sugar in a small bowl until sugar is dissolved.
Step 4
Grill pork belly, turning every 1–2 minutes, until golden brown and cooked through, 10–12 minutes. Transfer to a platter and drizzle soy sauce mixture over.
Step 5
Grill kimchi until charred in spots, about 5 minutes per side. Transfer to platter with pork belly and arrange perilla leaves and red leaf lettuce alongside.
Step 6
Place some ssamjang in a small bowl. Set out platter with kitchen shears so guests can cut pork belly and kimchi into bite-size pieces for wrapping in lettuce with a perilla leaf and a bit of ssamjang.
Recipe notes
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Welcome to Our Korean Barbecue Disco Party
Your guide to grilling (and dancing) until sundown with plenty of banchan, grilled pork belly, oysters, and makgeolli.
