Sous Vide Pork Belly

Make the best pork belly of your life with this Sous Vide Pork Belly recipe! It’s cooked low and slow until it’s melt-in-your-mouth tender and juicy!

Course Dinner

Cuisine Japanese

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 10

Total Time 10 20

Servings servings

Calories 1286kcal

Heat a sous vide water bath to 168F degrees.
Add all the ingredients, except the pork belly, to a bowl and stir to combine.
Place the liquid mixture and pork belly in a vacuum seal bag and seal. (You'll need to use the moist setting on the vacuum sealer. You can also use the water displacement method).
Cook for 10 hours in the water bath.
Remove from water bath and open the bag. Pour the liquid into a saucepan and bring to a simmer for 3-5 minutes.
Heat a skillet over medium-high heat and brown the pork belly on both sides. (You may need to turn the heat down to prevent burning as the honey may burn).
Remove and serve with rice drizzled with the simmered bag sauce. You can also slice it and serve with ramen.

Whether you’re using a vacuum seal bag or ziplock bag, removing the air from the bag is an important step in order to avoid bacteria entering the bag.
The bag may float in the water bath as the pork belly cooks. For safe and even cooking, it should be completely submerged. To prevent floating, you can weigh the bag down with something heavy like a wet towel or this sous vide sinker weight.
If air gets in the bag, just open the bag, let the air out and reseal it.
For maximum flavor, make sure the pork belly is well coated in the braising liquid before sealing the bag.
Instead of a large slab of pork belly, I usually buy smaller pieces or cut a large slab into pieces to make up the 2 pounds.
When browning the pork belly, I keep the pieces as is, but you can cut them into smaller pieces if you wish.
Be careful not to brown the pork belly too long as you may overcook it. You may also need to turn down the heat if the honey on the pork belly starts to burn.
If your pork belly has a lot of fat on it, once it’s finished cooking, chill it in the fridge. The fat will harden and will be easier to remove.