For more delicious sandwiches, try our porchetta sandwich and bacon sandwich with caramelized onions. It’s a simple sandwich to make, but the key here is using good ingredients. Crispy pork belly, our homemade spicy chipotle mayo, juicy tomatoes, and crunchy lettuce layered between slices of toasted sourdough bread. If you’ve been hesitant to make pork belly at home, it’s actually very easy to do. Just slice it, season it, and bake it until it’s crispy for a super succulent spin on the classic BLT. Marinating the tomatoes is an easy trick we picked up from NY Times Cooking. If you’re like us and don’t have access to juicy summer tomatoes year-round, marinating them is a game-changer. It brings those bland winter tomatoes to life! A pork belly sandwich is basically a BLT that uses pork belly in place of regular bacon. Pork belly is uncut slabs of the same meat that bacon is made from, so they are essentially the same thing, just presented differently. This pork belly sandwich recipe is all about good ingredients. Here’s everything you need to make the pork belly:
Skinless pork belly – pork belly is a relatively inexpensive but delicious cut of meat. The easiest way to slice it is to turn it upside down so that the meaty part is on top. You can also buy slices of pork belly at the butcher. Seasonings – we use a tasty mix of sweet paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, oregano, brown sugar, sea salt, and pepper.
Here’s what you need for the sandwich:
Tomatoes – in the summer, hit up the farmer’s market for the best tomatoes you can get your hands on. Pick up some large or beefsteak tomatoes if you can One the vine tomatoes also work well. Scroll down for how to make delicious marinated tomatoes, NY Times Cooking-style! Red wine vinegar – red wine vinegar is tangy with a subtle sweetness. Olive oil – any extra-virgin olive oil will do the trick. Salt + black pepper – for seasoning. Sourdough bread (or sandwich bread) – sourdough bread is always a great choice, but any sliced sandwich bread will work. We butter it and toast it for more flavor and crunch. Butter lettuce and chipotle mayo – butter lettuce leaves are extra tender with the right amount of crunch and chipotle mayonnaise adds flavor and a bit of heat. If you don’t like heat, use regular mayonnaise instead.
Marinate the tomatoes – to make this the absolute best pork belly BLT, use a technique we learned from NY Times Cooking. They taught us to marinate tomato slices in vinegar, olive oil, salt, and pepper for a few minutes. This trick magically transforms winter tomatoes into something irresistible. But even if you’re lucky enough to have vine-ripened summer tomatoes, you’ll still want to marinate them for the best results. Toast the bread – sandwiches are all about texture, and toasting the bread before assembling the sandwich adds an awesome and satisfying crunch and buttery flavor. Add chipotle mayo – our homemade chipotle mayo is a creamy, spicy, and smoky condiment. We slather it on both sides of the sandwich to take it up a delicious notch.
This elevated pork belly BLT can be eaten for lunch or dinner year-round. It’s what we put on the menu when we’re not sure what to make!
Serve it with an easy caesar salad or a cucumber salad a bowl of tomato cheddar soup, or some crunchy potato chips for an easy and ultra-satisfying meal!
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