Spanish Pork Belly Kebabs

One of my favorite carnivore delights is bacon. To make bacon, they use pork bellies and add the magic of curing and smoking. If you want to make your own bacon, just head to the store and buy yourself a pork belly.

But making bacon is a somewhat tedious project. So I'm going to share with you a really easy way to cook up and enjoy the wonderful fat that makes the pork belly so delicious. First, pork belly is a very inexpensive cut of meat...easy on the wallet. And the prep is simple...you're just going to cut it into cubes.

The only trick to grilling pork belly is that all that fat makes it easy to burn. So you can't cook it over a screaming hot fire. Medium to medium-high is where you want your grill temperature to be. And remember to keep turning the skewers every few minutes to prevent burning and flare-ups. While the recipe calls for Spanish pimenton (and benefits greatly from it), you can substitute hot paprika. I would recommend that you serve this dish with Spanish rice. This recipe serves four.


Ingredients
1 1/2 pounds of pork belly cut into cubes
10 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon hot Spanish pimenton
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 cup olive oil


Directions

1. Combine all ingredients in a large ziplock bag. Seal bag and toss to combine. Place bag in refrigerator and allow the meat to marinate for 4 hours (or overnight if you desire).
2. Prepare your grill for cooking over medium heat (for Weber charcoal grillers, this means spreading your chimney of coals across the entire lower grill).
3. Drain meat and marinade in a colander. Brush off most of the garlic from the meat.
4. Place pork belly cubes on metal skewers, tightly packed. 
5. Cook, turning every couple of minutes, until skewers are brown and crispy on all sides, about 8-10 minutes.
6. Remove skewers. Tent them with foil and let them rest for 5 minutes. Then remove skewers and serve.

Wine pairing: Rioja