Stuffed Rotisserie Pork Belly on the BBQ
Andy grew up in South Africa and bbqing (or cooking on the braai, if you prefer) seems to come as second nature to him. He bbqs all through the year, not just in the summer.
Pork belly is a favourite, and here is Andy's recipe for Stuffed Pork Belly, Roasted on the Weber Rotisserie. It is a sure crowd pleaser and show stopper, all in one.
Preparing Pork Belly for the Rotisserie
This recipe calls for a 2kg piece of pork belly. Your local butcher is by far your best place to buy this, for 2 reasons. Firstly, the quality of the meat will be better than that from any supermarket. Secondly because any good butcher will be happy to prepare the meat for you.
One of our local butchers, Davies and Sons, prepared this joint for Andy. Dec removes the ribs (which Andy bbqs alongside for his chef's treat !), then butterflies the pork to make it easy to stuff and roll. Also get your butcher to score the skin for crackling. Unless you are a chef, your knives are unlikely to be as sharp as the ones your butcher uses, so ask your butcher to do the scoring.
There are two elements to this recipe: the pork stuffing, plus the rub which goes both inside and outside the pork belly.
BBQ Pork Roasted on the Rotisserie, Stuffed with Prunes & Wild Garlic
Ingredients
2kg piece of pork belly, with the ribs removed, butterflied and skin scored (see above)
For the stuffing:
- 2 handfuls of prunes, roughly chopped
- A handful of fresh wild garlic leaves, washed with any tough stems removed. When wild garlic isn't in season, use lightly sauteed sliced red onion instead.
- A few grinder turns of my famous (well in our house, anyway) Juniper and Pepper Spice Blend.
For the Rub:
This is a favourite of ours, based on a rub from the Weber website.
- 4 teaspoons granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons Paprika
- 1 teaspoon Celery Salt
- 2 teaspoons Dried Oregano
- A few grinds of Coarse Black Pepper & Sea Salt
- Olive oil for rubbing into the skin (in a spray if you have one)
Equipment
The equipment we use in the photographs and video are as follows:
- Weber 57cm Kettle BBQ
- Weber Standard Chimney Starter (not the small size)
- Weber BBQ Charcoal Briquettes
- Weber Rotisserie. At time of writing, Weber Rotisserie Sets are unavailable on Amazon. If you're in the market for a rotisserie for your Weber, Only Fire make a similar rotisserie which is Weber compatible, costs less and has the 4 pronged forks already included. Based on our experience of the Only Fire Pizza Oven which we use to convert our Weber into a pizza oven, this seems like a great buy.
- 4 pronged forks for the BBQ Rotisserie (the Weber comes with 2 prong as standard, we prefer 4 prongs for a joint of this size)
- Butcher's string
- Weber BBQ gloves
- Weber Meat Temperature Probe
- Matches
- Pestle & Mortar
- BBQ foil trays (we re-use these again and again, they stop flame explosions as the fat drips plus they make cleaning up afterwards a breeze)
- Oil spray bottle
Method
1. Put all the Rub ingredients into a pestle and mortar and mix until finely ground.
2. Light the BBQ using a full chimney starter of coals (you will need it to be full for this amount of pork to ensure the bbq stays lit and at the right temperature).
3. Open out the butterflied pork belly and sprinkle with half the rub throughout.
4. Roughtly scatter about half of the chopped prunes on the inside part of the pork, then grind some Juniper and Pepper spice mix over the prunes. Lay some wild garlic leaves/red onion over the top. Repeat with prunes, rub and wild garlic/red onion to create layers of flavour inside the pork.
5. Turn the meat sideways, lay the rotisserie fork skewer on the stuffing and then roll the pork around it like a swiss roll.
6. Roughly tie with butcher's string to hold in place for a minute so you can turn the meat over without the filling dropping out.
7. Turn the roll of pork over. Tie it the whole length of the pork tightly, using butcher's knots to ensure none of the filling falls out when the pork is cooking (see Andy's video where he shows you how to do this if you're unsure). Re-tie or discard the loose piece of string you put on roughly at stage 6, cut off the ends with scissors.
8. Push the rotisserie forks on to either ends of the skewer and push them down to connect to the meat. They won't necessarily all go into the meat, but they will hold the joint in place.
9. Spray the pork with olive oil and rub it into the skin, along with a little more of the rub and some grinds of sea salt.
10. Go back to your chimney starter and sprinkle the coals into the bbq on 2 sides, ready to cook. You are roasting the pork on indirect heat, hence the coals don't go in the middle of your Weber but rather on two sides.
11. Connect the rotisserie motor to the BBQ, put the lid on and leave for about 10 minutes to heat up.
12. Put 2 drip trays of water into the middle of the bbq to catch fat drips. This stops flare ups plus makes everything easier to clean afterwards.
13. Add the rotisserie skewer with the pork to the motor, ensuring it's centred. Turn on the rotisserie. Pop the bbq lid on.
14. Set an alarm for around 1 and three quarter hours. Stop the rotisserie and check the internal temperature of the meat with a Weber Meat Probe.
15. When the meat is above 70 degrees, your meat is cooked. If you like your crackling crisp and it hasn't crisped up yet, you can leave the pork on the heat for a little longer. The inside temperature will increase. Try to avoid leaving for much longer in case you overcook the inside, though it is quite hard to do that with pork belly - particulary when it's stuffed.
16. Remove the fork from the motor and bring the pork inside. Remove from the rotisserie skewer carefully (remember it's still roasting hot). Cut the string which has been holding the meat in place so that, whilst it's resting, the meat relaxes.
17. Slice and serve with a beautiful homegrown salad and homemade dressing.
Watch Andy make it below!
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More Almost Off Grid Favourites:
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https://www.almostoffgrid.com/blogs/almost-off-grid/focaccia-art-wild-garlic-focaccia-bread