A fun twist on classic Korean bossam (pork belly)! This no water and no simmer method gives all the tenderness of bossam with the crispiness of Korean pork belly BBQ. The best part is that it comes together in one pot! This recipe is inspired by Ryu Soo Young, a popular Korean actor, who introduced it on a TV show called Pyun-staurant, a show where celebrities share their favorite easy home-cooking ideas.
Some days I crave good old Korean BBQ on the grill or on the table, true Korean style. But this makes a lot of smoke, and keeps the person cooking the meat very busy during a meal. With a 4 year old at home, it’s not the easiest to cook this on the table like at restaurants and when we have guests over, the person cooking the meat is often distracted or can’t join in on the fun. Sometimes it’s still very good to do traditional BBQ but there are days where we want it easier. That’s where this recipe comes in. An easy weeknight meal that helps with the BBQ craving without the big smokey clean up.
What is Bossam (or Suyuk)?
Bossam (보쌈) is a classic Korean boiled pork dish. It’s simmered in water with aromatics like garlic, doenjang, onion, and spices until tender. The cooked pork is thinly sliced and wrapped (“ssam”) in napa cabbage leaves, lettuce, or perilla leaves. That’s where the name “bo-ssam” comes from: bo (to wrap) + ssam (wrap).
How is this recipe different?
Bossam is traditionally known for its soft and tender texture, which comes from simmering pork belly slowly in water. This recipe uses a different approach and the meat is seared, rendered in it’s own fat. This creates crisp and golden edges while keeping the inside moist and tender. It results in a perfect combination of crispy barbecue style pork and the classic tenderness of bossam, giving you the best of both worlds.
Few notes on the recipe:
- Ryu Soo Young uses about 30 garlic cloves; and turns many of them into a honey-garlic dipping sauce. Since I’m not a big fan of sweet sauces, I skipped that step and simply cooked the garlic with the pork. For flavoring the pork belly, 10–15 cloves is plenty, but more will give you stronger garlic aroma and soft, delicious garlic cloves to enjoy on the side.
- Don’t season with black pepper! It burns easily since you have it on the stove top for so long.
- The pot cover is key to this recipe. Trapping the heat inside creates an oven-like environment, which cooks the pork faster and keeps it juicy while crisping the outside.
- Adding other vegetables like scallion or onion will release water into the pot and the pork belly will become more like steamed bossam and not crispy bbq.
Serve with:
- Musaengchae (spicy radish slaw)
- Kimchi
- Steamed or blanched cabbage leaves
- Ssamjang or salt-and-pepper dipping sauce
Hope you enjoy this bbq meal! Images from the TV show:
No-Water Korean Crispy Bossam (Pork Belly) – by Ryu Soo Young
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ pound (600 g) thick pork belly or thigh strips, 2-3 inches thick
- Sprinkle coarse salt
- 20-30 garlic cloves
- 1 Tbsp oil
Instructions
- Place the pork belly with skin side up on a cutting board. Score the skin by making shallow diagonal cuts: first left, then right, creating a loose diamond pattern without cutting too deep into the meat. This helps it cook evenly and get crispy. Sprinkle coarse salt over the skin.
- Preheat a stainless or heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat with a drizzle of oil. Heat for about 3 minutes. Swirl the oil to coat the bottom.
- Place the pork belly skin-side down into the hot pot. Cover with a lid. Reduce the heat to medium-low until the skin browns and crisps, about 2-3 minutes. Stove strengths vary—check to prevent burning. When ready, flip the meat on to another side and continue searing with the lid covered. Rotate and sear all sides so the outside is evenly browned.
- At about the 10 minute mark, lower the heat to low and add in all the garlic cloves. The pork belly likely released a lot of oil, garlic should sit about ⅓ submerged in the oil. If not, add a bit of oil.
- Gently shake the pot occasionally to prevent the garlic from sticking or burning. After another 10 minutes, place the pork directly on top of the garlic and continue cooking for 5 minutes. This ensures the pork isn’t overcooked, and the garlic flavor seeps into the pork belly. Total cooking time is 25 minutes.
- Remove the pork and place it on a plate. Cover with aluminum to let the pork rest, similar to steak. Cover loosely with foil and let it rest for 5–10 minutes—this helps the meat retain its juices.
- Thinly slice the pork belly. Serve with the garlic.
- Serving Suggestions: musaengchae, kimchi, steam or blanched napa cabbage leaves, ssamjang or sal and pepper dipping sauce
Notes
- Avoid seasoning the pork belly with black pepper because it burns easily.
- The pot lid is key to this recipe. Covering the pot brings a similar effect to an oven since the heat stays within the pot. Make sure
- If you add other vegetables like scallion or onion, the pork belly will become more like steamed bossam and not bbq pork belly because of the water content in the vegetables.
I love how they managed to render out the fat perfectly. Sometimes crispy pork can get way too greasy, but this place nailed it. It has that amazing melt-in-your-mouth texture without feeling heavy or oily at all.