Keto Sticky Balsamic Pork Belly is the ultimate keto comfort food!
Pork Belly
Pork Belly. Pork Belly. Pork Belly! (I’m singing this, by the way)
Pork belly is most commonly served with crispy, crunchy crackling but this slow cooked pork belly is a whole other creature.
The slow cooking creates a soft and unctuous blend of meat and belly fat, giving it an incredible mouth feel.
Cooking it slowly in this sweet, tangy marinade flavours the meat deeply and results in a sticky, delicious glaze over the belly.
The fact that you can throw this together in 10 minutes in the morning, pop it in the slow cooker and then come home to a fall-off-the-bone tender belly roast makes it one of my favourite dishes when I have a busy day ahead.
You can also pop it into the oven, if you don’t have a slow cooker. Similarly, I like to do this when I’m home but busy, as it requires almost no attention.
While you can thicken the marinade and serve it drizzled over the meat, I don’t feel that it is necessary.
Give this recipe a try and see if it doesn’t make you sing too!
Enjoy!
Other Slow Cooker Recipes you might like:
Keto Sticky Balsamic Pork Belly
Keto Sticky Balsamic Pork Belly
Ingredients
- 2.25 pounds pork belly
- salt and pepper
- ¼ cup balsamic vinegar
- ¼ cup chicken broth
- 2 cloves garlic finely chopped
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 tablespoon molasses
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 tablespoon Swerve or sweetener of choice
Instructions
- Ask your butcher to cut your pork belly rind in a criss-cross pattern or do it yourself. Pat rind dry and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Rub seasoning into skin, working it in between the cuts.
- Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan and place pork, skin side down, into the hot oil. Cook for 5-10 minutes until the skin has crisped up slightly and the cuts open.
- Place the pork, skin side up in your slow cooker or a roasting dish.
- Mix all of the marinade ingredients together in a bowl. Pour marinade over the pork belly and spoon over, making sure that you pour it into the open cuts.
- Place lid on slow cooker or cover roasting tray with foil. Cook for 4 hours on high or 6 hours on low in your slow cooker, or for 4 hours at 130° C in your oven.
- Spoon the marinade oven the meat every hour or so, if you are home but this isn’t essential.
- When cooked, remove the meat from the marinade and rest for 15 minutes before slicing.
- You can reduce the marinade in a saucepan and drizzle over the meat if you desire, but I find that it has enough flavor without that. Store in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to one week.
Nutrition
Naomi is the force behind Naomi Sherman | Food Creative. She is passionate about recipe development, food photography and styling. An accomplished home cook who was diagnosed with an auto-immune disease eight years ago, Naomi started to explore the connection between healthy, whole food and her symptoms, and a new love was born. She fiercely believes that what you put in your body is one of the most important factors for your physical, and mental, wellbeing.
About Brenda
Brenda Bennett is a certified Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, certified Sugar Detox Coach, certified Keto Coach and certified Life Coach. She has been Sugar Free & Refined carb free for 17 years and has written 2 cookbooks, Sugar-Free Mom, and Naturally Keto and her 3rd book The 30-Day Sugar Elimination Diet, is a four part program to help you detox from sugar, eliminate cravings, balance blood sugar and lose weight all while eating a delicious, nutrient dense whole foods. Meal plan offers two tracks to follow, low carb or keto. She is the founder of the Sugar Free Fresh Start course and Sugar Free Tribe weight loss membership. Learn more.
Tania
Why tag this as keto and sugar free if the ingredients include molasses?
Brenda
1 tablespoon between 6 servings will not effect blood sugar.
Deborah
I have made this many times. It is absolutely delicious. I don't add sweetener, just a tablespoon of sugar free maple syrup. I also fry the crackling in a hot frypan with oil at the end.
Brenda
Thank you!
Gabz
Molasis isnt keto friendly! Nor sugar free just fyi
Donna
Do you have instant pot instructions??
My crock pot died... I need help!!
Thanks so much
Susan Kucharski
This was delicious! I made it for dinner several months ago and I've made it as an appetizer several times since. Thanks so much!
BJ
Hi. Thanks for the recipe. I had the same thing happen to me as with Gemma. For the first time ever I got a fantastic crispy skin and was so happy. Then happiness turned to disappointment as the marinade and the foil covering turned the crispy skin into soft rubber. I had to put it under the griller. I'm not putting the marinade on the skin again or covering it with foil either.The meat dried out a bit from grilling it. It does taste nice though. Did your skin stay crispy using this method?
Carol H.
I have been baking and croc potting for years plus doing pressure cooking. and I can tell you right now never one time have I ever cooked anything in a crock pot/pressure cooker that the top has stayed crispy. What I have found is that you stop the cooking in a crockpot 15 minutes before it's done and put it under the broiler. Or in a hot oiled pan to finish cooking to get a crisp crust. So having said that if you can show us how you keep the top crispy using a crock pot or foil you will be considered my Queen.
Becky
I’m giving this a shot this week but I’m confused about your nutrition info. How are you getting only 2g of carbs with the molasses? When I put this recipe into different nutrition calculators, I’m getting 8g of carbs using half of the molasses...
Gemma
I seared this and got a nice crisp on it before putting it in the slow cooker. Unfortunately all the crisp was lost! It was soft and spongy (though delicious) so I've popped it in the oven on high now to get a nicer finish. I don't think I could stomach that soft fat
MELINDA ADCOCK
Oh my! Fantastic!
Piper
I’m about to try this in my instant pot. Looks yummy! Wish me luck...
Melinda Quarles
We like a crispy on the outside pork belly. Do you think a quick broil would help, or a high heat finish?
Louie
I don't have molasses...what can I use in it's place?
Brenda
Yacon syrup is a good alternative.
Brenda
You could use Lakanto sugar free maple syrup.
Pat Ryan
Would you please specify the seasoning ingredients and also the marinade ingredients? Recipe sounds great but needs a bit more clarification. Thank you!
Brenda
The seasonings are just the salt and pepper. The marinade is the remaining ingredients listed after salt and pepper.
Jennifer
We purchased a 1/2 a pig recently and had the butcher give us pork belly instead of cutting it up into bacon, however it doesn't have the skin on it - the processor wasn't able to leave it on ?? Would we need to do anything different to cook this without the skin?
Brenda
Without the skin there's no point in pan frying it unless you want some char on it. But put some slits in the skin so the marinade and absorb nicely.