Ready in 120 minutes, active time 60 minutes
Serves 8
Adapted from White on Rice Couple website and culinary experiences at Three Sheets in New Haven, CT
Sometimes a sandwich can change your life. Sometimes it will make you cry just thinking about it. This sandwich, a fusion of French and Vietnamese cuisines, is both those things for us. It uses fresh pork belly, which most people have never had except after it’s been cured, smoked, and cooked into crisp bacon. In this preparation, the belly is cut into chunks, slow-cooked until tender, then is browned with funky, salty, sweet flavors. The sandwich mixes cold (pickled vegetables and cucumbers) with hot (caramelized pork belly) and funky (liverwurst and fish sauce) with spicy (chili pepper and cilantro). It’s really a life-changer. Make it. Eat it. Enjoy it!
Ingredients
2 lb pork belly (skin removed), cut into 1" cubes
1 onion, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
1 cup water
1/4 cup brown sugar
Baguettes (enough to make 8 sandwiches, probably about 48" of baguette total)
Pickled vegetables
Fresh cilantro
Soy sauce
Pork liverwurst (optional but highly recommended)
Thin slices of chili pepper or cucumber (optional)
Preparation
- Heat pork belly in cast iron skillet over medium-high heat
- Cook, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking, until pieces are nicely browned and a considerable amount of fat is rendered, at least 10 minutes
- Drain rendered lard into a container for later use (we spoon the cubes of pork out into another bowl, then bravely pour the lard into a mason jar)
- Add onion, garlic, and pork back to the skillet along with the fish sauce, peppercorns, water, and brown sugar. The liquid should sort of cover most of the solids, so add more water if you need to
- Bring to a simmer then reduce heat to low and braise for 1 hour or until pork is tender, stirring occasionally. At this point, the liquid should be mostly gone and pork should be sticky. Turn up the heat and caramelize everything – don’t be afraid to add significantly brown color
- Remove skillet from heat and continue to gently stir as the dish starts to cool. This keeps the sauce from breaking as it cools
- Assemble sandwiches: toast baguette if you like that sort of thing, smear liverwurst on baguette, top with pork and put cilantro, chili peppers, cucumber, and pickled vegetables on top as desired
Tips
To make pickled vegetables, slice desired vegetables into matchsticks and soak in vinegar (at least overnight): use onions, radishes, turnips, carrots, or similar. These will keep indefinitely in the fridge and can be used in our taco recipe too :) Honestly you can just soak them for 20 minutes if that’s the time you have, it’s very flexible.
Last Modified: 2025-08-30