The taste of a Wynwood Sunday. Guava is the ingredient I miss most on tour — nothing outside of Miami has that specific perfume-and-sugar smell. This sauce is my way of carrying home in my carry-on.
Ingredients
Serves 4 (12 tacos) · Prep 20 min · Cook 2.5 hours
- 2 lbs skinless pork belly, cut into 2-inch chunks
- 1 yellow onion, quartered
- 6 garlic cloves, smashed
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 Tbsp kosher salt
- 2 cups chicken stock or water
- ½ cup Bobby Butter Smoky Guava BBQ, plus more for finishing
- 12 small corn tortillas
- For the pickled cabbage:
- ½ small red cabbage, shredded thin
- ¼ cup rice vinegar
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- To serve:
- Cotija cheese, crumbled
- Cilantro leaves — small handful
- Radish, thin-sliced
- Lime wedges
Method
- Braise the belly: throw pork belly, onion, garlic, cinnamon, cumin seeds, salt, and stock into a Dutch oven. Bring to a simmer, cover, and slide into a 325°F oven for 2 hours. When it's fork-tender, you're there. Let it cool in the liquid 20 minutes so it doesn't crumble.
- Pickle the cabbage while the pork braises: whisk vinegar, sugar, salt with 2 Tbsp water until dissolved. Toss with shredded cabbage. Let it sit at room temp — it'll turn bright magenta and crunchy in 30 minutes.
- Glaze: heat a cast-iron skillet over medium-high until smoking. Pull pork belly chunks from the braise, pat dry, and sear cut-side down 2 minutes per side to caramelize. Kill the heat, brush generously with Bobby Butter Smoky Guava BBQ, and put the skillet back on low heat for 2 minutes so the glaze sets and gets sticky.
- Char the tortillas directly over a gas burner (or in the empty cast-iron for 30 seconds a side) — you want brown edges, not soggy tortillas.
- Build: pork belly slabs on the tortilla, generous pile of pickled cabbage, a squeeze of lime, cilantro, thin radish, and a snow of cotija. Extra guava BBQ on the side for the second bite.
The Story
The move here is the braise-then-sear-then-glaze double play. Braise the belly low and slow so the fat renders and the meat turns to pull-apart clouds. Then hit it hot in cast-iron to caramelize the edges. Then — only then — brush on the guava BBQ so the sugar sets into a sticky lacquer instead of burning. Char your tortillas over open flame if you can — the smokiness is what ties it to the sauce. The pickled cabbage isn't garnish; it's the bright, acidic, structural thing that makes the whole taco work. Skip it and you have a rich thing. Include it and you have a great thing.
Grab a jar of smoky guava bbq at the pantry and you're most of the way there.
