Braised Pork Bellies

I love braised pork bellies, but they are incredibly unhealthy so I try to make them only once a year. Unfortunately, when I do decide to make them, most recipes take hours to do. I don't like that. So I've simplified it and made this a recipe that shouldn't take more than half an hour before dinner's on the table. Okay. Lets do it.

Ingredients:
- 2 pounds of cleaned pork bellies, sliced into quarter to half inch thick chunks
- 1 large onion or 2 small onions, sliced
- 5-6 cups of water
- 1 tbsp brown sugar (light or dark, even regular granulated is fine, doesn't matter, but the brown gives a nice color)
- 1 tbsp salt
-1 tbsp pepper
-1 tbsp oil

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat and add the oil. Once the oil gets hot, add the onions and saute. You're looking to caramelize the onions as we want to get as much sugar from the onion as we can. When the onions start to change color, push them to the side of the pan and add the pork bellies. Brown the pork bellies on each side until they become golden brown on each side and don't forget to occasionally stir the onions. Since they're on the side of the pan, they are still able to continue to brown, but slower since the pan is hot, but not quite as hot as in the middle.

Once the pork bellies are browned, stir the onions and pork bellies together. Add the salt, pepper, and brown sugar to the pan and stir so the onions and pork pick up the flavors. Now is when you want to add the water. Make sure the water just covers everything that's in the pan so you may need less or more than 5-6 cups of water, but just be sure that everything is covered with water. Bring the water to a boil and lower the heat to medium, letting the water bubble and reduce down about 60%. It should take about 15-2o minutes for the water to reduce that far, but keep the lid off and give the pot a stir every 4-5 minutes to make sure nothing sticks to the bottom. When the liquid has become a thick sweet and sour gravy, make sure to taste and add more sugar/pepper/salt if you'd like. Besides that, you're done!

I suppose one downfall of this dish is the fact that you don't get whole pieces of pork belly, but this is one of those dishes that I like to serve over a mountain of white rice and it's easy just to snuggle up on the couch with just a spoon and be lazy. This, to me, is considered comfort food and is what I call "spoon and bowl food" where I don't need anything else but those two things. If you want to make it a bit nicer and less casual, some steamed veggies go great with it to cut the fattiness of the meat.

Another thing I also like to do is add chicken to this dish. Where I brown the pork, I also brown whole drumsticks or thighs (I like dark meat better) and whatever I do with the pork, I also do with the chicken. If using breasts, cut them in half so they aren't so big so they'll cook at the same time as the rest of your ingredients.

Enjoy.