Smoke the pork belly

• Preheat your smoker to 225°F (107°C). Connect your  Smoke X2 and Billows BBQ-control Fan to smoker and bring it up to temp. Add your choice of smoking wood. We used cherry.
• Apply just enough mustard to the pork belly to act as a binder. 
• Season the pork belly strips generously with BBQ rub. 

• Place the pork in the smoker. Insert a probe (we used a 2.5″ needle probe) into the thickest piece of pork belly. 
• Set the high-temp alarm of your meat channel to 210°F (99°C) and smoke the meat. It should take 4–6 hours to get up to temp and become probe tender. 

Prepare the batter and fry the fritters

• When the pork is nearly done, prepare to fry. 
• In a medium-large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, and BBQ rub. 
• Add the buttermilk, creamed corn, and beer to the dry ingredients and whisk vigorously until well combined. 

• Preheat 2–4 inches of oil in a heavy-bottomed pot. Do not fill it more than halfway. Clip a probe to the side of the pot and attach ChefAlarm. Set the high- and low-temp alarms to 375°F and 350°C (191°C and 177°C) respectively. 

 

• Remove the temperature-verified pork from the smoker. Cut it into about 1-inch pieces.
• When the oil comes to temp, drop 5-8 pieces of pork into the batter. Coat them well and place them piece by piece in the oil. 

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• Allow the fritters to fry until golden brown and crispy-delicious. It will not take long! 
•  Use a kitchen spider to remove the fritters to a paper-towel-lined sheet tray to drain. 

• When the oil comes back up to temperature, cook another round of fritters. Repeat until they are all cooked. 
• Serve with your choice of BBQ sauce for dipping, then go buy more belly and get going on a second batch.