Okay, so here’s the deal. I know next to nothing about how to cook. It’s not one of those skills my mom ever taught me (she always felt like it was easier to just do it herself than to teach me). I can cook acceptably if I follow a recipe (as long as it doesn’t have too many of those highfalutin’ foodie terms in it), but here’s my problem:
I like normal, simple food. So does the spouse. He’s recently embarked on an “eat healthier” plan at the recommendation of his new personal trainer. One of the things on his food plan is pork chops. So he brings some home.
I have no clue how to cook them. He doesn’t either. I look online. I find many, many recipes for pork chops. Baked. Breaded. Smothered in everything you could possibly imagine. A veritable cornucopia (or is that porkucopia?) of pork.
What I don’t find–what doesn’t seem to exist–is a recipe for “here’s how you cook a pork chop. Just a pork chop. Not slathered in anything, smothered in anything, or otherwise altered. Just cooked so it’s safe to eat.”
I can do this with chicken–somebody taught me years ago and I’m grateful. But I’d like to be able to do it with things like pork, fish, ham, etc.
I don’t want “cuisine.” I don’t want fancy. I just want to cook the damn pork chop, or salmon fillet, or whatever. Everybody assumes that people already know how to do this. I don’t. It’s rather embarrassing to admit, but I don’t.
Help me, please! Cookbook recommendations, cooking instructions, websites for short-bus-riding cooks–all are welcome.
Stovetop: Heat oil in a nonstick pan or cast iron pan on medium high until it is as hot as you would use for, say, a hamburger. Put in the pork chops, let them brown for about 30 seconds, then flip over. Put a lid on the pan and turn the heat down to medium low. Cook for a few minutes until just barely no longer pink inside. (It’s okay to check with a knife.) Remove and make whatever sauce you want in the pan. I like to reduce some orange juice and then stir in a little Dijon mustard.
First, you need to buy yourselves a basic no-frills cookbook such as a Fannie Farmer or Joy of Cooking.
Here’s a basic porkchop recipe from the former.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Dust lightly with flour. brown on both sides in a well-heated heavy frying pan (greased lightly, if the chops are lean). Pour off the fat. Cover with liquid (water, barbecue sauce…). Cover and cook slowly until very tender.
The amount of time you need to cook them varies depending on how thick the chops are. Thick ones may require 30 - 60 minutes. You can add other herbs or seasonings depending on what you enjoy. Beer does nicely as the liquid, if you like that flavor. Or you can sprinkle in some oregano and use tomato sauce. Or whatever. Or not.
Actually, I would recommend Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything. His pork chop recipe, for example, includes a “master recipe” for how to do the basic version, and then a list of seven or eight different ways to dress it up a little bit. I find this sort of recipe instruction to be extremely helpful.
Bittman’s recipes, in general, tend toward the simple but tasty. If you’re going to get one cookbook, get that one. If you’re going to get two, get Joy of Cooking also.
It’s just a preference, but I find the older recipes produce very dry results. Most pork is considerably leaner now than it used to be and the “cook until tender” method can be dicey. You either have to treat them like steak or cook them until they are falling apart. Anything in between and they’ll be tough.
You can just fry them (medium heat in a little oil) or broil them, until they’re done. Broiling is probably better if he’s trying to eat healthily.
If you’re not sure how to tell when they’re done, get a meat thermometer and cook to 155-160 F.
The reason everyone is adding sauce, cooking in liquid, etc., is because pork chops tend to dry out if you’re not careful, and because pork can be kinda bland. Fried/broiled chops won’t be quite as tender as braised (cooked slowly in a little liquid). It just depends on what you like.
For instance, here is a nice, basic, broiled chops recipe. You can skip any of the seasonings, add more, change what you use, etc.
Cookbook recommendation: Basic Cooking. Clear, simple instructions, lovely photos, and lots of basic recipes with ideas for both how to use them, and how to vary them.
Thank you! I will check out the cookbooks you all recommended, and see if I can find one or two that will work for us. Those sound like pretty much what we’re looking for. Nice and simple.
My mom would just lay them on a cookie sheet and broil them. This did run the risk of being too dry, but perhaps they were a little fattier back in the day.
If he can have fruit, something like the following is good for keeping them moist:
In a frying pan brown pork chops on both sides in olive oil. Drain oil. Cover bottom of pan with 1/2 of the applesauce. Put chops on applesauce and put remainder of applesauce on chops. Cover and simmer for 45 minutes. Uncover and sprinkle with cinnamon.
As MLS said, braising works best for pork chops, unless you like chewing on leather. You don’t even need to dredge them in flour, just brown them good on all sides. Pork is so lean nowadays that it often comes out tough. If you buy the big fat loin pork chops at Costco (my favorites), braising works very well. You can also brown them and accomplish the same thing in the oven, but that requires more energy.
Hit a used book store and get an older edition of Joy of Cooking. Under no circumstances get the latest editions. This will solve 99.99% of all of your cooking problems.
Personally, I like pork chops rubbed with BBQ rub and grilled.
If you want pork chops do die for brine them first.
Make a basic brine
1/2 cup Kosher salt
8 Cups of water
Put 2 cups of water in a pan. Add salt. Heat and stir until salt is dissolved. Remove from heat, and the other 6 cups of cold water. You want the brine to be cool when you are done.
Place the pork chops into a zip lock bag. Pour the brine into the bag. Seal and place in the fridge for 4-12 hours. Slosh the chops around every so often if you remember.
Drain, rinse, and season (won’t need much if any salt!) If the chops are think a few minutes on each side in a frying pan works great. For thick chops, do them in the oven.
Cook via any of the above methods until the internal temp is 150.*
Remove let them rest on a plate for 5 minutes or so and enjoy.
*It is not necessary to cook pork until it is shoe leather for it to be safe. Trichinella dies at 137F so any meat cooked beyond that point is safe. Also the US domestic pork supply is considered free of Trichinella.
With the advent of instant reading digital thermometers it is easy to tell exactly the internal temp of a piece of meat. The US government still recommends cooking to 170, but many chefs are now suggesting pulling pork at 145-150F. I once cooked some pork to 140, let it rest and cut into it. It was still pink. So if you don’t have an instant read thermometer, use this as a rule of thumb: If the inside of the meat is white, it is safe.
We did shake and bake on some boneless chops just the other day, Johnny. My son likes to use it on his night to cook dinner, and there’s not a thing wrong with it either. You’re not alone!
Yes. Brining gives you a moisture safety net from overcooking. Personally, I don’t like braised pork chops at all. For me, pork chops should be cooked quickly over high heat, like a steak. Give 'em to me grilled, or give 'em to me breaded and fried. My general rule with meat is save the fatty cuts for slow, moist cooking, and the lean cuts for quick, dry cooking. The problem with pork chops tasting like leather has less to do with the leanness of the meat (although it does, certainly) and more to the fact that everybody I know tends to overcook pork to hell and back again. Pork loin can (and in my opinion should) be slightly pink on the inside when prepared properly (think about medium on a steak). Brining is a good safety that allows you to cook pork all the way to a well-done stage, but still retain moisture and flavor.
Brining is never necessary, in my opinion, but it gives you a much larger room for error. (I’m talking about a simple salt & water brine. Of course more complex brines will also introduce flavor into the meat.)
We tried this (without the seasonings–just basic pork chops) and it worked like a charm! This was exactly what we were looking for. We had to try it twice to get it right (the first time we cooked them for 10 minutes on a side and they were okay but too overdone–the second time we did 7 minutes per side and they were perfect!)
Thank you very much! As it happens, while trying to figure out how to work the broiler we found the owner’s manual for our range, and it had several suggestions for cooking various meats and fish in the broiler, so I think we’re set.
Thanks to everyone who replied–I still plan to check out some of those cookbooks.
I put them on a broiler pan, put some seasoning on them (salt, pepper, all-purpose herb seasoning, etc.) and bake them at 350 for as long as it takes a box of Uncle Ben’s Long Grain & Wild Rice to cook. (about a half hour.)
I really love Shake & Bake for pork chops too. It’s not fancy but it’s easy and they taste great. And they never come out “wrong” when I make them this way.
Add some mashed potatoes, gravy, and a nice vegetable - that’s a delicious meal any time that even a “non-cook” can make and have it come out well. It’s really hard to mess up Shake & Bake.
