We have two boneless pork chops sitting in the fridge. (I think they’re center-cut.) Reasonably thick for supermarket chops, around 3/4" thick. What’s your favorite way to cook this particular chunk of pig?
Normally I pat them dry, season lightly with various things*, then pan-sear in a little oil/butter. Sometimes I’ll add sliced onion to caramelize along with the meat. If I’m feeling fancy, a little quick pan gravy might come next.
We also have done the skillet-barbecue pork chops out of Cook’s Illustrated. (Sorry, I’d link but they have a pay site, and I’m at work so I don’t have my recipes handy!)
But I’m looking for something a little new and different. How do y’all fix 'em at your houses? Do you grill them outside? Sauces?
I have some curry powders I could play with. Anyone every had luck with that?
We have two chops, and neither Mr. Shoe nor I eat a lot at one sitting, so we could even try out 2 different recipes on 2 different nights!
salt, ground thyme, onion & garlic powder, maybe a touch of brown sugar … whatever looks good at the moment, but those are my fallbacks
Here’s a super easy one-ingredient idea if you like sweet and sour. Ready?
Lightly brown the pork chops in a frying pan.
Dump in a jar of sweet pickles. You know, the kind that has califlower, onions and whatever in the jar. Cook until the liquid evaporates. You will be left with a nice sweet and sour coating on the pork chops.
Brown the pork chops in a frying pan, put them in the slow cooker. Cover with sauerkraut and some sliced thin or grated apple, pour a little chicken stock or apple juice over top and cook a few hours. I don’t have the recipe in front so I can’t recall any other season but maybe salt and pepper.
The pork chops just fall apart beneath your fork. Mmmmm.
brine them baby, brine them.
1/4 cup kosher salt to 1 quart water.*
dissolve the salt into 1cup of water, add the rest of the water cold to bring the temp down.
put the chops into a ziplock bag and pour in the brine for 1-4 hours.
Cook.
Be prepared for the juiciest pork you have ever eaten.
*you can sub in 1 pint apple juice if you wish, or add 1/8 cup brown sugar to the brine. Experiment if you wish. Have fun.
I have been busy workin’ lately and the Shake N’ Bake is definitely a helper but this is the ultimate pork chop recipe. It’s called something else but we call it Crack Pork Chops:
You could try this; smear 'em with finely chopped garlic, whole grain mustard and a generous sprinkle of chili powder and salt. I put them in a roasting dish, supported by a few chunks of potato (this keeps them up out of the stock/water), and pour in some stock (veg/chicken). Seal up the pan with tin foil and roast for 35-40 mins.
I serve this with sweet potatoes, green peppers and red onions generously sprinkled with cayenne and salt and roasted for the same length of time.
I usually salt and pepper them, sear them, and then put them in my spaghetti sauce along with a cheap steak to braise for several hours until they are falling apart. Short ribs are better, but chops do in a pinch.
Traditional Southern Style
Ideally make up a batch of rice or some biscuits to go along with this…
Put a couple cups of all-purpose white flour in a bowl, salt it and pepper it well. Wash the pork chops then roll them in the flour until coated.
Pour a layer of vegetable oil into your cast iron frying pan, deep enough to cover more than half the thickness of your chops. Turn on the burner and let it heat up until the oil starts to pop. Lower heat to medium high. Insert chops. Turn them several times so they cook evenly from the outsides in, going from tan to golden brown to deep reddish brown.
Lift them out of the oil onto a paper towel to absorb excess surface oil, then pour off all but about 2-3 tablespoons of the oil, leaving behind also any fragments of the flour that fell off the chops during cooking. Add in a heaping tablespoon of fresh flour and fry the flour by itself until medium brown, then reduce heat to simmer, add milk, a bit at a time starting off with about a quarter cup, stirring, watching the consistency of the resulting gravy. Add milk until its too thin to draw a line through the gravy, then keep stirring and cooking until it regains enough thickness than you can but is still thin enough to pour. Taste the gravy for sufficiently saltiness, then take it up.
The gravy goes on the rice or biscuits although you can pour it over the chops themselves if you prefer.
