There are many merits to pork chops: taste, ease of prep, affordability, and very short cooking time. In fact, it may take longer than all those steps combined, just to clean the stainless skillet. But like divorces can be expensive, it’s worth it!
After making the roasted cauliflower dish and telling my sister about it, and suggesting pork chops or lamb chops to go with the vegetable and rice dish, my sibling asked me how I do pork chops. Here goes.
I buy thin, bone-in chops from my butcher. I suppose a thicker chop would work, but they can finish on the dry side, given the added cook time to finish the meat.
24 hours in advance, I marinate the chops in:
- Olive oil
- Garlic powder
- Salt and Pepper
- Droplets of French’s Mustard
- Tarragon flakes
The mustard and tarragon work together like a well-rehearsed church choir – a beautiful unison of flavors and vocal sounds!
For process, I put the olive oil down first, then the garlic, black pepper, and a limited amount of mustard, and lastly the tarragon.
Importantly, I salt each side of the chops before I lay them into the marinade, then turn them over and smear them around the bottom of the plastic wrap. You can use a Pyrex dish or some other vessel, but I use large sheets of plastic wrap because I can just discard the wrap once I start cooking, versus cleaning another dish.
Once the chops look evenly smeared (a technical cooking term!), I cover them with another sheet of plastic, seal the edges, then refrigerate until the next day.
Remove from fridge about two hours prior to cooking, so get them room temp.
For cooking!
Place a large, preferably stainless skillet, on the stove and turn heat up to high. You can use cast iron skillet or even a Teflon skillet, though you may not get the same golden-brown coloring to the fried chops.
Once the skillet is good and hot, drizzle in a little canola or peanut oil (it burns less at high heat, than olive oil), and drop the chops in once at time, searing each side for only 90 seconds. Once you flip to the second side, and after 90 seconds, turn stovetop off and let the chops rest while you plate the sides or toss the salad.
Serve the chops, then drizzle a little of the remaining juices and oil onto each chop.
I had a friend over and we drank a bottle of Cabernet Franc with the meal. It was perfect!