This is great and makes lots of leftovers that freeze well.
PULLED PORK STUFFED SWEET POTATO via the novice chef
2 lb pork loin
1/4 cup chili powder
2 tablespoons garlic salt
6 cups coke a cola, or enough to cover pork
3/4 to 1 cup Sweet Baby Ray's Original BBQ Sauce
8 large sweet potatoes
Season pork loin w garlic salt and chili powder. Pour a little coke in bottom of crock pot and add pork . Add enough coke to just cover pork loin. Cook on low for 8 hrs. While pork is cooking, bake sweet potatoes: Preheat oven to 400°. Scrub potatoes. Bake in oven 1 hr. Remove from oven and set aside. Remove pork from crock pot and discard almost all of coke mix...leaving T or 2 juice to help moisten pork. Place meat back in crockpot and shred. Add BBQ sauce and combine. Leave slow cooker on low/warm, to keep hot until served. Fill each sweet potato with a generous helping of pulled pork and top with an extra drizzle of BBQ Sauce.
Showing posts with label pork. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pork. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 27, 2018
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
Pork tenderloin fail
I am no good at cooking pork. I have the worst luck. Because of this, I entrust that job to Mrblocko. This time he was not around to help out and I figured that my skills in the kitchen had improved enough that I could give it another shot.
This might have turned out well if the recipe had been more specific. Personally, I think the recipe was massively flawed. This is something that I should have realized if I thought about it.
The glaze was just butter and honey. The first step is to melt the butter and the honey, then you brown the tenderloin in the glaze. After that, you bake the whole concoction. This SOUNDS like it would work out great. Except...what happens if you cook butter for too long? The butter burns and gets very bitter. I knew I was in trouble when the smell coming from the oven went from rich and nutty to omg let's quick open a window.
I should have known this.
I've burnt many batches of caramel by over cooking the butter.
sigh.
The second problem with this recipe is that it doesn't tell you how long to cook the meat per pound. My pork was larger than the one in the recipe so I knew 20 min was not going to be even close to an appropriate bake time. I did some research online and it said that pork should be cooked to 145F. So I did that. Maybe my meat thermometer is off because when the thermometer reached 145F the center of the pork was still pink.
Mrblocko said that it was ok to eat, but Blockette and I ate from the edges. Pink pork ooks me out.
I'm not going to even write the recipe down here. If you're curious you can see it at Momma Hen's Kitchen. I won't be making this again, and I'll stick to delegating the cooking of any pig products (other than sausage, bacon or ground pork) to Mrblocko.
This might have turned out well if the recipe had been more specific. Personally, I think the recipe was massively flawed. This is something that I should have realized if I thought about it.
The glaze was just butter and honey. The first step is to melt the butter and the honey, then you brown the tenderloin in the glaze. After that, you bake the whole concoction. This SOUNDS like it would work out great. Except...what happens if you cook butter for too long? The butter burns and gets very bitter. I knew I was in trouble when the smell coming from the oven went from rich and nutty to omg let's quick open a window.
I should have known this.
I've burnt many batches of caramel by over cooking the butter.
sigh.
The second problem with this recipe is that it doesn't tell you how long to cook the meat per pound. My pork was larger than the one in the recipe so I knew 20 min was not going to be even close to an appropriate bake time. I did some research online and it said that pork should be cooked to 145F. So I did that. Maybe my meat thermometer is off because when the thermometer reached 145F the center of the pork was still pink.
Mrblocko said that it was ok to eat, but Blockette and I ate from the edges. Pink pork ooks me out.
I'm not going to even write the recipe down here. If you're curious you can see it at Momma Hen's Kitchen. I won't be making this again, and I'll stick to delegating the cooking of any pig products (other than sausage, bacon or ground pork) to Mrblocko.
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Drunk Pork Chops
I have been doing a bit of cleaning in my freezer making sure that some of the meat in there gets used before it goes bad. It's sort of like shopping in your own kitchen. To my surprise, I discovered three boneless thick cut pork chops!
This recipe from Rumbly in my Tummy for Drunk Pork Chops sounded like it would be fun to try. We like cooking with beer, and Mrblocko got two six packs of Indio beer for free over Christmas. (Heinekin has an office branch in the building he works in and every year they pass out a new brew.)
For some reason the chops didn't want to cook. Because they were handled more than they should have the breading started to fall off. What a bummer! That's my favorite part.
Mrblocko and Blockette thought the chops were great. Mrblocko even laddled the sauce over his mashed potatoes.
And me...well...the sauce tasted ok. Which was odd, because I thought it smelled bad. Specifically, I thought it had that musky ammonia sent of cat pee.
I'm sure this was some freaky thing of nature. And my own broken-ness. I repeatedly asked Mrblocko if he thought it smelled off. He thought it smelled just fine.
I can't figure out what the deal was. I mean the ingredients in the sauce are pretty much the same things in certain BBQ sauce. And I Like BBQ sauce. It had to have been me. Maybe my hormones were wild and crazy? Maybe it's this cold that won't go away? A Full Moon? A case of the crazies? I don't know. I DO know if Blockette thought something smelled funky she would not have kept her opinion to herself!
Drunk Chops from Rumbly in my Tummy
5-6 pork chops- bone-in or boneless,- I used 3 thick cut boneless
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 cup of flour
1 bottle of beer
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup ketchup
1 chicken bouillion cube
1 tsp hot sauce *to taste
Put a little bit of extra virgin olive oil in the bottom of a skillet. Combine the flour with the salt and pepper, dip each chop in the mixture, and place into the skillet to brown both sides.
While pork chops are browning, combine beer, ketchup, bouillion, hot sauce, and brown sugar in a bowl. Pour sauce mixture over the pork chops and simmer for 40-45 minutes.
Serve over mashed potatoes or rice.
This recipe from Rumbly in my Tummy for Drunk Pork Chops sounded like it would be fun to try. We like cooking with beer, and Mrblocko got two six packs of Indio beer for free over Christmas. (Heinekin has an office branch in the building he works in and every year they pass out a new brew.)
Mrblocko and Blockette thought the chops were great. Mrblocko even laddled the sauce over his mashed potatoes.
And me...well...the sauce tasted ok. Which was odd, because I thought it smelled bad. Specifically, I thought it had that musky ammonia sent of cat pee.
I'm sure this was some freaky thing of nature. And my own broken-ness. I repeatedly asked Mrblocko if he thought it smelled off. He thought it smelled just fine.
I can't figure out what the deal was. I mean the ingredients in the sauce are pretty much the same things in certain BBQ sauce. And I Like BBQ sauce. It had to have been me. Maybe my hormones were wild and crazy? Maybe it's this cold that won't go away? A Full Moon? A case of the crazies? I don't know. I DO know if Blockette thought something smelled funky she would not have kept her opinion to herself!
Drunk Chops from Rumbly in my Tummy
5-6 pork chops- bone-in or boneless,- I used 3 thick cut boneless
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 cup of flour
1 bottle of beer
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup ketchup
1 chicken bouillion cube
1 tsp hot sauce *to taste
Put a little bit of extra virgin olive oil in the bottom of a skillet. Combine the flour with the salt and pepper, dip each chop in the mixture, and place into the skillet to brown both sides.
While pork chops are browning, combine beer, ketchup, bouillion, hot sauce, and brown sugar in a bowl. Pour sauce mixture over the pork chops and simmer for 40-45 minutes.
Serve over mashed potatoes or rice.
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
America's Test Kitchen Pork Roast
It's been years and years since I've made a pot roast. I always used to just stick the roast in one of those bags that come with seasonings in them. I thought they tasted pretty good. At least I thought so until I made this Roast with Peach Sauce from America's Test Kitchen. There is absolutely no comparison.
This particular recipe uses a specific cut of meat called pork butt or Boston butt/shoulder. Don't try to get all crazy and use something else. America's Test Kitchen did all sorts of variations and the pork butt will result in the most tender meat when cooked low and slow.
I know. I know. The roast looks like it's burnt. That's just the poor lighting in my kitchen. The part that looks blackened is actually the caramelized cracklins. I'm not usually one for gnawing on fat, but the fatty part of this roast was heavenly. Crispity crunchy pieces of heaven. Blockette didn't want to try any at first. Then she saw the look on my face after I had a bite. You know the one, where your eyes roll back in your skull. Yeah, she changed her mind real quick. Then she couldn't get enough of the tasty caramelized fat.
This roast was only about 4 lbs. That was about half the size of the roast called for in the recipe. I assumed that it would take less time to cook. It didn't for some reason. This roast took about 5 hours for the internal temperature to register 190F.
Those of you that cook a lot of pork are probably saying, why 190F? The USDA says you only need to cook pork to 145F. Well, that's true, but with this cut of meat, if you cook the roast slowly, the connective tissues won't break down until 190F. Attempting to speed things up by upping the temp on your oven will only result in a hard dry brick of a roast....and sadness.
You will not believe how tender this roast is. Man! See how the bone is sticking out? The roast practically fell apart when I removed it from the pan. All I had to do was wiggle the bone the tiniest bit to remove it. This was great because I had no idea how I was going to carve around that peculiarly shaped shoulder bone.
Blockette did not care for the sauce at all. Who knows why, cause it was divine. The sweet-tart flavors pared nicely with the salty savory meat. I liked the sauce so much, I ate it on mashed potatoes, and even on toast one morning.
There was a considerable amount of drippings remaining after preparing the peach sauce. I didn't want to waste it so I made crock pot lentil soup, replacing part of the stock called for in the recipe for the defatted jus. I don't know how, but the jus gave the soup an almost beef-y taste. (How does that work if the jus was from pork???) I'll be saving the jus from roasts to use in lentil soup again for sure.
Pork Roast from America's Test Kitchen
1 bone-in pork butt, 6 to 8 pounds
1/3 cup kosher salt
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
Ground black pepper
Peach Sauce
10 ounces frozen peaches, cut into 1-inch chunks (about 2 cups) or 2 fresh peaches, cut in 1/2" wedges (I used frozen)
2 cups dry white wine (I used Arbor Mist Peach Chardonnay)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon unseasoned rice vinegar
2 sprigs fresh thyme
1 tablespoon whole-grain mustard
1. FOR THE ROAST: Using sharp knife, cut slits 1 inch apart in crosshatch pattern in fat cap of roast, being careful not to cut into meat. Combine salt and brown sugar in medium bowl. Rub salt mixture over entire pork shoulder and into slits. Wrap roast tightly in double layer of plastic wrap, place on rimmed baking sheet, and refrigerate at least 12 and up to 24 hours.
2. Adjust oven rack to lowest position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Unwrap roast and brush off any excess salt mixture from surface. Season roast with pepper. Transfer roast to V-rack coated with nonstick cooking spray set in large roasting pan and add 1 quart water to roasting pan. (I didn't have a v-rack that fit into my smaller roasting pan so i made a large ring out of foil so the meat would be up off the bottom of the pan. This worked really well for me.)
3. Cook roast, basting twice during cooking, until meat is extremely tender and instant-read thermometer inserted into roast near but not touching bone registers 190 degrees, 5 to 6 hours. Transfer roast to carving board and let rest, loosely tented with foil, 1 hour. Transfer liquid in roasting pan to fat separator and let stand 5 minutes. Pour off ¼ cup jus; discard fat and reserve remaining jus for another use.
4. FOR THE SAUCE: Bring peaches, wine, granulated sugar, ¼ cup vinegar, ¼ cup defatted jus, and thyme to simmer in small saucepan; cook, stirring occasionally, until reduced to 2 cups, about 30 minutes. Stir in remaining tablespoon vinegar and mustard. Remove thyme, cover, and keep warm.
5. Using sharp paring knife, cut around inverted T-shaped bone until it can be pulled free from roast (use clean kitchen towel to grasp bone). Using serrated knife, slice roast. Serve, passing sauce separately.
This particular recipe uses a specific cut of meat called pork butt or Boston butt/shoulder. Don't try to get all crazy and use something else. America's Test Kitchen did all sorts of variations and the pork butt will result in the most tender meat when cooked low and slow.
This roast was only about 4 lbs. That was about half the size of the roast called for in the recipe. I assumed that it would take less time to cook. It didn't for some reason. This roast took about 5 hours for the internal temperature to register 190F.
Those of you that cook a lot of pork are probably saying, why 190F? The USDA says you only need to cook pork to 145F. Well, that's true, but with this cut of meat, if you cook the roast slowly, the connective tissues won't break down until 190F. Attempting to speed things up by upping the temp on your oven will only result in a hard dry brick of a roast....and sadness.
You will not believe how tender this roast is. Man! See how the bone is sticking out? The roast practically fell apart when I removed it from the pan. All I had to do was wiggle the bone the tiniest bit to remove it. This was great because I had no idea how I was going to carve around that peculiarly shaped shoulder bone.
Blockette did not care for the sauce at all. Who knows why, cause it was divine. The sweet-tart flavors pared nicely with the salty savory meat. I liked the sauce so much, I ate it on mashed potatoes, and even on toast one morning.
There was a considerable amount of drippings remaining after preparing the peach sauce. I didn't want to waste it so I made crock pot lentil soup, replacing part of the stock called for in the recipe for the defatted jus. I don't know how, but the jus gave the soup an almost beef-y taste. (How does that work if the jus was from pork???) I'll be saving the jus from roasts to use in lentil soup again for sure.
Pork Roast from America's Test Kitchen
1 bone-in pork butt, 6 to 8 pounds
1/3 cup kosher salt
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
Ground black pepper
Peach Sauce
10 ounces frozen peaches, cut into 1-inch chunks (about 2 cups) or 2 fresh peaches, cut in 1/2" wedges (I used frozen)
2 cups dry white wine (I used Arbor Mist Peach Chardonnay)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon unseasoned rice vinegar
2 sprigs fresh thyme
1 tablespoon whole-grain mustard
1. FOR THE ROAST: Using sharp knife, cut slits 1 inch apart in crosshatch pattern in fat cap of roast, being careful not to cut into meat. Combine salt and brown sugar in medium bowl. Rub salt mixture over entire pork shoulder and into slits. Wrap roast tightly in double layer of plastic wrap, place on rimmed baking sheet, and refrigerate at least 12 and up to 24 hours.
2. Adjust oven rack to lowest position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Unwrap roast and brush off any excess salt mixture from surface. Season roast with pepper. Transfer roast to V-rack coated with nonstick cooking spray set in large roasting pan and add 1 quart water to roasting pan. (I didn't have a v-rack that fit into my smaller roasting pan so i made a large ring out of foil so the meat would be up off the bottom of the pan. This worked really well for me.)
3. Cook roast, basting twice during cooking, until meat is extremely tender and instant-read thermometer inserted into roast near but not touching bone registers 190 degrees, 5 to 6 hours. Transfer roast to carving board and let rest, loosely tented with foil, 1 hour. Transfer liquid in roasting pan to fat separator and let stand 5 minutes. Pour off ¼ cup jus; discard fat and reserve remaining jus for another use.
4. FOR THE SAUCE: Bring peaches, wine, granulated sugar, ¼ cup vinegar, ¼ cup defatted jus, and thyme to simmer in small saucepan; cook, stirring occasionally, until reduced to 2 cups, about 30 minutes. Stir in remaining tablespoon vinegar and mustard. Remove thyme, cover, and keep warm.
5. Using sharp paring knife, cut around inverted T-shaped bone until it can be pulled free from roast (use clean kitchen towel to grasp bone). Using serrated knife, slice roast. Serve, passing sauce separately.
Monday, December 17, 2012
Raspberry Chops
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| source |
Well you know me, I'm all about the free stuff. So I headed over there and snatched that bad boy up.
The thing was, I had no idea what to use it for.
After much searching I decided to make these Raspberry Enlightenment Chops from Diet for Foodies.
Ok. OK. I didn't actually make these chops. I had this recipe on the menu back when Blockette was sick with the croup, only I didn't know it yet.
Before taking her to the doctor, I set out all the ingredients for the marinade, and asked Mrblocko to mix it all together so the chops could have enough time to marinate.
When dinner time rolled around, I also had the nerve to ask Mrblocko to bake them while I made mashed potatoes. I was sick as well, and multi-tasking at dinner was not in the cards if we wanted to eat sometime this century.
I believe Mrblocko browned the chops in the pan, then finished them off in the oven. He poured the marinade over the chops while they baked in the oven.
This made the tastiest spicy sweet gravy.
Of course I didn't realize this until AFTER dinner when I was packaging up the leftovers.
DOH!
At least we got to enjoy the gravy on our leftovers!
My gravy separator was too large to work properly for the small amount of gravy in this recipe. Once the gravy had cooled and congealed a bit, I just skimmed off the solidified fat at the top. This isn't necessary, but I thought the gravy was too thin otherwise.
If you're not fortunate enough to have some Raspberry Enlightenment in your pantry, have no fear, just substitute it with some seedless raspberry jam!
Raspberry Spice Marinade from Diet for Foodies
1/2 c wine or raspberry vinegar (I used pomegranate vinegar)
1/2 c oil (I used olive oil)
2 T soy sauce
5 T raspberry enlightenment (or jam)
5 T brown sugar
1 t cinnamon
1/2 tsp chipotle pepper ( I used cayenne)
1/2 t dried ginger
1/2 t salt
1 clove garlic, or 1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 t onion powder
1/2 t ground pepper
1/2 t dry ground mustard
Mix all of the ingredients together in a ziplock bag. Put in your meat. (I used 4 thick boneless pork chops.) Marinade in the fridge for at least 4 hours, and as long as over night (or all day). Grill or bake as needed for the thickness of your chops. (USDA guidelines, as of this post, say cuts of pork should be cooked to a minimum internal temp of 145F, with a stand time of 3 minutes before cutting. )
Monday, May 9, 2011
Asiago pork chops
Asiago pork chops...where have you been all my life? Who would have known that the lowly old pork chop could be so sublime with the simple addition of cheese! Jessica from How Sweet it is, that's who.
These chops were so awesome that I had to fight mrblocko for the extra left over pork chop. He won. Now he owes me. Big time. Muhahaha!
Yeah yeah. I've gotten lax on the whole picture taking thing again. I'm going to try to be more on the ball. Just trust me that it was even better tasting than it was looking, and it looked pretty darn tasty.
I used actual corn flakes ground up in the food processor because a box of the cereal was cheaper than the box of preground flakes. And you know that little box of ground cornflakes is a LOT tinier than the generic jumbo boxes of corn flakes. So we had cornflakes for breakfast quite a bit after I made this for dinner. Oh, by "we" I meant me, because no one else in the house will eat cornflakes except for me. (And to that I stick my tongue out at both my husband and daughter.)
I also made my own bread crumbs with left over bread from the freezer and added about a tablespoon of Italian seasoning for flavoring. I hadn't planned on going "totally from scratch." I thought I had bread crumbs in the pantry but I either used them all up, or they were hiding really, really well. It all worked out in the end because the homemade bread crumbs turned out surprisingly declicious. It's not something I'd want to devote my time into making every time I wanted to use bread crumbs, but it's nice to know I can do it in a pinch.
Asiago Breaded Pork Chops from How Sweet it is
4 thin, boneless pork chops
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup milk
1/2 cup Kellogg’s Corn Flakes
1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs
1 cup chicken stock
1 cup asiago cheese, grated or crumbled
Preheat oven to 325. Trim fat off of pork chops and tenderize with a fork. Heat skillet on medium-high heat and add 2 tablespoons olive oil. In separate bowls, pour milk into one, then breadcrumbs and corn flakes into other. Dip chop in milk and let soak for about a minute. Dip in bread crumb mixture and coat thoroughly. Add to skillet and let cook on each side for about 3-4 minutes, or until breading is golden brown. Take off heat and add 1 cup chicken stock to skillet. Also add 1/4 cup asiago cheese on top of each chop. Cover and bake at 325 for about 45 minutes. Make sure the chops do not dry out. If the skillet becomes dry, add more chicken stock.
These chops were so awesome that I had to fight mrblocko for the extra left over pork chop. He won. Now he owes me. Big time. Muhahaha!
Yeah yeah. I've gotten lax on the whole picture taking thing again. I'm going to try to be more on the ball. Just trust me that it was even better tasting than it was looking, and it looked pretty darn tasty.
I used actual corn flakes ground up in the food processor because a box of the cereal was cheaper than the box of preground flakes. And you know that little box of ground cornflakes is a LOT tinier than the generic jumbo boxes of corn flakes. So we had cornflakes for breakfast quite a bit after I made this for dinner. Oh, by "we" I meant me, because no one else in the house will eat cornflakes except for me. (And to that I stick my tongue out at both my husband and daughter.)
I also made my own bread crumbs with left over bread from the freezer and added about a tablespoon of Italian seasoning for flavoring. I hadn't planned on going "totally from scratch." I thought I had bread crumbs in the pantry but I either used them all up, or they were hiding really, really well. It all worked out in the end because the homemade bread crumbs turned out surprisingly declicious. It's not something I'd want to devote my time into making every time I wanted to use bread crumbs, but it's nice to know I can do it in a pinch.
Asiago Breaded Pork Chops from How Sweet it is
4 thin, boneless pork chops
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup milk
1/2 cup Kellogg’s Corn Flakes
1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs
1 cup chicken stock
1 cup asiago cheese, grated or crumbled
Preheat oven to 325. Trim fat off of pork chops and tenderize with a fork. Heat skillet on medium-high heat and add 2 tablespoons olive oil. In separate bowls, pour milk into one, then breadcrumbs and corn flakes into other. Dip chop in milk and let soak for about a minute. Dip in bread crumb mixture and coat thoroughly. Add to skillet and let cook on each side for about 3-4 minutes, or until breading is golden brown. Take off heat and add 1 cup chicken stock to skillet. Also add 1/4 cup asiago cheese on top of each chop. Cover and bake at 325 for about 45 minutes. Make sure the chops do not dry out. If the skillet becomes dry, add more chicken stock.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Italian Buttermilk Chops
Powdered buttermilk is my new best friend. The brand that I buy is from saco foods. I don't have any particular brand loyalty. This is just the brand that good old Meijers carries. Before I heard about powdered buttermilk, I'd always cringe when I saw there was a recipe that required that particular ingredient. Most recipes that call for buttermilk only require about a cup. So what do you do with the leftover stuff? You either have to plan out another recipe that uses the leftover buttermilk, or toss it out because it spoiled.
The powdered buttermilk wasn't the cheapest thing ever. If you are an infrequent user of buttermilk, like me, it winds up costing the same or less because you aren't throwing your money away.
Yeah, I know you can make your own buttermilk with a cup of regular milk and a Tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice. I tried that once with vinegar. The milk was supposed to curdle after a few minutes. It didn't after 20. The milk smelled so vinegary that I decided to forget about the whole thing. It may work for some people, but not me.
I've used the powdered stuff a few times now and I can't tell the difference. Ultimately that's all that matters.
These Italian Buttermilk Pork Chops, from What's Cookin Chicago, were awesome. Maybe I've been living under a rock, but I'd never heard of marinating anything in buttermilk. These chops turned out really moist and tender.
I flubbed up and forgot to add the garlic to the marinade. Mrblocko was in charge of the actual meat cooking so I had him toss in the minced garlic to the pan while he was cooking up the meat. The meat wasn't infused with garlic flavor like it would have if it had been soaking in it all day. The bits of garlic were still tasty on top of the meat.
Our chops were the thin boneless kind. I thought they would get dried out if they were baked in the oven, so Mrblocko just cooked them all the way in the pan for around 10 minutes. I don't know cause I was making rice and a salad. I really wasn't paying attention.
Blockette said we should make these again because pigs are great. She's right on both accounts. We'll be making this again, and pigs are great.
Italian Buttermilk Chops from What's Cookin Chicago
4 pork chops
salt & pepper to taste
1 1/2 - 2 cups buttermilk
1/2 tablespoon dried oregano
1/2 tablespoon dried thyme
2-3 cloves minced garlic
2 tablespoons olive oil
Season your pork chops with salt and pepper; place chops in a gallon sized zip top bag. Add the remaining ingredients and place in the fridge for 4 hours to chill (or you could chill overnight too.) Remove the pork chops from the bag and pat dry. Preheat the oven to 400 F. In a hot skillet with 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil, brown your pork chops on both sides. Once browned, place the pork chops on a baking sheet and bake in the preheated oven for 7-10 minutes. Don't over cook otherwise it will result in dry, tough pork!
The powdered buttermilk wasn't the cheapest thing ever. If you are an infrequent user of buttermilk, like me, it winds up costing the same or less because you aren't throwing your money away.
Yeah, I know you can make your own buttermilk with a cup of regular milk and a Tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice. I tried that once with vinegar. The milk was supposed to curdle after a few minutes. It didn't after 20. The milk smelled so vinegary that I decided to forget about the whole thing. It may work for some people, but not me.
I've used the powdered stuff a few times now and I can't tell the difference. Ultimately that's all that matters.
These Italian Buttermilk Pork Chops, from What's Cookin Chicago, were awesome. Maybe I've been living under a rock, but I'd never heard of marinating anything in buttermilk. These chops turned out really moist and tender.I flubbed up and forgot to add the garlic to the marinade. Mrblocko was in charge of the actual meat cooking so I had him toss in the minced garlic to the pan while he was cooking up the meat. The meat wasn't infused with garlic flavor like it would have if it had been soaking in it all day. The bits of garlic were still tasty on top of the meat.
Our chops were the thin boneless kind. I thought they would get dried out if they were baked in the oven, so Mrblocko just cooked them all the way in the pan for around 10 minutes. I don't know cause I was making rice and a salad. I really wasn't paying attention.
Blockette said we should make these again because pigs are great. She's right on both accounts. We'll be making this again, and pigs are great.
Italian Buttermilk Chops from What's Cookin Chicago
4 pork chops
salt & pepper to taste
1 1/2 - 2 cups buttermilk
1/2 tablespoon dried oregano
1/2 tablespoon dried thyme
2-3 cloves minced garlic
2 tablespoons olive oil
Season your pork chops with salt and pepper; place chops in a gallon sized zip top bag. Add the remaining ingredients and place in the fridge for 4 hours to chill (or you could chill overnight too.) Remove the pork chops from the bag and pat dry. Preheat the oven to 400 F. In a hot skillet with 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil, brown your pork chops on both sides. Once browned, place the pork chops on a baking sheet and bake in the preheated oven for 7-10 minutes. Don't over cook otherwise it will result in dry, tough pork!
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Chipotle orange pork chops
When I decide to make something from the every growing stack of recipes I find on blogs, it's usually very random. I didn't realize until writing this post that the Enchiladas from my previous post and these Chipotle orange pork chops were both from the elly says opah! blog. Kudos to elly says opah! cause she is 2 for 2. The whole family went gaga over these chops.I originally picked out this recipe because after making the enchiladas, I had almost a whole can of chipotles leftover. I bought the smallest can there was, but when you only use one or two at a time, that small can lasts and lasts. Luckily, the chipotles have a long shelf life in the fridge.
I had 7 thin cut boneless pork chops, so I doubled all the ingredients except the chipotle. I wanted to go for zing verses heat. One chipotle was the perfect amount for us. The chops had just enough spice to make our lips tingle and no one was gulping down gallons of water. I used pulpless orange juice from concentrate instead of freshly squeezed the recipe calls for. This was a great time saver in more ways than one. We drank the last of the juice at breakfast so more juice needed to be made anyhow, and I didn't have to spend time juicing the orange without a citrus juicer.
The marinade itself was so simple but the flavors were very complimentary. It was salty, spicy, sweet and tangy, but none of the elements overpowered the other. Everything blended together harmoniously. Mrblocko thought this marinade would be good on chicken as well. We'll definitely be testing that out.
We were very lucky this meal did not start or end with disaster. Because the chops were so thin, Mrblocko was worried about them drying out under the broiler. We opted for grilling them instead. However, if you notice the picture, they don't really have much of a char to them. Mrblocko had a hard time keeping the grill lit and the flames at a decent level. It was very windy out and we thought perhaps we were low on propane. After dinner Mrblocko went to check the tank and THEN he noticed the tank was not hooked up properly. Thank goodness the whole thing didn't go kaboom.
Broiled Chipotle Orange Chicken from Elly Says Opa!
1/3 cup orange juice (about 1 juiced orange)
1 chipotle in adobo, chopped, plus 1 tsp. adobo sauce
1 tsp. soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 pork chops
In a small food processor or blender, combine first 4 ingredients. Process until fairly smooth. Place pork chops in a non-reactive bowl and pour juice mix over them, rubbing it into the chops. Let them marinate 20-30 min. Preheat broiler. Sprinkle pork chops with salt and pepper and place on a broiling pan. Pour marinade into a saucepan. Broil pork chops until slightly undercooked (about 4 min per side for a boneless chop, longer for bone-in or fatter chops). Meanwhile, cook reserved marinade over med high til reduced by half. Brush pork chops on one side with the reduced marinade. Broil an additional minute. Flip and repeat with the other side.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Dry Rub for Pork
I'm a sucker for free stuff. A while back I signed up to get a free sample of
Jerry's All Purpose Seasoning Without MSG. I thought it the best way to test it out would be as a dry rub for pork chops. It was OK, but VERY salty. I think I will stick with making my own. So far my favorite dry rub is from the Food Network's Good Eats . I never seem to make it the same way twice. Somehow, I'm always just short or missing one of the ingredients. I just pick a spice I have enough of and increase it by the missing amount. No matter how I try to mess it up with substitutions it has always turned out delicious.
Alton Brown's Dry Rub from Food Network's Good Eats
8 tablespoons light brown sugar, tightly packed
3 tablespoons kosher salt
1 tablespoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon jalapeno seasoning
1/2 teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning
1/2 teaspoon rubbed thyme
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
Mix all the ingredients together and store in an airtight container.
Jerry's All Purpose Seasoning Without MSG. I thought it the best way to test it out would be as a dry rub for pork chops. It was OK, but VERY salty. I think I will stick with making my own. So far my favorite dry rub is from the Food Network's Good Eats . I never seem to make it the same way twice. Somehow, I'm always just short or missing one of the ingredients. I just pick a spice I have enough of and increase it by the missing amount. No matter how I try to mess it up with substitutions it has always turned out delicious.
Alton Brown's Dry Rub from Food Network's Good Eats
8 tablespoons light brown sugar, tightly packed
3 tablespoons kosher salt
1 tablespoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon jalapeno seasoning
1/2 teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning
1/2 teaspoon rubbed thyme
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
Mix all the ingredients together and store in an airtight container.
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