Breaded and baked. Totally delicious.

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Posted by marigene (My Page) on Fri, Sep 26, 08 at 13:06

Here is my favorite way to prepare pork chops. They always have come out very tender and juicy. The recipe was originally posted by Beverly.

Baked Pork Chops with Parmesan-Sage Crust Recipe
Makes 4 servings.

INGREDIENTS
1 1/2cups fresh breadcrumbs made from crustless french bread
1 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese (about 3 ounces)
1 tablespoon dried rubbed sage
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
2 large eggs
1/4 cup all purpose flour
4 bone-in center-cut pork loin chops (each about 1 inch thick)2tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
lemon wedges (optional)
orange wedges (optional)

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 425�F. Mix breadcrumbs, cheese, sage and lemon peel in pie dish. Whisk eggs in medium bowl to blend. Place flour on plate; season generously with salt and pepper. Coat pork chops on both sides with flour; shake off excess. Dip chops into eggs, then coat on both sides with breadcrumb mixture.

Melt butter with oil in heavy large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Add pork chops to skillet and cook until golden brown, about 2 minutes per side. Transfer skillet with pork to oven. Bake until pork chops are crisp on the outside and meat thermometer inserted into pork registers 150�F, about 20 minutes.

Transfer pork chops to plates. Garnish with lemon wedges and orange wedges, if desired, and serve.

Enhanced meats like Hormel 'Always Tender' have a lot of added sodium. A center cut pork chop has approximately 55 mg of sodium, naturally occurring. After Hormel gets finished 'enhancing' it, that same pork chop has 378 mg of sodium. And, I always got an ickky aftertaste when I ate Hormel AT. I quit buying it and had to do without pork for a while until I found a couple of sources for fresh pork.

I realize that not everyone is watching their sodium levels but a lot of people are limiting their sodium intake. And they may not be aware that enhanced meats are often loaded with sodium, sorta' taking it on faith that (fresh) meat is naturally low sodium. The enhanced stuff is more like pickled meat than it is fresh.

At the link, scroll down to near the bottom of the page for more info on enhanced meats.

Here is a link that might be useful: Enhanced Meats

Basically recipes do not have that much to do with tenderness and juiciness of meat. Despite popular believe, marinating meat cannot tenderize meat.

It has much to do with cooking temperature and cooking time.

Pork chop is not that easy because of the need to get the meat to a safe temperature. With a thick piece of pork chop it gets even trickier.

1. Get a good probe thermometer so that you can be sure of internal temperature.

2. Do your research and decide what is the latest reliable safe temperature for pork. You may find there is a lot of conflicting information out there.

3. Pay attention to resting time for the meat when you have a thick piece of meat.

dcarch

I've made the recipe Rob posted several times and they are great !

These are not breaded and/or baked, but they are to die for!

Stuffed Pork Chops
From Food Network-the Neely�s

1/2 cup kosher salt
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoons light brown sugar
2 quarts water
4 (2-inch thick) pork chops, bone-in rib loin chops, split to bone
2 slices bacon, chopped
2 stalks celery, minced
1 small onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon freshly chopped rosemary leaves
1 tablespoon freshly chopped sage leaves
2 tablespoons freshly chopped parsley leaves
2 1/2 cups crumbled cornbread
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup chicken broth
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Whisk salt and sugars in 2-quarts of cold water. Add pork chops and cover. Refrigerate for 1 hour. Remove the pork chops from the brine and dry well.

In a large heavy bottomed saute pan, begin to fry bacon. Add celery, onion and garlic to pan and allow to saute with the crispy bacon. Add rosemary, sage and parsley after bacon has cooked for 8 to 10 minutes. Saute until fragrant. Season with salt and pepper.

In a large bowl add cornbread, dried cranberries and chicken stock. Stir in the cooked vegetable mixture. Mix well.

Preheat grill to medium-high heat.

Season the pork chops with salt and pepper. Stuff the chop with about 1/2 cup of stuffing. Use toothpicks to help seal the chops. Grill the chops for 5 to 7 minutes per side. Internal temperature should be 145 degrees F. Allow chop to rest for 5 minutes before serving.

My notes: Cook over low grill flame to insure they get cooked all the way through. I also cut the salt in the brine down to 1/4-1/3 cup. They are just a tad salty as written.

Linda

If you insist on cooking pork chops until 160F internal, it is hard to avoid a dry, tough, bland meat. Brining can help, a little. Tricks like cutting a cavity inside the chop and filling it with fat (butter, etc) also helps. Breading the outside won't make the inside less dry, although the flavor of the breading may distract you.

My approach is basically:
- Brine if I have time
- Don't over trim the chop, leave as much fat on as you can. Leave the bone in.
- Pat the chop dry with paper towels. Dust it lightly with flour or corn starch if you want it even drier.
- Rub the exterior with whatever you find tasty, at minimum salt and pepper
- Oil the exterior of the chop
- Get your pan as hot as you can. Don't use a non-stick pan or a thin steel or aluminum pan. Use a thick, heavy pan, preferably cast iron. Put it on high flame and walk away for at least 5 minutes. The pan should be smoking, almost scary hot.
- Turn the hood fan to high or open the windows.
- Drop a big pat of butter on the pan, it should melt and start to smoke and burn almost instantly if the pan is hot enough.
- Place the oiled chop on the pool of browning butter. There should be sizzling and spitting. Don't flip, move, pat, or touch the chop. Yes, the chop may be stuck to the pan, ignore that, the sticking will break when the bottom of the chop is crusted enough.
- After 2 minutes, remove the chop. The bottom should be brown and starting to get crusty. (These times are a starting point. Depending on your stove, you'll learn if 3 or 1.5 minutes works better than 2.)
- Let the pan heat back up for a couple of minutes. Repeat with another big pat of butter and the other side of the chop.
- After 1 minute, start measuring the internal temp. At 135F, pull the chop off the pan, to a plate to rest for 5 minutes. The temperature should coast up to the USDA-recommended 145F, or close enough. I cook my chops to 140F or so. I like it still a bit pink, and juicy.

The point is that the high heat gets the exterior browning fast, before the interior is overcooked.

There are combination baking/pan-frying methods too, which seem like too much trouble. You can also use the broiler - pre-heat the broiler on higj with the upper rack as close to the flame as possible, after you place the chop in the smoking hot pan, drop a pat of butter on the upper side, and place the pan under the broiler. This cooks both sides at once and is a big faster. A cable probe thermometer with a remote display helps. I imagine dcarch now sous-vides his chops?

"---I imagine dcarch now sous-vides his chops?"

Yes, absolutely. All pork recipes are sous vided, except deep frying.

I just finished sous vide-ing a big piece of pork shoulder for pulled pork. It went in the SV cooker frozen solid, and came out 100% nice and tender.

There is a big difference in tenderness texture of pork cooked at 212 F vs. 145 F.

dcarch

My goodness ... run 'em through a beaten egg, coat each side in finely crushed saltines and throw 'em in a frying pan. When juices start seeping up, flip over and fry another couple of minutes. Cover and let rest for about five minutes.