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Rescue my pork chops?

post #1 of 5
8/26/09 at 10:04am
Thread Starter 
Ok... so I had several pork recipes over the last couple of days, which means that I defrosted about a 3 lb. butt, and still have about 1 lb. left over. My plan to use it up is to cut it down into chops, saute them, finish in the oven, and make up a pan sauce. Prior to sauteeing them, my plan was to marinate in a mix of olive oil, lemon juice, and cracked black pepper for a couple of hours.

Normally, the family loves sauteed chicken breasts or fish filets with a pan sauce, which means I usually deglaze the pan with cheap white wine, add a little chicken stock, reduce, then add cream or half-and-half and some fresh thyme out of the yard. However, it seems to me that a milk- or cream-based sauce might not be the best thing for pork chops... I was hoping for some ideas to sauce-ify the pan stuff without cream.

Any ideas?

Oh, and if my marination idea is a dud, feel free to shoot it down.
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post #2 of 5
8/26/09 at 10:45am
If it's typical American low-fat pork (sounds funny, but so many pigs are bred to be too lean), the marination sounds fine. And anyway, you can always spoon off any extra fat between cooking the meat and making the sauce.

Sauce sounds fine without cream, just use more chicken stock. And thyme is soooooo good with pork! :lips: Maybe add a squirt of lemon juice at the end to cut the richness.

And I'd ask if I could join you for dinner, but today I bought a hunk of boneless fresh ham, so I just might try your idea myself. :lol:
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post #3 of 5
8/26/09 at 11:10am
Thread Starter 
Yes, it is pretty low-fat. That's been acceptable for the recipes I've got, so I didn't make anything of it.

I was concerned that simply replacing the cream with stock would make the sauce too thin. How do you reckon I could avoid that, barring throwing in a glob of cornstarch or something?
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post #4 of 5
8/26/09 at 11:38am
Cream goes wonderfully with pork. Leave it in, by all means!

I sometimes braise pork butts in a half and half mix of milk and cream. The pork comes out velvety smooth and the reduced cream sauce is out of this world.

If you want to spice it up a bit throw a tablespoon of dijon mustard along with the cream.

Green pepper or Pink Pepper also go wonderfully with Pork - but black pepper is great too.

I wouldn't marinate the pork in lemon juice for 2 hours - I would be afraid it would start cooking in the marinade. In fact I would skip the marinade altogether.
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post #5 of 5
8/27/09 at 3:12am
My recommendation would be to season the pork chops with s/p before searing, add a cup or so of apple cider, cover and braise in the oven for 20 - 30 minutes depending on the thickness. The cider will infuse in the pork chops and make them nice and moist. Pull the chops out, reduce the cider, add a bit of butter to finish and you're good to go. Good luck!
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