Our local grocery store has been selling really nice looking boneless pork chops in bulk recently (I think they're called boneless loin chops and they look like tenderloin cuts, as they have the silver skin on the edges; I'll verify next time I'm at the store). We usually buy a bunch when on sale and freeze them individually; this way they thaw in just a few hours.
At regular width, the pork takes a while to cook and usually dries out (or the bread crumbs burn, if we're trying to fry). So in order to get the pork thin enough, I usually pound them out (I don't have a meat tenderizer hammer-thingy, so I use the bottom of a wine bottle, which works well).
This time, I tried slicing the pork in half, length-wise, while they were still frozen to thin them out. After they thawed, I pounded them out again - this worked great. The slicing helped them thaw faster. I was able to get them pretty thin much easier with the pounding, resulting in a moist, tender cutlet that cooked pretty quick.
For our cutlets, we like to use bread crumbs. Sometimes we buy the 'Italian' bread crumbs at the store, then 'fix' them at home with spices - this works fine. But I really like to make my own bread crumbs - it's a great way to use up that old stale bread and is easy in the food processor. Making our own bread crumbs also allows us to better control the salt and seasonings, which is nice as well.
After slicing, we soaked the pork in milk for a bit, then dredged in bread crumbs, and cooked over medium heat in a little EVOO in our cast iron skillet (I LOVE our cast iron skillet and use it all the time for stove top and over cooking - it's seasoned well enough at this point that it's non stick). I had a little trouble with the heat control, since the pork:bread ratio was a little off; I think too much soaking allowed too much bread to stick. By the third cutlet, we had the heat right, and the cutlets were coming out golden brown; each cutlets takes only maybe 2-4 minutes, with the first side cooking in a 2:1 ratio (2 minutes on the front side, flip, 1 additional minute on back side).
For our sides, we made couscous, which has to be one of the easiest grains to make in the world, as well as one of my favorites: boil one part water, add one part couscous, cover, wait 5 minutes, fluff, and serve.
The asparagus at the store also looked really nice, so we decided to go with that as well. We decided to cook it in the broiler with a drizzle of EVOO and some chopped garlic. We usually steam the asparagus, but I think broiling was far superior for flavor, as some of the tips charred a little bit and gave it a great flavor. This took maybe 5 minutes as well.
Except for a little prep time on the cutlets, this is a really nice quick meal for a week night. If you wanted to, you could probably cook the cutlets in the oven, but I would worry about drying them out. I like the frying of the cutlet, but I can understand the health concerns.
Notes and Next Time
- When thin slicing the pork, don't make them too thin. Use the pounding process to give them the proper thinness.
- I like trimming the silver skin on the edges: it can be tough to chew and can hinder the pounding.
- Don't soak the pork in milk (or egg) too long. I think just a quick soak to give them some moisture is good. The pork seemed to absorb a lot of milk in the 2 hour soak we gave them, resulting in a lot of bread sticking. The bread:cutlet ration was too high; the breading needs to be thinner. The fineness of the breda crumbs may have had an impact on this as well.
- I was worried the cutlets would be tough, but I think the pounding/soaking helped to keep them tender.
- A squirt of lemon may have been a nice touch, but we didn't have any on hand.
- Boneless, skinless pork tenderloin 'chops', maybe 1/2 # each
- Bread crumbs, fixed to your liking
- Milk, or egg, for soaking
- EVOO for cooking and garnish
- Asparagus
- Garlic, chopped
- Couscous
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