How to Cook Butterfly Porkchops????

I bought some yesterday (about 1/2" thick). I pricked them with a for and put them in a ziploc with some marinade. Here are my cooking options. In a pan, in the oven or on the George Foremen.***

I have tried porkchops on the GF and they came out like grey hockey pucks.

Help!!!

A "hocky puck" means you've drained out all the nasty grease and fat. Thank the Gods of Health for George Foreman!

Jeanne,

Have you noticed we have turned a new leaf around here? No excess fats, which means pork is the new no-no. Bacon is so yesterday. Now if you have turkey flavored like pork at half the calories, fat and sodium, then you have joined the new program.

Yours in health!

Regards,

Butterflies are very delicate creatures. It's difficult to get a pork chop out of one, although the chops you do get are very colorful.

You could try cooking them on George Foreman, which would be a very low and slow cooking method, although you might run the risk that George would want to get up and walk around part-way through the cooking process.

Cathy2 wrote:No excess fats, which means pork is the new no-no.

Surprisingly, Henry Ford was a pioneer in more ways than one. Besides inventing charcoal briquettes, he also came up with a meatless pork chop through the use of farm chemurgy.

Incorporating egg albumen binder plus fats and flavorings into the spun fibers, he fabricated the first man-made meatless pork chops and then made hams from soy protein.

I disagree that pork is a no-no. Now, pork shoulder or Boston Butt, maybe, but a boneless pork chop or pork tenderloin is very lean. If you check out CookingLight.com you'll see lots of great recipes. Sometimes their database is not always user-friendly, but recipes do feature reviews and rating like Epicurious does.

Some of my favorite boneless pork chop recipes seem to call for a quick browning and then simmering in broth or wine until they are fully cooked.

These are two of my favorite chop recipes from Cooking Light's web site...

Panko Crusted Wasabi Pork with Gingered Soy Sauce
http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recip ... id=1160662

and

Pork Chops with Country Gravy and Mashed Potatoes
http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recip ... _id=577221

David Hammond wrote: Thank the Gods of Health for George Foreman!

And as everyone knows, we all should be moving toward the epitome of health that is George Foreman, he of the steak boiling, chicken fat rendering namesake grill. Truly a food deity of the first order!

Hey!! I really need some help here! Could I fry them in a pan?

You could pan-fry them in a hot-hot cast iron skillet.

You could smother 'em in caramelized onion and douse with apple cider and bake in the oven (at 425, for about 20 minutes or until internal temperature is to your liking).

I always brine mine for 30 minutes before cooking. Dissolve 1/2 cup Morton Kosher Salt (or 3/4 cup Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt) in 4 cups of cold water. You can add flavorings, like garlic, sugar or dried herbs/spices to the brine. Add chops and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Remove from brine, pat dry, then season with your favorite seasonings. Grill, pan-fry or broil no more than 10-12 minutes total.

Since you already have them in a marinade, I recommend throwing them on the grill over indirect heat. 4-5 minutes per side.

I also second the idea of pan seared over hot hot cast iron.

Pan-fried pork chops with marsala sauce

Ok I do not have a grill that works or a cast iron skillet. Could I fry them in butter or is butter not necessary.

I would suggest that you definately don't use butter as it's smoking point is too low and I never really enjoyed butter with pork. If cooking in a general stainless pan, I would use some flavorless oil like canola.

Searing them on the stovetop(in neutral oil) and finishing in the oven works well. You have to get them out of the oven before too long. The apple cider idea is good-if you don't do crrush's idea above, you could deglaze the pan with apple cider vinegar and swirl in some whole butter to finish the pan sauce. Butter used in this manner goes well with pork indeed.

I am probably a little late for your current meal. Cook's illustrated a while back talked about how chops need to be cooked on low heat and gave the science behind it. It has made all the difference for me. I cook pork chops by laying them in a cold pan. Turn on the heat and when they just start to sizzle, reduce the heat. Cook until internal temp reaches 150-160. This has made all the difference for me in cooking pork chops. I do not marinade the chops. After I take them out of the pan, I add in a good marinade and scrape the pan and pour over.

For the recipe I linked to above, I use a nonstick aluminum skillet and either butter or olive oil.

If the chops are butterflied, as the header stated, then I would not finish them in the oven unless you want more hockey pucks.

If you don't have marsala, you can use any sweetish wine or sherry, apple cider, or even orange juice.

For butterflied chops, I'd echo another poster's recommendation of brining. It's much harder to "hockey puck" pork chops when they've been brined first.
30 minutes in a freezer bag filled with 1/4 cup kosher salt dissolved in a quart of water (for 2 chops) usually does the trick for me.

Recently, Cooks Illustrated had a barbecued pork chop pan recipe. they used bone-in chops, but just this week, I used boneless butterflied chops and it worked fine. After brining, I rinsed and dried the chops and then rubbed with a dry rub described in the article (I think brown sugar, paprika, cumin and black pepper, but I don't have it in front of me).

I then cooked the chops 4 minutes per side and removed from the pan. I used a neutral oil as another poster mentioned. Then I brushed w/ bbq sauce (you could make your own or use your favorite bottled) and returned the chops to the pan to caramelize the sauce. The internal temp should be something like 140 or 150 and then you should allow the chops to sit 5-10 minutes before serving.

very good. very easy. good use of pork chops, which I frequently find on sale at Dominicks.

lougord99 wrote:I am probably a little late for your current meal. Cook's illustrated a while back talked about how chops need to be cooked on low heat and gave the science behind it. It has made all the difference for me. I cook pork chops by laying them in a cold pan. Turn on the heat and when they just start to sizzle, reduce the heat. Cook until internal temp reaches 150-160. This has made all the difference for me in cooking pork chops. I do not marinade the chops. After I take them out of the pan, I add in a good marinade and scrape the pan and pour over.

I read the same article and found this method to be great. However, I cook my chops with duck or goose fat, especially any leftover from confit. With that added flavor, you don't need much in the way of seasoning.