Kitchen Sink Pan-Fried Pork Chops
From Carrie Morey's Hot Little Suppers cookbook
I made pork chops for the cast of Top Chef this summer and used this recipe as inspiration. Hey, I had to show them a good, Southern home cooked supper!
Ingredients
- • 4 bone-in 1-inch thick pork chops
- • 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
- • 3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- • 1 sleeve saltine crackers
- • 1 tablespoon minced fresh sage
- • 1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme
- • 2 cups grated Parmesan cheese
- • 2 large eggs
- • Vegetable Oil, for frying
- • 4 cloves garlic, cut in half
- • 4 green onions, thinly sliced (both white and green parts)
My California-born husband claims not to like fried food. Please. He gobbles up these pork chops every time, and when I've gone a while without making them, he makes sure to head to one of our favorite local restaurants where on Tuesdays the special is pork chops. The lunch plate comes with two chops, and he eats one at lunch and brings the other one home. I'd like to think he eats the one and brings the other home to share with me, but that's never the case. He inhales it before I even have a chance-every time.
This recipe was created out of pure desperation. I'd hosted an oyster roast the night before, and let's say I was feeling just a little bit peaked from the hostessing duties, and the only cure was fried pork chops. All the meat-and-threes were closed on Sunday, and we were completely out of flour because I'd made a bunch of biscuits a few days before. All we had that I could think of using for breading was the saltine crackers left over from serving the oysters the night before. They say necessity is the mother of invention, and she did not let me down on this one!
Instructions
- Season the pork chops with 1 teaspoon of the salt and 1/2 teaspoon of the pepper
- Place the saltines in a resealable plastic bag and use a rolling pin to crush them. Add the sage, thyme, and the remaining 1/4 teaspoon pepper.
- Set up a breading station with three shallow bowls: Put the cheese in one. Beat the eggs with the remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt in the second. Pour the saltine crumbs into the third. Set up one cooling rack over waxed paper and another over a baking sheet.
- Coat the pork chops in the cheese, then the eggs (allow the excess egg to drip back into the bowl), and finally the saltines. Place the chops on the rack over the waxed paper and allow to set for 8 to 10 minutes.
- Heat a cast-iron skillet on medium-high heat. Pour in enough oil to come up 1/4 inch. Add the garlic and cook 3 minutes, or until fragrant. Remove and discard the garlic. Add the chops and fry for 4 minutes per side, until crisp and brown on the outside and barely pink on the inside.
- Remove to the clean rack to drain briefly. Serve topped with green onions.
