Pork chops with butter pan sauce
Golden chops and a glossy sauce made from the brown bits in the pan, which is the whole secret to restaurant flavor.
- 30 min total
- 25 min hands-on
- Follow-a-recipe easy
- Serves 2
- About $2.04 a serving
- 440 calories
- Gluten-free
Dolly says: Read the steps once before you start. Everything goes smoother after that.
Ingredients
For 2 servings.
- 2 boneless pork chops, about 1 inch thick
- 1 tbsp ghee
- ½ cup chicken broth
- 2 tbsp butter, cold, cut into pieces
From your pantry
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp black pepper
Each serving has about 440 calories, 36 g protein, 1 g carbs and 33 g fat, and costs about $2.04 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No chicken broth? Vegetable broth or bone broth works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
the pork chops dry with paper towels and both sides with the salt and pepper.
Pat dry. Patting dry means pressing paper towels onto food to soak up the moisture on its surface. Wet food steams instead of browning, so this is how you get a good sear and crisp skin.
How you’ll know: The surface feels tacky, not wet, and the last paper towel comes away barely damp.
Season. Seasoning means adding salt, pepper or spices to bring out a food’s flavor. A little at a few stages tastes better than a lot all at the end.
How you’ll know: When you taste it, it tastes bright and like itself, not flat and not salty.
Heat the ghee in a large over medium-high heat until it , about 2 minutes.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Shimmering oil. Oil shimmers when it’s hot enough to cook: its surface looks rippled and wavy, like heat over a road. That’s your cue to add the food, just before the oil would start to smoke.
How you’ll know: The oil looks wavy and runs thin like water when you tilt the pan, with no smoke yet.
Medium-high heatTimer: 2 min
Lay in the chops and without moving for 4 minutes, until deep underneath.
Sear. Searing means cooking the outside of meat or fish in a hot pan, without moving it, until a deep brown crust forms. The crust is packed with flavor, and it only forms on a dry surface.
How you’ll know: It sizzles loudly the moment it goes in, and it lets go of the pan on its own when the crust is ready.
Golden brown. Golden brown is the color of good toast, somewhere between yellow and light brown. It means the outside is cooked and crisp but not burnt.
How you’ll know: It looks like toast and smells toasty; dark brown with a bitter smell means it went too far.
Medium-high heatTimer: 4 min
Dolly’s tip: If they stick when you try to lift, give them another minute. They let go when the crust is ready.Flip and cook 3 to 5 minutes more, until a thermometer in the thickest part reads 145°F, then move them to a plate to .
Rest. Resting means letting cooked meat sit for a few minutes before you cut it. It keeps cooking gently, and more of the juice stays in the meat instead of running onto the board.
How you’ll know: Loosely covered with foil, it stays hot, and very little juice runs out when you slice it.
Medium-high heatTimer: 4 min
Food safety: Steak, pork chops and other whole cuts are safe at 145°F in the middle, then let them rest for 3 minutes before cutting.
to medium, pour in the broth, and with a wooden spoon as it bubbles.
Reduce the heat. It means turning the burner down, usually to medium-low or low, so food cooks gently instead of hard. Electric burners cool slowly, so lift the pan off for a moment if it’s bubbling hard.
How you’ll know: Within a minute the bubbling calms to a gentle simmer, or the sizzle turns quiet.
Scrape up the browned bits. It means loosening the brown bits stuck to the pan with a wooden spoon, usually right after adding liquid. Those bits are concentrated flavor, and they melt into the sauce.
How you’ll know: The bottom of the pan looks clean again, and the liquid turns darker and richer.
Medium heat
Dolly’s tip: It hisses and steams, and that’s what you want. Keep scraping until the bottom of the pan looks clean.Let it bubble for 2 to 3 minutes, until it has by about half.
Reduce. Reducing means simmering a liquid with the lid off so some of the water steams away. The sauce gets thicker and its flavor gets stronger.
How you’ll know: The level drops in the pan, and the sauce coats the back of a spoon instead of running off.
Medium heatTimer: 2 min 30 sec
Take the pan off the heat and swirl in the butter a piece at a time until the sauce turns glossy.
Dolly’s tip: Off the heat is the trick. Too hot and the butter splits into grease.Pour the juices from the resting plate into the sauce, then spoon it over the chops.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
