In this edition of Epicurious 101, professional chef and culinary instructor Frank Proto demonstrates how to make the best pork chops you've ever had at home.
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00:00 I'm Frank Proto, professional chef and culinary instructor.
00:02 And today I'm gonna show you how to make
00:03 a restaurant quality pork chop
00:05 with a silky, velvety pan sauce.
00:08 With a few key techniques,
00:09 your pork chop will be juicy and succulent every time.
00:13 This is Pork Chop 101.
00:15 Before we start cooking anything,
00:16 I want you to pay attention to this pork chop.
00:18 This chop we have here is a center cut pork chop,
00:21 bone in, fat cap left on.
00:23 And that fat is edible, people.
00:26 Some would say the fat is the best part.
00:28 Who's ready to cook this beautiful pork chop?
00:30 This guy.
00:31 Let's get started.
00:32 [upbeat music]
00:35 When you go through the trouble
00:36 to get a beautiful cut of meat like this,
00:38 you want the meat to shine.
00:39 I keep the seasoning simple, salt and pepper.
00:42 I wanna taste the pork.
00:44 When it comes to seasoning,
00:45 you wanna get your pork chop nice and dry.
00:47 Moisture is the enemy of a good sear
00:49 and a nice brown crust on the outside.
00:51 And I'm gonna go a nice dusting of pepper.
00:53 So you see how I'm holding this pepper mill up high?
00:56 The higher you go, the better dispersion you get.
00:59 And then I'm gonna get my salt
01:00 and I'm gonna go pretty heavy on the salt, right?
01:03 The inside of our pork chop isn't seasoned.
01:05 So when we cut that slice,
01:07 we're gonna get that nice salty crust
01:09 and that nice juicy interior.
01:11 And do the other side, give it a little dab,
01:13 season it up, fair amount of salt
01:16 and get that fat seasoned too
01:17 'cause we're gonna give a little bit of brownness
01:19 to this as well.
01:20 Before this goes in the pan,
01:21 we're gonna dab it again
01:22 to make sure there's no more moisture
01:24 and then we can sear.
01:25 (upbeat music)
01:28 First step is to get our pan hot.
01:30 I'm gonna go for a medium high heat
01:33 and I'm gonna add some vegetable oil, a neutral oil,
01:36 something with not a lot of flavor
01:37 that's just gonna help us brown that pork chop.
01:39 I want the pan to have a nice coating of oil.
01:42 When it's getting ready to go,
01:43 you'll see that it kind of gets shimmery and ripply
01:46 and you'll see just a little bit of smoke coming off.
01:49 One last time, I'm gonna dab my pork chop off.
01:52 I'm gonna put it in the pan and drop it away from me
01:55 so that I don't get splashed with hot oil.
01:57 This point, I can lower just a little
01:59 because I see I got a lot of smoke there.
02:01 So I'm just gonna let it go for a few minutes.
02:03 Similar to a steak, you can cook this pork chop
02:05 to a medium temperature
02:06 and that's gonna ensure that it's juicy and delicious.
02:08 I'm not gonna turn it until I see
02:10 that I'm starting to get brown on the bottom side.
02:12 So what you could do is just give it a little peek.
02:15 How we looking there, boys?
02:16 At this point, I'm gonna give it a turn,
02:19 getting some nice browning there
02:21 and we're gonna let it sear on this side for a few minutes,
02:23 maybe about three to four minutes.
02:25 This point, once I get a little brown on both sides,
02:28 I'm gonna hold it on the fat side
02:29 to render that fat out a little.
02:31 What that helps us do is take some of the moisture
02:33 out of the fat and make it more delicious.
02:36 The pork chop at this point is not at all cooked,
02:38 but what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna get
02:39 some of that searing fat off,
02:41 put my pork chop back in the pan
02:43 and I'm gonna add butter, a couple of sprigs of thyme
02:47 and some crushed garlic.
02:49 And what this is gonna do is it's gonna start
02:51 to flavor our pork chop.
02:52 So I'm gonna tilt it and get all that butter
02:55 and thyme and garlic and I'm gonna baste my pork chop.
02:59 Basically when we baste, we're putting fat or juices
03:02 over the top of our pork chop.
03:03 Our garlic gets brown and fragrant,
03:05 our butter gets nice and brown and nutty
03:08 and this all transfers to the crust on our pork chop.
03:11 When you're cooking a thick piece of meat like this,
03:15 you wanna get yourself an instant read thermometer.
03:17 What I like to do is go really close to the bone
03:20 'cause closest to the bone is gonna be
03:21 the last piece that cooks.
03:23 I'm probably looking for about 135, 140 degrees.
03:27 We're at about 120.
03:28 So we're gonna let it go for a minute or two more.
03:31 All right, I think we're good here.
03:33 I'm gonna take my pork chop out
03:35 and you can see that I have a resting rack over here.
03:37 I'm gonna let it rest for about five to seven minutes
03:39 so those juices can redistribute.
03:41 This gives us time to make our pan sauce.
03:43 [upbeat music]
03:46 First thing we wanna do with our pan sauce
03:48 is get rid of this used up butter and oil.
03:50 I'm just gonna take this, put it into this bowl.
03:53 What's cool about the pan is though,
03:54 we have all these little brown bits.
03:56 That's called the fond, F-O-N-D.
03:59 And we wanna keep that in the pan.
04:01 That is our flavor base for our sauce.
04:04 So we're gonna turn our pan back on,
04:05 kind of a medium heat,
04:07 and we're gonna put some fresh oil in.
04:08 And then we start with the aromatics.
04:10 I'm starting out with some shallots, just a little salt.
04:13 Salt will bring out some of the moisture in the shallots.
04:16 I like using shallots for my pan sauce.
04:17 I think they got a little bit of a finer flavor than onions.
04:20 And you'll notice that I didn't add my garlic at this point.
04:23 Shallots take a little longer than garlic to cook.
04:25 And if I added my garlic and shallots at the same time,
04:28 they would burn.
04:29 I'm gonna add my thyme.
04:30 I'm gonna add a little chopped garlic.
04:32 And we're just gonna cook this
04:33 so it's fragrant and not raw.
04:35 Now we have a little bit of browning
04:36 on our shallots and our garlic.
04:39 So I'm using apple brandy in this,
04:41 and that's my preference.
04:42 I like the flavor of apples.
04:43 If you like apple cider, apple cider vinegar,
04:47 beer, wine, you can use any of those to deglaze the pan.
04:49 Take a step back.
04:50 [pan sizzling]
04:53 I'm gonna add some whole grain mustard to this.
04:56 And I'm gonna extinguish the flame
05:00 with a little bit of heavy cream.
05:01 Maybe a lot of heavy cream.
05:04 If that makes you nervous, use something lower in alcohol.
05:07 Brandy is high in alcohol, so you get a lot of fire.
05:10 White wine, use beer, use cider, cider vinegar.
05:14 All of those have a little more water content,
05:15 you're not gonna get any flame.
05:17 Now if your heavy cream is super thick,
05:18 we're gonna take a little bit of chicken stock
05:20 and just thin it out and let the sauce come together.
05:23 So we have the fond and the chicken stock,
05:24 and that's gonna give us a nice kind of meaty background
05:27 to our sauce.
05:28 Of course, always salt and pepper.
05:30 And then we're gonna let this reduce.
05:32 So at this point, I'm gonna add a little knob of butter.
05:34 And we're just gonna let that butter kind of melt in.
05:37 And the butter's gonna help thicken the sauce a little too,
05:39 as well as give us flavor.
05:41 When our sauce is reducing,
05:42 you'll see the bubbles are really small
05:44 and they're popping like crazy.
05:45 As this gets thicker,
05:47 you're gonna notice the bubbles get bigger and pop slower.
05:49 You can see it here happening, right?
05:51 I'm looking at my bubbles
05:53 to make sure that they are popping slower
05:56 as the consistency gets better.
05:58 The best way to determine that our sauce is done
06:00 is you put a spoon in there,
06:02 you run your finger through it,
06:03 and if you get a nice crisp line,
06:04 your sauce is ready to go.
06:06 We've done all this work to make our sauce beautiful,
06:11 our pork chop perfect.
06:13 Now's my favorite time.
06:14 Let's get it on a plate and eat it.
06:16 Our sauce is done,
06:17 but I do wanna add some garnish to it.
06:19 So we're gonna brighten it up with a little bit of parsley.
06:22 It's got great flavor, right?
06:23 You wanna make sure you do this at the end
06:25 'cause the parsley will turn brown eventually.
06:28 That's a big pork chop and we need a lot of sauce.
06:30 So I'm gonna put a fair amount of sauce on my plate.
06:33 I'm gonna put my pork chop right on top, right in the sauce.
06:37 I generally don't like to put sauce on top of this
06:39 because I put a lot of effort
06:41 into making this nice and golden brown.
06:43 And there you have it,
06:44 Chef Frank's pork chop with pan sauce.
06:47 Now it's time to cut into this pork chop and give it a taste.
06:51 Let's take a moment here
06:52 just to look how beautiful this is.
06:55 I almost don't wanna cut into it,
06:57 but I'm gonna do it anyway.
06:59 Look at that, right?
07:00 Our pork isn't dry.
07:01 We got a little bit of juiciness to it.
07:04 It's cooked all the way through, right?
07:06 It's not pink, but it is still very juicy.
07:09 Let's get in there.
07:10 I'm gonna take a little piece with the fat.
07:13 I'm gonna dip it in the sauce.
07:14 There is a symphony of flavors going on here.
07:20 Mustard, apples, cream, pork, pork fat.
07:25 Everything together is just fantastic.
07:28 Cooking is a lot about technique and the process of cooking,
07:31 but at the end of the day, you gotta put some love in it.
07:34 And this pork chop is all love.
07:36 Lots of butter and cream too.
07:37 (bell ringing)