Monday, November 9, 2009

Crispy Baked Pork Chops

Mix 4 cups of water and 1/4 c salt. Soak the pork chops in this brine for 30 minutes.

In the meantime, make 3-4 cups of fresh bread crumbs in a food processor. Mix them with 3 tbls. parsley and 4-5 minced garlic cloves. Blend all in the processor and spread on a baking pan. Bake at 400 degrees for 12 minutes or until browned. After you take them out of the oven, mix in 3 tbls. of grated or shredded Parmesan.

Mix 3 egg whites, 3 tbls. mustard* and 6 tbls. flour in a shallow dish, and put about a cup of all-purpose flour in a 3rd dish.

Rinse the chops and dip each in the flour, the egg/mustard mixture, and then the crumbs. Carefully place each on a baking rack over a baking sheet.

Bake at 425 degrees for 20-30 minutes until internal temperature is 150 degrees.

NOTES:
  • These were excellent and were very moist.
  • The original recipe came from a TV show (America's Test Kitchen?), but there was a charge for getting recipes from their site so I had to fill in a couple details.
  • *I think they used Dijon mustard, but I only had plain yellow. It was fine, but something more interesting might be better.
  • As the source said, "These won't look any better after they're baked, so make sure the coating is perfect and they go in looking great."
  • I think I would try baking them on parchment next time. The rationale for the baking rack was so they'd be crisp on the bottom too, but mostly the bottom coating just stuck to the rack (yes, I sprayed it), and whatever dropped down to the pan just burned there.
  • Really though, between the brine and the coating these were super moist. It would be a nice dish to serve guests.
  • I increased the amount of the egg mixture to make my 7 chops.

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