Vietnamese Pan Fried Pork Chops – Part One

March 24, 2014 by Laurie Nguyen 12 Comments

One of my family’s favorite dishes is based on a recipe my hubby found in a Vietnamese cookbook we picked up at Costco many years ago.  You know it’s an authentic cookbook when it’s been translated to English after the initial publication.  I’ve adapted the recipe slightly and prepare it regularly, and, although I’ve never tried it, every one of my boys and my husband LOVE it!  Even my oldest son who doesn’t like at least half of my cooking.  (He hates Indian which is one of my favs!)

 

Yummy Pork Chops!

 

Why don’t I eat it?  I have some funny rules about food.  If something doesn’t appeal to me, and it’s not particularly healthy, I choose not to try it, because then there will be another food I want that I shouldn’t have.  Strange.  I know.  But we all have our little quirks, don’t we?

 

Okay, back to the pork chops.  I love these because we get several meals out of them:  dinner for the family, lunch for my hubby, leftovers re-made for dinner, and leftover lunch for my hubby.  It saves us a ton of money, but it doesn’t feel like saving, because everyone loves it so much.

 

Without further ado, here’s the recipe.

 

Pan-Fried Pork Chops

Adapted from a recipe in Vietnamese Cuisine by Muoi Thai Loangkote

 

4 pork chops (1 pound)

2 tablespoons soy sauce (I prefer La Choy)

1 tablespoon fish sauce (similar to soy sauce, but not interchangeable)

2 teaspoons sugar

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1/2 teaspoon chili powder

3 garlic cloves, mashed or put through garlic press

1/2 teaspoon ground coriander (can substitute 1 tablespoon fresh coriander stem pieces)

 

Tenderize pork chops (or at 1/8 teaspoon baking soda to marinade).  Mix together all other ingredients.  Coat pork chops in marinade.  Let marinade for at least 1 hour if you have tenderized the chops.  If you have not tenderized the chops, let them marinade overnight.

 

Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in a frying pan on high heat.  Cook pork chops until meat is cooked and golden brown (about 5-8 minutes, depending on thickness of chops).  Serve with rice.

 

 

As always, here’s my step-by-step picture tutorial.  (Keep in mind that I doubled the recipe.)

 

Pork chops – And I got them on sale! SCORE!

 

I tenderized the chops with my handy, dandy, heavy-duty meat tenderizer.  You can see the edge of it in the top right hand corner.  Do you see how I cut the edges of the pork chops? This keeps the chops from curling while you cook them. You can also see that when I defrosted these in the microwave, they cooked just a tad bit around a couple of the edges.  No matter!  They will still taste great!

 

Here’s the soy sauce, fish sauce, and garlic.

 

I added the remaining ingredients (sugar, cornstarch, chili powder, and coriander) and whisked them together.

 

Next, I dipped each pork chop into the marinade, making sure to get it on both sides.

 

I stacked them up in my Pyrex bowl, put the lid on, and stuck it in my fridge overnight.

 

Here they are the following afternoon. They marinaded for almost 24 hours, but you don’t have to let yours go that long. I often will marinade these in the afternoon and pull them out of the fridge around dinner time.

 

Next, I put oil into a frying pan and turned the heat on high. In went the chops.

 

See how they’re turning a light pink around the edges? That’s how I know they’re ready to cook on the other side.

 

And I flipped them over. Don’t they look yummy?

 

Here’s the second set of chops. They look just as good as the first set.

 

And here they are! I forgot to take a picture of the food before everyone started eating. My son graciously agreed to let me take a picture of his dinner.

 

And that’s it!  The most difficult part of this is tenderizing the pork chops.  The total prep time is maybe 10 minutes.   The cook time is less than 10 minutes for four chops.  I doubled the recipe, and they were done in less than 15 minutes.

 

Tomorrow, I will show you how I “re-made” these into a lovely dinner my children actually want to eat, despite the fact that they are leftovers.

 

What’s your favorite quick and hearty dish?  Can you “re-make” it so it doesn’t feel like you’re eating leftovers?