Panko Buttermilk Pork Chops

So the dinner with the high temperature cooked panko encrusted chicken went so well, I decided to apply the same idea to pork. Only, I did not mallet the whathaveyou out of them to make them slender like the chicken, so I decided to experiment with the temperature. Flattened chicken would cooked to perfection at 500 degrees F. I cooked these pork chops at 475.

Panko Buttermilk Pork Chops
nutrition facts

What to assemble before you start because it all happens quite fast indeed:


I used three pork chops (each about the size of 1/2 of a butterfly chop
1 pint buttermilk
1 T Sriracha Sauce
1 zip lock bag
1 1/2 cups Panko (you can get plain or seasoned as you prefer)
1/4 t fresh cracked black pepper
1 t dried parsley
1 t paprika
2 t garlic powder
I do not salt but I am used to very low or no salt, you may need some salt
1/2 cup fresh ground Parmesan

9 x 12 baking pan lined with foil
Non stick spray

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 475 degrees F (yup, I decided)

As soon as I got home from the store, I took the pork chops out of the package and placed them in the zip lock bag with the buttermilk and Sriracha Sauce  If you are cooking dinner within a half hour, leave the bag on the counter, otherwise refrigerate it and then take the bag out of the fridge 45 minutes prior to baking. Room temperature meat will cook faster. This high heat method needs the meat to cook up fast so it finishes throughout and yet remains tender and juicy.

Mix up the Panko, seasonings, and Parmesan in a medium sized bowl.

Pull the pork chops out of the bag one at a time and gently shake - don't try to get all the buttermilk off just the excess. Then coat each chop thoroughly with the Panko mixture. Press the Panko mixture firmly into the meat. If you run out of Panko stuff, mix up some more. If you have extra you can press it in on the top or pitch as you prefer.

Lay them in the foil lined pan (don't forget to spray with the non-stick stuff first).

Here's what they looked like before going into the oven. I smashed on almost every bit of the Panko mix.

Pop the pan into the preheated oven. They should be done in 15-20 minutes depending the thickness of the chops. The Panko will be well browned, bordering on but not achieving an unhealthy charring.

Today's pork should not be cooked to the point of well done. It should still be faintly pink when removed from the oven. An internal temperature of 145-150 is fine. Check the chubbiest chop with an instant read thermometer. Mine were fat little fellows and took about 25 minutes. The pork chops are not improved with a higher internal temperature and will turn out dry in spite of the best efforts of the buttermilk.

Tent with foil for 10 minutes after they are removed from the oven. This will allow the juices to spread throughout and enhance the lovely texture.

Tonight, I served them with microwaved new potatoes and frozen cut green beans, layered with thick cut applewood smoked bacon which was sliced into nice delicious chunks.

Serve, and accept applause as mindfully as possible.

Simply Spinach Frittata

Sometimes it's fun to eat breakfast for dinner. My Mom, much to my great pleasure, often made scrambled eggs and pancakes and sausage for dinner. While that still sounds good to me, I eat a little differently now. Even my breakfast is filled with veggies. I've detailed the nutrition given the recipe as it is and set at a dinner portion, but do see the notes below for ways to lower the calories and ramp up the nutrition to suit the way you may eat.

Simply Spinach Frittata

The stuff to assemble:

1 9x13 pan sprayed with non-stick cookery spray
1 large skillet
2 T olive oil, divided use
1/2 of a large sweet onion chopped
16 oz (or more if you like) fresh spinach, torn in half
12 eggs, lightly beaten with a fork (my favorite humane egg in a store comes from Country Hen, but you may be even luckier and have a local farm source - buy from them, it is worth every penny.)
1 pound Jarlsberg, shredded
8 oz Parmesan, shredded
Fresh cracked black pepper, to taste

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

What you need to do:

Always do your prep before starting the actual cookery. In a dish like this, stuff happens so fast at first, and if you aren't ready, you will be more likely to miss ingredients or make a humongous unmindful mess.

Once you have done the prep heat 1 T olive oil in the skillet over medium heat until the oil is shimmering. Add the onions and saute until they are nicely browned and caramelized. In order for the browning to happen, you have to let them sit a bit and not spend the entire time stirring. If you do that, they will cook to the point where they look a bit more translucent, but they will take a few hundred years to brown. So, stir them when you add them to get the olive oil distributed well and let them sit a couple minutes, stir, let them sit, etc.

Remove the onions to a plate or bowl to cool.

Add the second tablespoon of olive to the skillet and saute the spinach until it is nicely wilted. If you've never sauteed spinach before, trust me on this all that spinach will reduce dramatically within a few minutes. Suspend a fine mesh colander over your sink and dump the spinach in there. After it cools a bit, press the spinach with a wooden spoon squishing out much of the liquid. No need to get obsessive about squishing it completely dry, just get the bulk of it out or your frittata will not set well.

In a large bowl mix the beaten eggs, Jarlsberg, Parmesan, and fresh cracked black pepper. The mixture will be a bit thick. Add the onions and spinach and stir until the spinach is nicely distributed throughout.

If you haven't already sprayed the pan with non-stick spray, go ahead and do it now. Then tip in the egg spinach mixture and spread it out a bit until it is fairly even in height.

Pop into the oven and bake about 35 minutes. The whole thing will puff up a little bit and the top will brown prettily. To make sure it is done, insert a clean dry knife in the middle, if it comes out clean, it's done. If eggy stuff is on it cook a few more minutes. Tent for 10 minutes under aluminum foil, and serve.

Flexibility is incredibly mindful:

All ingredients can be adjusted to the proportions you need. All ingredients (except egg) can be replaced with food you prefer. You may not be a Jarlsberg person, so use sharp cheddar or your favorite whatever cheese. If you like feta, use that instead of Parmesan or use both Parmesan and feta. If you want less cheese, cut the quantity with no worries as to how it will turn out. If you LOVE spinach, you can easily dump in about 24 ounces. Other things to consider adding: sweet red pepper, sausage - crumbled cooked breakfast sausage or hot Italian sausage would work wonderfully, jalapenos, sauteed summer squash, banana peppers, use kale instead of spinach or use a mixture of both. Well, you get the idea.

We make this for dinner and then on the following day I love to cut a small square just the right size to sit between two halves of a whole wheat English muffin. Cut the square in half horizontally and put one piece on each of the muffin halves. Toast in the toaster oven, put the sandwich back together and enjoy.

Panko Chicken

Ok, I have just about had it with the stupid super lean chicken breasts in the store. Do yours squeak when cooked? Mine did. When they "look" done, they are over done. When they ARE done, they look unattractively underdone. I've tried braising, pan sauteing, oven baking, roasting, etc. But when I cook a boneless skinless chicken breast, I keep hearing that obnoxious squeak when I cut it that means it's over cooked and dried out. Bleh.

It's easy to cook up a moist and lovely chicken thigh or a whole bird...or even a bone in skin on chicken breast. But the weekday speedy boneless skinless breast was really beginning to annoy me.

So, I tried a bunch of stuff. Really I did. I ruined many a batch o' chicken breasts. Then one day, I tried again. The first thing my son said after sampling this experiment was "Wow. I can even cut this with a fork." Then he said "This is awesome, I'd pay $30 for that in a restaurant." 22 year old men are odd things.

I guess I finally figured it out. Here's what I did. Now remember,  my non chicken ingredients are at this point rather estimated because I only made it once and am not much of a measurer anyway. The recipe was repeated with success by a friend though so I think it's pretty dratted close. I'll edit it later if I find that I am off in an important area.

Panko Buttermilk Chicken Breasts

The main ingredients with notes as to flexibility and variations on a chicken breast theme:


3 large organical chicken breasts of the uneven size and proportion (don't worry, we'll fix that)

Enough Buttermilk to cover the chicken breasts (I did not measure and really, most of it will be poured down the drain later so don't worry about the calories, ok?)

Several shakes of Tabasco sauce (optional, but I thought it made a wonderful flavor enhancement and besides I love my food spicy, although this did not make the chicken spicy, there was just a hint of something extra). My friend Gabi, the BrokeAss Gourmet likes to use a couple tablespoons of Sriracha Sauce instead of Tabasco. Give it a try, it's tasty.

1 1/2 cups Panko Japanese Style Bread Crumbs (I used the Italian seasoned ones this time, but it's not important cuz you add whatever seasonings you want and I meant to grab the plain when I was at the store and I just didn't. So this is what I had to work with)

1 cup freshly grated Parmigianno Reggiano (or your favorite hard Italian cheese all grated up. Do make sure it's fresh grated. Never buy grated cheese in a bag or plastic container unless you don't like the people coming over for dinner.

More Seasonings I used probably 3 t or even more of garlic, oh say 2 t dried parsley, about a 1 of oregano, and a number of turns of the black pepper mill. You use the seasonings that you like. You might not be a major garlicaholic like me so you would NEVER additional garlic if you got the Italian seasoned Panko. BTW, you don't have to make this Italian. Use whatever your favorite herbs and seasonings are. You may love white pepper tarragon chicken or you may be a big Herbs de Provencal person. If so, then make it so.

How the thing is put together and baked to glorious tenderness and juiciness:

Get out one of those big zip lock bags and your meat mallet. Put one chicken breast inside the ziplock bag. Do not seal it, but lightly flatten the open end with one hand because you are about to whack the whathaveyou out of your chicken with the flat side of the mallet and you don't want the chicken squirting out. Don't use the bumpy side of the mallet, ok? Whack away. Whack until the breast is about even thickness throughout. You'll probably find it between 1/2 an inch to 3/4 of an inch thick depending on how big the breasts were in the first place. Repeat with the other two breasts.

One thing you will notice is that your three breasts are now incredibly huge. Didn't look like so much meat before. Now you know that only 1/2 of one is going to be just fine for dinner. Put the flattened breasts in a bowl or other container with a lid. Cover with buttermilk. Lift each breast to make sure the buttermilk gets all around them. Stir in some Tabasco while you are doing the lifting part. Cover and return to the fridge for about 1/2 an hour to an hour or whatever amount of time you find you have. Bring out of the fridge and sit for 1/2 an hour to bring to room temperature before cookery.

Preheat your oven to 500 degrees. Yes. 500, not 350, not 375, not 425. 500 degrees in Fahrenheit.

While the oven is heating up, mix up all the other non-chicken ingredients in a wide bowl. Inhale the aroma and adjust the seasonings until the dry mix smells awesome. This is my most favorite of mindfulness cookery techniques. Use your nose, eyes, and memory in addition to a recipe.

Line a large baking pan with foil and give it a spritz of non stick spray.

Pull out one of the chicken breasts and coat well with the Panko mix on both sides. Place in the pan. Repeat. Repeat.

Now, the best thing is if your chicken breasts do not touch so use a large enough pan. If they have to touch you may need to add five minutes to the cookery time.

When the oven preheating dinger goes off and you know your oven is really hot, put the pan in and let it bake for about 20 minutes. Yes. 20 minutes. If you think your chickens were more on the 3/4 inch size you may need five more minutes. I will let you cut one or use your meat thermometer to make sure. Then remove from the oven and let them sit in the pan for five minutes to seal in the juiciness and flavors.

As you can see, the chicken was not only perfectly cooked but the Panko gave it a nice brownness - which helped me mentally because a non-browned chicken shrieks underdone to me and I am immediately prejudiced against it. Give it a try. If you use different seasonings, let me know what you did and how it turned out.

Don't forget to enjoy your chicken mindfully. :D