Learning a new technique can be a lot of fun. This slicing technique demonstrated in 7-51: Butterflied Pork Chops is new to me, but the final product really speaks for itself. The larger surface area creates more crispy, golden brown crust.
I love the place settings in the background of the image below. The jar of mustard, the frothy beer and crusty bread really set the scene in which you’d want to eat this dish.
From previous posts, I’ve learned how to put together a pan sauce from fat drippings, milk, and garlic. The base sauce gets enhanced with some acid from the Dijon mustard, the green flavor of the parsley, and the classic standby combo, salt and pepper, fill out the rest of the flavors in the sauce.
As advertised on the card, this dish was easy to make. Honestly, the most difficult part for me was the slicing of the pork chops.
I was scraping the bottom of a few of my ingredients here. The salt and pepper are almost empty, though we still used that same garlic for at least 4 months after this photo was taken. That minced garlic container lasts forever and it’s not like we hardly ever use garlic while cooking. Just kidding, it seems like we put garlic in everything. It adds such a great aroma to almost any dish.
These pork chops were really thick, about an inch and a half. I’m going to cut these into 4 chops using a long, serrated knife.
Now the chops are similar in size to the chop shown in the example photo. Next it is time to butterfly the chops. I will take the knife and cut sideways through the light colored tissue on the side. That is connective tissue and fat which is easier to get a clean edge through.
Three of the four total chops came out looking nice. The chop in the upper right corner lost a flap of the butterfly wing.
Sizzling butter smells amazing. This will help flavor the pork chops and keep the butterfly wings from sticking to the pan.
The pan is the perfect size for the four butterfly cut pork chops. The butter started browning so I added some canola oil to the pan.
The chops sizzled away in the pan. At this point, they are just starting to darken, but not cooked all the way through yet.
Now we get to see the other side. When the crust is golden brown on the inside, a dash of salt and pepper will complete this stage of cooking.
I set the chops aside to rest while making the pan sauce.
First, add the milk to the drippings. Lactose-free milk for me, please.
Minced garlic and Dijon mustard will complete the flavor profile of the sauce. Time to mix this up and heat the sauce to thicken it up.
The sauce turned a delicious golden brown and smelled amazing.
Don’t you always forget to add an ingredient? I added the parsley right at the end and then make one last mistake. The instructions say to add the pork back into the pan and let them get coated in the sauce while they heat back up. I forgot to put the pork back and just topped the chop with sauce.
Served with some lightly dressed salad, the butterfly pork chops were delicious. These did not last long as leftovers. The chops came out super moist and tender. I would highly recommend this method for pork chops. It’s fun to try something new and the technique gives you a chance to play with knives. 🔪
Grade: A-
