Sweet and Spicy Pan-Seared Pork Chops
Updated Dec. 13, 2022
- Total Time
- 30 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 2(1- to 1½-inch-thick) bone-in pork rib chops, patted very dry
- 1tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon light brown sugar
- Salt
- ¼ cup whiskey or apple cider vinegar
- 3tablespoons unsulphured molasses (see Tip)
- 1tablespoon neutral oil, such as canola or grapeseed
- 1(2-inch) piece ginger, thinly sliced and smashed, plus 1 teaspoon peeled and finely grated
- 1tablespoon unsalted butter
Nutritional analysis per serving (3 servings)
397 calories; 21 grams fat; 7 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 9 grams monounsaturated fat; 3 grams polyunsaturated fat; 23 grams carbohydrates; 0 grams dietary fiber; 20 grams sugars; 28 grams protein; 482 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
Coat the pork chops with 1 teaspoon brown sugar, and sprinkle generously with salt. In a liquid measuring cup or small bowl, stir together 3 tablespoons water, the remaining 1 tablespoon brown sugar, whiskey and molasses. Season with salt.
- Step 2
In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium. Add the pork chops and cook, flipping every 2 minutes, until browned on the outside and the internal temperature in the thickest part is 110 to 120 degrees, 8 to 10 minutes. Reduce heat if sugar is burning. If your chops have a fat cap, using tongs, stack both chops on top of each other, then grab both chops together and hold upright to sear the fat caps until crisp, about 1 minute.
- Step 3
Lay the chops back down in a single layer and top with the sliced ginger. Add the butter, tilt the skillet and baste the pork by spooning the melting butter and drippings over the pork until the internal temperature registers 135 degrees, 2 to 3 minutes. Turn off the heat and transfer the pork and ginger to a plate to rest for at least 5 minutes. Pour off all but 2 tablespoons of the fat.
- Step 4
Pour the molasses mixture into the skillet. Bring to a simmer over medium, standing back as it might sputter or flame. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until the sauce resembles maple syrup and coats a spoon, 3 to 5 minutes. It can be tempting to crank the heat, but don’t, or the sauce risks tightening or burning. If your sauce gets too thick, thin with water. Turn off heat and stir in the grated ginger.
- Step 5
Discard the sliced ginger and stir resting juices into the sauce. Serve the pork chops with a spoonful of the sauce.
- When shopping, look for unsulphured molasses. For this recipe, light molasses is too mild, and blackstrap is too bitter.
Private Notes
Comments
This was a great dinner for two! Substituted maple syrup for the Molasses using 1/2 as much. Sliced the ginger and smashed it as directed but could have skipped the smashing as I scraped it off into the sauce to cook down and strained the sauce as I poured it over the bone-in-chops. Spot on direction in letting the sauce SLOWLY develop over low heat. Adding this to the rotation!
I'll start this thread off by risking being obnoxious. This looks amazing and I'll definitely make it. But, I thought immediately of a holiday dinner that I'm trying to plan for 6 people, and my love of putting something in the oven for hours, then finishing it off, rather than standing over a sputtering stove right before dinner. I'm trying to wrap my brain around doing this with a cut like a pork shoulder. I've got some ideas tumbling about, but feel free to weigh in!
I just made this, did 3 pork chops. Minimal amount of time required standing over the stove, maybe 10 minutes of very easy, no fuss, minimal muss cooking. Quite tasty, we all liked it very much.
1) I made the sauce in advance. No sugar, halved the molasses, added the butter here. A splash of water to taste. I used bourbon, whose boozy characteristics dissipated as the sauce cooked. The butter added a gentle caramel taste - leave out if this doesn’t appeal to you. I amped up the fresh ginger to well over a Tbs. 2) I had some pulverized brown sugar and cinnamon on hand, so used that to “dust” the chops, along with some flaky salt. 3) Didn’t use the sliced ginger. When the chops reached about 110 I added the sauce. Continued to flip the chops every 30-60 seconds until reaching 135, which happened very quickly. I let the chops rest outside the pan for a few minutes, then served with extra sauce on the side (wasn’t really needed).
Very tasty. Added some Dragonfly chili paste to put the spicy in "Sweet and Spicy".
The step “dust with brown sugar” should have been a red flag. I will NEVER dust anything with sugar again and put it in my expensive, French made, cast iron skillet. The mild abrasives I used to get it off, in this order, were overnight soak, Swedish scrubbie, Comet inundation, plastic putty knife, and my finger nails. The sautéed pork chops were good, but that’s because the pork and the maple syrup I used were home grown.
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