This is a recipe for a simple pork chop with pan sauce, but I could have called it how
to sear and sauce anything. Getting down this basic pan sauce technique revolutionized my
weeknight meals. This is gonna take 20 minutes, start to finish.
First thing I do is chop up a shallot for the sauce. You could maybe do this while you’re
searing your pork chops, but I tend to forget to do it if I wait, or maybe it just stresses
me out to do it while I’m minding the meat, so I just do it beforehand. Shallots are so
good for pan sauces. You’ll see why in a sec.
Alright, pan for the pork chops goes on medium heat. I might turn that up later.
Here’s a little pot of water for steaming the broccoli and here’s one of these little
steamer basket thingies that adjusts to pans of many sizes. That goes in, lid goes on,
and that’s on high heat. Here’s a couple pork chops. I like bone-in, but whatever is
fine. A little olive oil, pepper and salt. Get them coated, then in the hot pan.
Here’s some broccoli, and I find the easiest way to cut this into florets is to turn it
upside down, and just cut downward to trim off the florets, working your way around and
progressively inward. And then I just cut up most of them into half or thirds. And I
love the stalk, I don’t waste it. I just start at the top and cut it into thin slices
until the slices start to look really woody, then I stop.
The stalk slices need a head start, so I throw those in the steamer first for like a minute.
I’m gonna turn the heat up on that pork a little bit. Then the rest of the broccoli
goes in.
When you’re planning to make a pan sauce, I think that you wanna be conservative with
the heat, because if any of the fond in the pan burns, that’s gonna spoil the sauce.
That’s why pork is such a great meat for making a pan sauce, because you usually wanna
cook pork a little slower than you would cook steak. To get a good sear on a steak, you
almost have to burn the fond.
Alright, broccoli is done when you can push a fork through it. I like it to still be a
little crunchy, so I want to feel some resistance on that fork. This still needs a little more
time. I’m looking for 145 F in these pork chops, or maybe a little bit more since they’re
bone in. The part around the bone tends to be really underdone if you pull it at 145.
Broccoli is done, and I’ll just lift the steamer basket out with my tongs and dump
the water out of that pot. Bring the empty pot back, melt in some butter. Garlic is good
at this stage too, I was just too lazy to chop it. Broccoli goes in with a pinch of
salt, and then I’ll set that off the heat to stay warm.
Chops are done, I’ll set them aside to rest while I make my pan sauce. Beautiful fond,
or what the Brits unappetizingly refer to as “sediment,” like we’re in a sewage
treatment plant, or something.
Shallots go in at this stage, and because the shallot layers are so much thinner than
onion layers, these little things just cook in like 30 seconds. This will give much-needed
sweetness and pungency to the sauce.
Then it’s time to deglaze with any flavorful liquid that you want, but I think something
sweet and sour is best. You could use fruit juice, but of course I’m gonna use some
white wine and scrape off all the fond with a wooden spoon.
I do think pan sauces tend to be too strong if you don’t also use some water. So I’m
doing basically half wine, half water. I’ll cook that for two or three minutes to extract
flavor from the shallots and mellow out the wine, then turn off the heat.
Here’s the rested pork chops. What I do is cut off the bone, I shall gnaw on that
like a caveman later. Then I slice up the loin. I like to pre-slice meat generally,
because I’m lazy, but it’s also particularly good to pre-slice when you have a sauce. It
creates more surface area that the sauce can coat.
Toss the broccoli around in that melted butter and salt, and put some on the plate. Then
into the sauce, I’ll pour all of the juice that came out while I rested and sliced my
chops, which is a lot.
Now, a little bit of mustard goes in the sauce. Tastes great and helps the sauce emulsify.
And just like three little slices of nice, cold butter that will melt in slowly. It’s
crucial that you do this after the sauce has come off the boil. If it’s too hot, the
butter fat will separate out.
Slowly melting the cold butter into that rapidly cooling sauce forms this utterly luscious
emulsion. Thick, glossy, rich. Instant sauce. So easy. I’ll put in some pepper and some
herbs, I’ve got some sage and thyme form my garden, classic pork bedfellows. Give it
a taste, it probably won’t need additional salt, and that is good. It should look tiny
bit too thin. It will thicken as it cools.
Onto the pork it goes. The chunks tend to settle on the bottom of the pan, so I’m
helping them out onto the plate.
Oh man that looks good, and it’s pretty good for you, too. You only need a little
butter to make a pan sauce thick and glossy like that. Love how the acidity of that sauce
cuts through the richness of the pork.
Oh, and here is why I eat this with broccoli. Those florets are really good at mopping up
the excess sauce, just like you might do with a crust of bread. If you’re trying to watch
your carbs, broccoli might not taste like bread or rice, but it can perform the same
culinary function in a dinner.
That is delicious, kinda fancy stuff, and it’s easy, cheap and quick. Pan sauces are
amazeballs. Deglaze with a flavorful liquid, take if it off the heat, stir in some butter,
do your happy dance.