One of the most frequent peeves of beginner cooks is that they can’t cook moist, juicy pork chops. When those cooks are moms with kids, such an issue can turn into a tragedy, as those little fussy eaters simply refuse chewing the meat. A common trick for moistening pork chops is to marinate them over night before grilling or baking them. However, if you don’t have the time to wait that much, you still can find a few pork chop recipes that result in a tender, juicy meat, just as children love it. Here’s an idea for you to try next time you think of cooking pork chops:

Ingredients:

• 4 pork chops, boneless, maximum 1 inch thick
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups of white flour
• 1 tablespoon dried thyme
• 1 cup olive oil
• Salt, pepper

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 20 minutes

Serves 4

Method:

Beat each pork chop with a meat beater as thin as you can. If you don’t like the idea of cleaning the kitchen walls and the floor of meat juice and tiny bits of meat, then you’d better put a plastic foil on the chops when you beat them. Sprinkle each chop with salt and dried thyme on both sides.

In a bowl, mix the eggs with the white flour and with some salt and pepper. It’s hard to give an exact amount of flour you need to use, but I can tell you what you’re after: a mixture that’s still liquid, yet doesn’t drip off the chops when you dip them inside the bowl, then take them out.

Heat the oil in a frying pan, dip each pork chop in the egg-flour mixture, then put them one by one in the pan, making sure they don’t overlap. Fry them at medium heat for about 6-8 minutes on each side or until they turn light brown. If your pan is not large enough to accommodate all four chops at once, fry them two at a time, then repeat. After they are done, take them out of the pan and put them on a paper towel, so the oil gets drained.

Serve the pork chops with steamed vegetables or with mashed potatoes. Leftovers are excellent for cold sandwiches.

Although pork chops are usually a nice and tender cut of meat, using a marinade makes them even better. It doesn’t matter which pork chop recipes you’d like to cook, all of them taste better if you marinate the chops for several hours before cooking them. You can use the marinade recipe we are going to present here, or you can make any variation you wish. However, before making your own pork chop marinade recipes, you’ll have to understand how marinades work. In order for the marinating process to occur, the meat has to come in contact with substances that dissolve connective tissues and hard worked muscles, thus tenderizing them. Such substances are acids and some enzymes that can be found in various plants. Your marinade recipe must contain one of these active substances, therefore you’ll have to use as main ingredient either lemon or vinegar, or papain (the active enzyme in papaya leaves). The other ingredients in the marinade help adding flavors to the meat, so here you can use whatever is most appealing to your taste.

Pork chop marinade ingredients:

• 1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Preparation time: 10 minutes

The quantities are enough for marinating 4 pork chops

Preparation procedure:

Mix all ingredients together, then pour the marinade over the pork chops, or put everything in a zip lock plastic bag and refrigerate for at least 3-4 hours. The meat will be best if you can leave it in the marinade overnight and if you butterfly the chops so the flavors get deep inside them. Cook the pork chops they way you like: grill them, bake them, roast them, pan fry them, then serve them hot with a nice salad or with mashed potatoes.

Usually, when thinking of pork chops, we don’t imagine stuffing them. However, that’s possible and there are so many stuffed pork chops recipes that would be enough to cook for several months without repeating yourself. Mushrooms make a great stuffing, as you’re going to see from the recipe below, if you have the curiosity to try it at home.

Ingredients:

• 4 boneless pork chops, about 2 inches thick
• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled, minced
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 celery stalks, chopped
• 6-8 medium size mushrooms, diced
• 1/2 can sweet corn
• 1/2 cup fresh dill, cut small
• 1 egg
• 1/4 teaspoon vegetable seasoning mix (if the seasoning is salty, don’t add more salt to the food)
• 1 can of mushroom cream soup
• 1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese, grated
• Pepper to taste

Cooking time: 1 hour

Serves: 4

Cooking instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 F. With a small, sharp knife, cut a pocket into each piece of meat, as deep as you can. Take a frying pan, put some olive oil in it, then brown the pork chops on both sides. 3-4 minutes of cooking on each side should be enough for the chops to get a very nice color. Combine all other ingredients except from the mushroom soup and the Parmesan cheese into a bowl, then spoon the mixture inside the pork chops, in the pockets you’ve previously cut, then arrange the chops inside a baking dish, making sure they don’t overlap. Mix the mushroom cream soup with about 1/2 cup of water and pour it onto the chops, then cover the baking dish, put it in the oven and cook the chops for about 30 minutes. Remove the cover, top the dish with the grated Parmesan cheese, then let it bake for more 10 minutes. Serve the pork chops hot, with baked potatoes and minced fresh parsley.