Sunday, July 23, 2006

Giada's Chops

I was craving mashed potatoes tonight so I needed something to have with them...well, I didn't need anything else, but thought it would be appropriate to have a meal out of something more than just mashed potatoes. I thought I'd take Giada's Parmesan-Crusted Pork Chop recipe and give it a whirl tonight.

Here's the recipe and my comments will come later.

Parmesan-Crusted Pork Chops
Recipe from Giada De Laurentiis
Yield: 4 servings

2 large eggs
1 cup dried Italian-style bread crumbs
3/4 cups freshly grated Parmesan
4 (1/2 to 3/4-inch thick) center-cut pork loin chops (each about 10 to 12 ounces)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
6 tablespoons olive oil

Whisk the eggs in a pie plate to blend. Place the bread crumbs in another pie plate. Place the cheese in a third pie plate. Sprinkle the pork chops generously with salt and pepper. Coat the chops completely with the cheese, patting to adhere. Dip the chops into the eggs, then coat completely with the bread crumbs, patting to adhere.

Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in a very large skillet over medium heat. Add pork chops, in batches if necessary, and cook until golden brown and the center reaches 150 degrees, about 6 minutes per side. Transfer the chops to plates and serve immediately.


Notes:
Tasty; check.
Easy; check.
The right idea; not quite.

Giada has the home chef coat the pork chops in the parmesan cheese, then egg and then breadcrumbs. Although great and easy, I'd recommend one change. I'd blend the parmesan and breadcrumbs together and in the first step, lightly dust the chops with some seasoned flour. Why? I give the egg, and later the breadcrumbs, a little something more to stick to. With the cheese, I don't feel it coated the chops sufficiently enough and later while cooking and eating, the crust was flaking off. So, not a major issue, but something I'd want to fix for next time...so here's what I'd do:

Step 1: Lightly coat chops with seasoned (salt/pepper) flour
Step 2: Lightly dip the chops in the egg
Step 3: Blend the breadcrumbs and cheese together and coat the chops
Step 4: Cook

Enjoy.

3 comments:

Stef said...

That looks really tasty, even if the coating did flake off. Those mashed potatoes look really yummy, too... I'll have to find a reason to have potatoes soon!

I actually cooked myself a real dinner tonight! Check my WW blog later for deets. :-)

Barbara said...

As good as it looks, I'm with you....would a meal of just mashed taters be all that bad? But since you went through all the trouble of making the chops and corn, I think I'd be able to force myself to eat it all.

Anonymous said...

Can I come over? Also, couldn't help but notice that pat of butter on the corn. Butter... corn... mashies... Forget the meat.