Cuban Pork Chops are a healthy and super easy weeknight dinner idea! Thin pork chops and sliced fresh onions are marinated in a garlic paste and sour citrus mixture, then pan fried until tender.
Who wants some pork chops done up Cuban style? I know I do. When I want to make some Cuban food at home, I go big. I'm cooking all day and even start prepping the day before.
I roast a big 10-12 pound pork shoulder (with the skin on, thank you very much), fried AND boiled yucca, black beans and rice, tostones, baked sweet plantains, chimichurri sauce, and empanadas. And when I really don't give a flip about my calorie consumption, I make a tres leches cake.
It's a little out of control and, since this is an insane amount of food, I always have to make it on the weekends. But today I have an extreme hankering for Cuban and it's a Wednesday. A Wednesday? Ain't nobody got time to make Cuban food on a Wednesday!
Weeknight dinners need to be quick and easy in my house. I grabbed the thin pork chops sitting in the refrigerator and looked for a simple recipe in one of my favorite cookbooks, Memories of a Cuban Kitchen. A perfect one stood out for me, Chuletas de Puerco Criollas, or Cuban Pork Chops.
Cooking this today made me think about my girlfriend, H. She loves Cuban food and when she first found out I was doing a food blog, she told me to do a Mojo recipe. H loves some good mojo and gets her fix in Miami. Hopefully she likes this recipe and thinks it's just as good as down South.
Crushing the garlic, oregano, and cumin together.
The chops rubbed with the garlic mixture.
Pouring on the mojo!
I like to save some of the mojo sauce to pour over the onions.
Yummy pork and onions ready to put in the refrig.
Finished product. Photo sucks, doesn't even look like pork chops, but it tasted fantastic! I made my typical chimichurri sauce to top this and served it with baked yuca fries. My craving was satisfied and I have leftovers for lunch. Or for breakfast. With a fried egg on top.
Cuban Pork Chops
Ingredients
- 8 thin center-cut pork chops, about 4 ounces each
- salt and black pepper, to taste
- 4 cloves garlic
- ¼ teaspoon dried oregano
- ¼ teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ cup sour Seville orange juice (or mix together ¼ cup sweet orange juice mixed with ⅛ cup each of fresh lime and lemon juice
- 1 large onion, halved and thinly sliced
- ¼ cup olive oil
- ½ cup dry sherry
Instructions
- Season the chops with salt and pepper. Set aside.
- In a mortar, crush the 4 cloves of garlic, ¼ teaspoon oregano, and ¼ teaspoon cumin together into a paste. Rub the chops with the garlic paste, place in a medium sized shallow bowl or baking dish, and pour half of the sour orange mixture on top. Cover with sliced onions and pour rest of sour orange mixture on top. Cover and refrigerate 2 to 3 hours.
- Remove chops from the marinade, pat dry, and reserve marinade.
- In a large pan, heat the oil over medium-high heat until hot and brown the chops quickly on both sides.
- Add the sherry and reserved marinade, including the onions, to the pan with the pork and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to low, and cook until pork is tender, about 20 minutes.
Recipe Notes & Tips:
- Serve with oven fried yuca, chimichurri sauce, and avocado and tomato salad
- Adapted from "Memories of a Cuban Kitchen" cookbook by Randelman and Schwartz
Leave a Reply