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June 9, 2023

Cherry bourbon pork chops

Pork chops are a regular on the menu here at the Frias house. It is a rare occurrence that we do not have at least a couple packages in the freezer, waiting to be prepped for a weeknight meal. And what is better than pork with a sweet bourbon, cherry sauce? I daresay, nothing!!

We order kurobuta bone-in pork chops from a food delivery service called Crowd Cow. It is more expensive than running to the local grocery, but once we got a taste of these pork chops, they have remained a bit of a splurge. They are truly delicious!! The chops originate from a coalition of family farmers under the name True Story. In addition to being well marbled and tasty, they are also guaranteed to be humanely raised, which is always a good thing in my book. If you are a lover of a good pork chop, I 100% can recommend you check these babies out!

To brine or not to brine?

Brining is the infusion of salt and sugar into proteins in order to make them more tender and tastier, sometimes. This is achieved by dissolving salt and sugar into a liquid base, sometimes adding herbs or spices. Because these pork chops have beautiful marbling, they absolutely do not NEED to be brined. Simple seasoning will do the trick. However, I do brine on occasion, just to switch up the flavor profile. Also, if you order your meats from a company such as Crowd Cow or Butcher Box (also recommended), they come to you completely frozen. A trick that I use is to use the brine as a means to more quickly defrost the chops on the day that I want to cook them.

Because this recipe has bourbon and cherries to add natural sweetness, it would be perfect to simply season liberally with salt and pepper and save yourself some steps. If you decide to brine, my standby recipe for any pork chop, roast or loin can be found here below. If not, jump to the Ingredient list.

Simple Pork Brine

1 gallon cold water

1 cup kosher salt

1 cup white or light brown sugar

If desired:

1 cinnamon stick, snapped in half

Small handful of peppercorns

2 star anise

small handful or coriander and/or allspice seeds

Rosemary or Thyme sprigs

Instruction/Notes:

Add ingredients into large bowl. Cover and brine for 1hour in refrigerator, if not frozen. If frozen, expect 3-4 hours of brining time.

The above amounts will cover 4-6 pork chops, based on size. If cooking fewer, reduce all ingredients in half.

Ingredients

This recipe was based on a Jamie Oliver recipe for Peachy Pork Chops. I changed it up a bit in order to try something new, replacing peaches with cherries and upping the Bourbon content. You can find the original recipe on the Jamie Oliver website. Note that there are many free recipes on his site and most, if not all, are worth trying.

2 bone-in pork chops, 2 sprigs rosemary, 3/4 pound of cherries, 1/3 cup bourbon, 1 garlic head, cut in half, leaving top intact (see pic), 2 tbsp. grapeseed or veggie oil, salt and pepper

Instruction

Halve and pit the cherries

If you have brined your chops, pat completely dry and pepper both sides. Do not add salt. If you have not brined, pat dry and salt and pepper generously.

If there is a large fat strip on the edge of your pork chops, score with a sharp knife to prevent the chop from curling up

Heat oil in the pan on medium/high heat (I prefer cast iron or HexClad) until shimmering and place chops into pan, away from you. Make sure they have strong contact with pan for best browning

Cook chops 4-5 mins on each side. Using tongs, turn the chops onto their sides to ensure the edges get browned. Remove and set aside. Internal temp should be 140-145 F

Reduce heat to medium. Add a bit more oil, if pan is dry. Add the cherries, rosemary sprigs and garlic (cut side down) to the pan. Sautee, moving cherries about until slightly softened

Return pork chops to pan. Add bourbon and carefully light with match to set the flambee. Be sure to step back as you light it. As you can see below, it can get a little wild! If you prefer not to light the bourbon, simply allow to burn off for a few mins until the smell of the bourbon is not quite as strong and it has reduced. If you do Flambee, allow flames to subside and plate up, allowing pork to rest approx. 5 mins. Allow each person eating to squeeze as much or as little garlic out of the garlic head, to add some buttery garlic flavor to complement the sweet bourbon and cherries! YUM!

Note that the flame shown below subsided immediately and no family members, animals or husbands were hurt in the making of these pork chops!

Pork chops with cherry bourbon sauce, garlic and rosemary. Finished with asparagus

Bourbon, cherry flambee with bone-in pork chops and rosemary

Perfect accompaniment

If you want to add some color and additional nutrition to your meal, when you add the pork chops back to the pan, include a small bunch of cleaned and trimmed asparagus. Once you remove the pork chops and cherries, check tenderness of the asparagus and allow to cook up to 5 minutes more until done to your liking. And, this adds a bit of nutritional balance!

Pro Tip

If you are new to the flambee situation, be sure to have someone who can not only take your pictures, but take action when the fire gets out of hand! So, thanks, John, for the backup!!

If you enjoy cooking and eating this recipe, take a look at my recipe for a quick and easy pork loin, plantain and veg dinner!

Slow Cooker Pork Carnitas

There is nothing better than a recipe that wows and ALSO proves to be incredibly easy. This recipe is both. Once you have gathered all of your ingredients, your slow cooker does the bulk of the work! One of the best parts is that the leftovers can be better than the initial recipe itself!

Ingredients:

Ingredients

3.75 – 4 pound bone-in pork butt roast. We love the quality of the pork delivered from Crowd Cow
1 Red onion, cut into fairly large wedges
6-8 garlic cloves. In my house, more is always better!
1 Tbsp. kosher salt
2 Tsp. course ground pepper
1 Tbsp. dried oregano
2 Bay leaves
.75 cup Pineapple or Apple juice
.75 cup cola (made with cane sugar, rather than corn syrup, if you can find it). Coca Cola now has their old style cane sugar cola in the bottles!

Instruction

Here is the best part…the simplicity! Trim a bit of the fat cap off of the pork butt. There should be a significant amount left, but I find removing about 1/4 of the fat has best results. Score what is left of the fat cap and place roast into the crock pot fat cap to the side. Add balance of the ingredients, close and seal lid and set to low temp for 7.5 hours. Your job here is almost done!

Once the slow cooker is done, you should have an amazingly browned top and fall-apart roast sitting in some pretty amazing juices! Remove the roast to a cutting board and let rest for 15 or so mins. Using your hands, or 2 forks, pull the pork apart into chunks, leaving some chunks larger than others (this just makes the texture more interesting! Remove any excessive fat that is left, although most will have rendered into the juice that flavored the roast! Yum! Do not toss the juice just yet…

Transfer pork to very lightly oiled sheet pan and spread out. Pour some of the juice over top just to put moisture evenly. Crisp under the broiler just until crispy at edges and beautifully browned all over! If you intend to only use a portion of the pork right away, you can broil only what you will be serving and store the balance (with some of the juice) to broil or to pan fry at the point that you intend to use.

Serving

So…many…options. Tortillas, salsa, chopped onion, cilantro, diced tomato, salsa verde…sky is the limit! For this meal, I went simple with flour tortillas, some diced tomato, serrano chilis, leafy greens and cilantro. Leftovers this morning were super crisped in a pan and were as, if not more, delicious than the first go around!