Cooking web notes

Crunchy Pork Chops

Who in the world would think of baking pork chops with mayonnaise and Melba toast crumbs?  Not me ~ that is, until I came across the recipe in The America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook.

First off, coat the chops well with mayonnaise to give them a substantial crust.  Seasoned Melba toast crumbs coat these oven-baked pork chops and helps make these pork chops extra-crispy.  Don’t break the Melba toasts too much.  The crumbs should have some pieces the size of small pebbles. 


While an instant-read thermometer takes the guesswork out of determining when the meat is done, you can use the "nick-and-peek" method: Use a paring knife to make a slit in the top of the pork chop and take a look at the meat's interior. 

These pork chops are delicious; very tender and moist with an excellent crunchy breading!

Ready for the oven

Crunchy Pork Chops

Ingredients:

1 (5-ounce) box plain Melba toasts, broken into rough pieces

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon pepper (my addition)

½ teaspoon garlic powder

½ teaspoon onion powder

½ teaspoon paprika

½ teaspoon dried thyme

1/8 teaspoon sugar

6 tablespoons mayonnaise

4 pork chops (6 ounces each)

Method:

Heat oven to 425 degrees.

Place Melba toasts, salt, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, thyme and sugar in a zip-lock bag.

Seal the bag and pound to coarse crumbs, leaving some crumbs the size of small pebbles.

Add 2 tablespoons of the mayonnaise to the bag and work the mayonnaise into the crumb mixture.

Transfer the Melba crumb mixture to a large plate.

Working with one chop at a time, coat with 1 tablespoon mayonnaise (see my note below.)

Coat thoroughly with the Melba crumb mixture.

Press on the breadcrumbs to make sure they adhere, then lay the chop on a wire rack set over a rimmed baking sheet.

Bake the chops on the wire rack until the coating is a golden brown and the center of a chop registers 140 degrees on an instant-red thermometer, 16 to 25 minutes.

Transfer the chops to a clean plate and let rest until the pork reaches and internal temperature of 150 degrees before servings, 5 to 10 minutes.

These are definitely excellent pork chops!!!

Enjoy!!!

Pam’s notes:  Instead of placing the crumb mixture on a plate to bread the chops, I kept the crumbs in the plastic bag and it worked great to press on the breadcrumbs to adhere to the chops.

I found that a tablespoon of mayo was a little much to coat each pork chop with.  I used about a teaspoon for each chop.

Be sure to visit my friend, Linda’s blog, at My Kind of Cooking for her great recipes and cookbook giveaway.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 9, 2011 at 6:17 AM and is filed under Entree, Melba toast, Pork, Pork chops. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response.