PORK CHOPS IN LEMON-CAPER SAUCE

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Pork Chops in Lemon-Caper Sauce image

Here's my favorite recipe in Toni Tipton-Martin's excellent and invaluable "Jubilee: Recipes From Two Centuries of African American Cooking" (2019). It's a remix of one that the chef Nathaniel Burton collected into his 1978 opus, "Creole Feast: Fifteen Master Chefs of New Orleans Reveal Their Secrets," and one that Tipton-Martin glossed-up with lemon zest, juice and extra butter, a technique she learned from the restaurateur B. Smith's 2009 collection of recipes, "B. Smith Cooks Southern-Style." It's a dish of smothered pork chops, essentially, made into something glorious and elegant. "The food history of Blacks in America has been a story of the food of survival," she told me in an interview. "We need to start celebrating the food they made at work."

Provided by Sam Sifton

Categories     dinner, easy, weeknight, meat, main course

Time 35m

Yield 4 servings

Number Of Ingredients 14

4 bone-in pork chops (about 8 ounces each)
Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 very small shallot, minced (about 1 tablespoon)
2 garlic cloves, minced (about 1 teaspoon)
2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
1 cup dry white wine
1 1/2 cups chicken stock, homemade or low-sodium, if store-bought
2 tablespoons drained capers
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley, plus more for garnish
1 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest, plus 2 tablespoons juice
Hot sauce (optional)

Steps:

  • Dry the chops with paper towels, and season aggressively with salt, pepper and the thyme. Swirl the olive oil into a large skillet, and heat over medium until the oil begins to shimmer. Add chops, and cook until well browned on each side and cooked through, about 5 minutes per side. Transfer chops to a plate, and cover to keep warm.
  • Drain the fat from the skillet, then melt 2 tablespoons of butter in it over medium heat until sizzling. Add the shallot and garlic, and sauté until the aromatics soften, reducing the heat if necessary, about 1 minute. Sprinkle in the flour, and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Whisk in the wine and chicken stock, raise heat to high and bring the liquid to a boil, scraping up the browned bits on the bottom of the pan. Reduce heat to medium-high and cook, uncovered, until the liquid is reduced by half, 7 to 10 minutes.
  • Stir in the capers, parsley, lemon zest and juice and hot sauce to taste (if you're using it), and simmer for 1 to 2 minutes. Stir in the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter until it's melted and the sauce looks smooth. Nestle the pork chops into the sauce, and allow them to warm up for a couple of minutes, then serve, pouring sauce over each pork chop to taste. Garnish with more fresh parsley.

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