Cooking certain cuts of pork in the Bewitching Kitchen can be a bit tricky. No matter how many chefs, cooks and food bloggers recommend cooking pork medium or even medium-rare claiming that it’s safe and tastes better, we prefer our pork to be fully cooked, approaching well-done. Sorry, folks, it’s a matter of taste… At that point, the less marbled pieces will end up dry. So, I pretty much abandoned center-cut pork loin chops in favor of other cuts. Pork tenderloin is my number one choice, and for braises and low-roasting I go with pork shoulder. Let’s bring sous-vide to the scene. Now I can cook the meat to the point we enjoy it, ending with a piece of meat that is both tender and juicy. This recipe, by the way, was the one that really sold the sous-vide concept to Phil. He was amazed by how perfectly cooked these turned out!
PORK LOIN CHOPS WITH ROASTED POBLANO BUTTER
(from the Bewitching Kitchen)
for the compound butter:
2 sticks of butter at room temperature
1 small poblano chili, roasted and peeled, seeds removed
1 Tbsp minced cilantro
zest of 1/2 lime
1/2 teaspoon salt
black pepper to taste
for the brine:
2 cups water
2 Tbs salt
1 Tbs sugar
for the meat:
4 center cut pork chops, boneless
1 tablespoon butter (probably a bit less)
grated ginger to taste
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
2 Tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon mustard
1 teaspoon lime juice
Make the compound butter earlier in the day or several days before. Mix all ingredients well, form the butter into a log shape over parchment paper, rolling it tightly. Place the roll in the fridge for several hours, cut in slices when ready to use. Freeze leftover slices in a plastic bag.
Make a brine by dissolving the salt and sugar in 2 cups of cold water. Place the pork chops in the brine, refrigerate for a couple of hours. Remove the meat from the brine, rinse briefly and pat dry. Add a little bit of butter and grated ginger on top of each piece of pork, and place two chops inside each sealable bag.
Seal the bags and place in a sous-vide bath set for 140F for 6 hours.
When the time is almost up, mix the soy sauce, honey, mustard and lime juice in a small bowl. Remove the meat from the bag, brush the pieces with this mixture and grill very quickly on a hot grill just to char the surface, a couple of minutes per side.
Serve with a piece of compound butter on top.
ENJOY!
to print the recipe, click here
If you’ve never made compound butter, that’s a nice cooking project for a Saturday afternoon. You can flavor it with many different fresh herbs, the traditional kind uses minced parsley. I went with a lot of roasted poblano, a small amount of cilantro and some lime zest. Using a bench scraper helps a lot to get the butter shaped as a nice roll, but next time I will add a layer of plastic wrap underneath the paper. The butter must be very cold when you serve it, so that it slices easily. It is hard to make compound butter using less than 2 sticks, so you will have plenty of slices to save in the freezer for later. Just remove what you will use a few minutes before dinner time.
We both really loved this meal. Take a look at how juicy the slice of pork turned out! We served it with mashed cauliflower and sautéed broccolini. A perfect way to end a Sunday!
If you do not have a sous-vide, the exact same recipe can be made on the grill, simply brine it before, brush with the soy mixture (add the ginger to the rest of the ingredients) and grill, preferably with indirect heat to prevent the surface from burning too fast. If you are anti-butter, I feel a bit sorry for you, but the sous-vide pork will be ok on its own. 😉
ONE YEAR AGO: Roasted Strawberry Buttermilk Sherbet
TWO YEARS AGO: Amazing Ribs for the 4th of July!
THREE YEARS AGO: Baby Back Ribs on the 4th of July
FOUR YEARS AGO: Blueberry Muffins
FIVE YEARS AGO: A Pie for your 4th of July
Bewitching Kitchen 
Even though it’s 1am here, I could eat this right now.
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Looks mighty tasty, doesn’t it? 😉
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I’m so glad you showed us a cut piece. I’m only 2-3 more urges away from taking the plunge on a sous vide. This looks delicious!
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he, he, he…. I think I might be able to help you with this sous-vide thing.. Just had a fantastic dinner of pork ribs, sous-vide style, finished on the grill… plus, we made a two batches, one sous-vide, one regular slow oven baking and the sous vide won. Big time… 😉 Not sure I will be able to make a blog about it, the pictures did not turn out very nice, but maybe I can get one good enough to post
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I haven’t cooked sous-vide in such a long time Sally, thanks for the remainder!
And I’m 100% with you on the pork cooking thing. Despite what everyone is saying, I’m still very skeptical about it. Although I once tried an Italian raw pork sausage and I’m not afraind to say that it was DELICIOSO!
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Italian raw pork sausage… wow, that sounds very interesting… Delicioso, you say… hummmmm, I like that!
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That looks so savory and delicious.
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Thank you!
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We enjoy eating pork chops, your meal looks great Sally! When I am not grilling pork chops, I will brown quickly in the skillet, then transfer the skillet to the oven for final cooking. This gives me time to cook the vegetables, etc. I have not made compound butter in awhile, I need to do that. Your recipe looks great! I hope you and your husband have a great 4th of July!!
Michael
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Well, I had to go to the lab this morning but just briefly, and Phil is working pretty hard on a grant proposal, with a horrible deadline of July 7th – can you imagine that? Why couldn’t they make the deadline July 10th? Or 14th? Noooo, let’s ruin the holiday weekend… (sigh)… 😉
Happy Blog Anniversary, Michael!
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I hate when that happens and always seems that it falls on the weekend and a long weekend at that. Maybe he can get it completed quickly so you can spend some time together! Have a great weekend.
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Oh, we are together all the time no matter what….as we like to say, “we are a team” 😉
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I like my pork cooked well done too…and I’m notorious for producing dry pieces! This recipe looks lovely, my friend. Love the thought of that poblano butter too!
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The poblano butter was pretty special, and the best is that we have quite a bit of it saved in the freezer… 😉
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Back when I ate and cooked meat, my family and I would always have fights about how well done various cuts should be! If only we had had a sous vide, it would have solved so many problems. 😛
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It’s amazing how well the sous-vide works – also for veggies, actually. I saw a post on cooking asparagus sous-vide that seemed very nice… perfect texture, not a hint of tough fibers. Something I might try soon
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I like the idea of a spicy butter topping. We almost did an herbed butter over steak last night, but decided against it. Now I’m kicking myself for being behind on my reading.
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Well, Greg, there is always next time! 😉
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What a fabulous meal! But did you mean pork loin instead of pork tenderloin?
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This was made with pork loin, center cut pork loin, not tenderloin.
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oh sorry – I misread your text, where you mention pork tenderloin!
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Oh, no problem whatsoever – I thought that maybe I mixed it all up (it happens more often than I care to admit… )
🙂
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Oh my goodness! Sous vide. I am not worthy!
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Oh wow! This sounds so good! I haven’t had pork in ages and all the flavors you have going here have me craving it. The butter in particular. Putting this on our summer menu too. You are ending up in our kitchen quite a bit this summer! 🙂
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WOW….doesn’t that look beautiful. You’re already getting ahead of me with your sous-vide experimentation, gotta break mine out again soon and cook something other than pork belly!
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I’m planning pork chops with the Anova this evening. Exciting stuff.
Best,
Conor
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Nice to see you here! Looking forward to your report on the pork chops!
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