Cooking Experiment: Teriyaki Pork Chops

[tuftears]

I've been trying to perfect my pork chops... I think I've finally succeeded. This is a kind of tricky approach, and takes a lot of time, but it's perfectly tender and delicious.

I made a teriyaki marinade first, then I put each pork chop (0.5 lbs, bone in) into a bag and froze it overnight before vacuum sealing. If you have a vacuum sealer that allows you to seal with a marinade, your job is a lot easier. I totally should have gotten one of those.

Then I sous vide'd for about 5 hours-- I'd suggest longer, like 6 or 7 hours if you're heating from frozen-- at 134 degrees. Once that was done, I stuck it in the fridge for a couple hours before finally searing it in a hot pan at 2 minutes on each side. This step is the difference between the last time I tried sous vide pork chops, which came out a bit too firm, and real tender meat. Cooling the meat down like this means the heat won't penetrate as far when you're searing it, so you can get the outside crispy and just warm the inside.



For the veggies, I grated some more fresh ginger and sautee'd those with soy sauce and some sliced baby bok choy. Turns out that two packages of baby bok choy bulbs (3 bulbs per package) don't go that far though-- I should use more next time.

Comments

[rowyn]

So fancy! Goodness. Looks tasty, though. :9

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Fancy would be, oh, putting a sprig of parsley on top or serving on a bed of lettuce. :) Or I suppose if I wanted to get carried away, I could sous vide a pork chop, then dip it into batter or egg and cover in breading and deep fry it crispy. Then pour some sort of gravy on top. That'd be restaurant grade for sure!

[rowyn]

Any meal that you have to spend that much time preparing counts as fancy to me!

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Oh well, but most of the cooking was sitting around waiting!