How to Make It: Oven Braised Pork Chops
Step 1: Season your pork chop. This may seem counterintuitive, but many people I know find that a pork chop tastes best when it’s not covered, completely, in some sort of salt-and-pepper rub. Maybe it has something to do with the bone—maybe you want it to season the bone, too. Either way, I find that an even dusting of salt and pepper is the most flavorful starting off point for the cooked chop.
Step 2: Preheat your oven. Set a cast-iron pan on medium heat. Enough to get it legitimately hot, but still not so hot that the olive oil you’re about to add will smoke. While you wait for that to happen, pat the sides of your pork chop dry. (This helps to achieve a good sear.)
Step 3: Add the olive oil and pork chop. Add just enough to coat, and then add the pork chop. No crowding—you want an oven-to-cooking surface ratio that works out to at least one square inch of cooking surface per ounce of meat.
Step 4: Cook the pork chop, oil side down. Don’t move it! I know that’s how you’re used to doing it at home, but it’s actually pretty important that you don’t turn the chop until the bottom half is done. This will probably take 3 to 4 minutes.
Step 5: Flip the pork chop. When it’s brown and crusty on the bottom, it’s time to flip. Flip the chop and brown for another 3 to 4 minutes.
Step 6: Get a pan out of the oven. Then, crack a whole bunch of eggs in it—just drop them in from about a foot above the pan.
Step 7: Cook the eggs. Cook the eggs as you like ’em, but I personally think this one just needs to cook until the whites are no longer translucent (about 3 minutes), then place them on top of the cooked pork chop and toss on cooked broccoli. This is now an omelette-style situation.
Step 8: Glaze with the pan sauce. The little bits that browned in the pan immediately after you seared the pork chop? Combine that stuff with a bit of apple cider vinegar, fresh herbs, and maybe some ketchup to add a little color.
Step 9: Eat the pork chops and broccoli and the eggs. The broccoli gets cooked by the residual heat from the pork chop, and the concoction will glaze everything to perfection.
Step 10: Repeat. This exact dish hasn’t been replicated at home more than twice, but it could definitely be made over and over again. You could even pair it with pasta or potatoes if you felt so inclined. And really, who doesn’t?
