The popularity of British-Chinese chef Jeremy Pang’s delicious pork-chop recipe has been floating around the internet for years, and when it landed in my browser window, I had to give it a try. And I’m glad I did.
While I diverged from his recipe by using a boneless pork chop, everything else remains as he intended. The chops are quite delicious, but part of the key to the sandwich is to use crusty rolls—like Banh Mi-level crustiness. Other than that, it’s an easy and straightforward recipe.
What you’ll need for two chops
- 0.5T sugar
- 0.25t salt
- 0.25t white pepper
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- Pinch of 5-spice powder
- 1T Shaoxing rice wine (I used sake to good effect)
- 1T light soy sauce
- 2T corn starch
- 2 large pork chops
- 2 crusty rolls
- 1 tomato sliced
- 4 or so lettuce leaves
- Mayonnaise (Japanese mayo works best for these)
What to do
Slice the fatty edge of each pork chop about 3 – 4 times at equal intervals. This prevents the chops from curling when cooking. With a meat tenderizer or the blunt part of a knife, pound the chops to tenderize and flatten them out.
When they’re pounded thin, mix the marinade ingredients and slather each side of both chops. I recommend putting them in a sealed, plastic bag for them to marinade in the refrigerator for a minimum of an hour but preferably overnight.
When you’re ready to fry them, put enough oil to submerge the chops in the cooking vessel in which you want to fry them and begin heating it to 350 degrees F. While the oil is heating prep the sandwiches by cutting the rolls in half, slicing the tomatoes and readying the lettuce.
When the oil reaches temperature, carefully add the chops and let them cook for about 5 or so minutes. Because they’re fairly thin, they’ll cook pretty quickly. They do like to sink to the bottom of the pan and stick, so have some heat-resistant tongs so you can pull them off the bottom as they cook.
When they’re done cooking, you can put them directly onto the rolls and assemble the sandwiches, topping them with mayo before adding the top of the roll, or let the chops sit on a grate for 30 seconds so the extra oil can drip off before assembly.
Serve hot or warm.
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