Chef Lee Bailey left us earlier in this decade, but I thank him for committing to posterity his recipe for baked pork chops and rice. This dish is in regular rotation at our house, because who can resist juicy pork chops, and rice baked in pork fat and stock? The rice melts in your mouth but also achieves a nice brown crunch on the border.
Please enjoy, preferably with a nice glass of red wine. Groundwork Grenache from Sans Liege is currently the house favorite. This dish is so rich that I like it with just a green salad.
6 boneless, thinly sliced pork chops (I buy three thick ones and halve them across the equator)
1 large yellow onion
1 large sweet pepper
2 cups long-grain white rice (don't use brown -- it won't get the nice crust and will throw off the timing of the dish)
4 cups homemade stock or broth
flour for dredging
salt and pepper
chopped Italian parsley for garnish
fat (I like duck fat but any high heat oil will do in a pinch)
You're going to salt and pepper the chops, dredge in flour, and brown on both sides in a large saute pan.
Before you start prepping and cooking, get your frozen stock out of the freezer and bring to a boil in the microwave or on the stove. It takes me about 20 minutes in a medium microwave to bring 4 cups of stock to a boil.
Trim excess fat off chops and halve if needed. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and dredge lightly in flour.
Brown the chops and set aside. Finely dice the onion and pepper while browning.
Add more fat to the pan if needed, and add the onions and peppers. Salt, pepper lightly, and saute, scraping up as much of the brown bits on the bottom of the pan as you can. You can deglaze the pan with a splash of white wine once the onions and peppers are just about done.
Put the onions and peppers in the bottom of a covered casserole dish. (Confession: I am a Heath Ceramics freak, so I use their large 2.5 quart casserole. A glass casserole dish will work just fine, though, and you'll get more crunchy bits around the rice.)
Pour the uncooked rice into the casserole and mix thoroughly with the onions and peppers. Pour the boiling stock over the rice, add the juice from the resting pork chops, and place the pork chops on top. Cover, and cook for about 45 minutes at 400 degrees.
Garnish with chopped fresh parsley, and serve.
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Thank you, Wendy (and Lee Bailey). This was our supper last night, or at least an approximation since I did not have any peppers on hand. The meal was delicious and easy enough for my non-cook husband to make if I get stuck late at work. It will go into our regular rotation, I am sure. Now for a few questions:
ReplyDelete1. What kind of "sweet peppers" do you use? I made this on the spur of the moment and didn't have any peppers, but would have used red bell peppers (which I consider the only type of bell peppers worth cooking with; crudite platters are another matter).
2. My chops got a little dry, even before the rice had cooked long enough to form a crust. I was using center loin chops without much marbling, which is probably what went wrong. Any suggestions? Next time I will probably pull the chops out after 1/2 an hour or so, but if there is another type of chop you can suggest, or some technique I may have missed, I'd love to hear it.
Again, thanks! JSAB
Hi, JSB.
ReplyDeleteGlad you liked the dish! I'm with you on green peppers -- I use red, but I must report that I believe Mr. Bailey's recipe called for green. Dry pork chops are a nuisance, but I am not sure we can blame the pig if you didn't have enough liquid even to get a crust on the rice. If you are sure that you had the right amount of liquid and a tight fit on your lid, I would try adding another half cup of stock. If that doesn't do the trick, I would lower the oven temp by 25 degrees. If you get to where your rice is nice and moist and crusty but your chops are still dry, I would try brining the chops overnight. You could also seek out pastured pork (if you haven't already) which is not bred to be lean. Good luck!