One of the most popular dishes on our table are chops. They are usually made from pork or beef, but other types of meat are also used . Probably every self-respecting cook knows how to cook chops. But even he can’t always succeed in what he wants to receive in principle. The reason may lie in an elementary ignorance of the basic tricks. Actually, I’ll share them now.
How to cook chops: some useful tips
As you know, the taste of any dish depends on how fresh and high-quality products were chosen for its preparation. That is why you should be especially careful when choosing meat for chops. Try to choose such pieces on which there are practically no streaks and films. Pork usually has a pale pink color, of course, if it is fresh, but beef is a light red color. Take a closer look at your chosen piece, even smell it. Poor quality meat can often give itself a pungent odor.
So, the meat is bought. It would seem that you can start cooking. Before you learn how to cook chops, wash the meat thoroughly, and then dry it with a dry towel. This is necessary so that during frying, as little water as possible is released from the meat, since in this case a golden crust cannot be properly formed. It is best to cut the meat into slices, the thickness of which is not more than 1.5 cm.
How to cook chops: a universal recipe
Chopped meat must be well beaten off. The better the meat is beaten, the softer and more tender it will be. True, do not bring the process of beating to a state where gaps appear on the meat. A little trick: somewhere I heard that the French, preparing chops, beat meat not with a hammer, but with the blunt end of a knife. You can try it. Personally, my hands did not reach such a process, so I can’t say anything.
What is important during frying chops? That the meat was not dry. That is why it is best to marinate it several hours before frying. A good marinade is this: vegetable oil, in which all kinds of seasonings and spices are added, but only without salt, as well as finely chopped or squeezed garlic. To make the meat even more juicy, you can add a little mustard to the marinade.
Chops. How to make them so that the meat is really soft. Please note that salt is best added not to the marinade, at the stage when the meat is covered with a golden crust. I will explain why. Look, if you add salt at the stage of preparation for frying, the meat will simply begin to secrete juice, and, therefore, already cooked will be quite dry. So it’s better to salt it later.
We move on. To preserve the juice, pieces of meat before frying, you need to roll first in flour, and then in the egg. As an option - breading in breadcrumbs, but for some reason I don’t really like the latter, so every time I use flour and an egg.
Since you can cook chops only in a pan, the latter needs to be thoroughly heated. It must be very hot, so that, laying on it pieces of meat, the latter immediately began to crust. It will also help to stay in the meat juice and not go out.
So, after summing up, you can trace several main stages in the preparation of chops. First, you need to buy fresh meat. Then wash it, dry it, cut it into thin pieces. After that, beat off well, then pickle, but do not salt. Bone meat in flour and egg, fry in a hot pan until cooked. As soon as the meat is covered with a golden brown crust, salt it.
As you can see, nothing complicated. A little free time spent on cooking, and your family will be delighted with juicy and tender chops.