Monday, July 2, 2012

Pork Chops

So, along with the chicken I made the other night, I made pork chops for my mom. She doesn't like chicken. I know, right? How. Dare. You.   So I picked up some pork chops and made them for her.


Ingredients:
Pork Chops
Chef Merito's Carne Asada Seasoning
Parsley Flakes (in the seasoning aisle at the grocery store)
Olive Oil
Cutting Board
A Bowl
Frying Pan
Cooking Spray


First- Lay out the chops on your cutting board.
Second- Sprinkle the asada seasoning over the chops as well as some parsley flakes. Rub the seasoning into the chops as best as you can. Flip over chops and repeat.
Third- Layering in a bowl, drizzle some oil over the chops and spread it around. Let them sit, covered with plastic (with the plastic touching the chops so there is no air between the two) for at least 30 minutes.
Fourth- Place the chops in a hot pan sprayed with cooking spray. Let it cook at least 5 minutes on each side, depending upon how thick the pork chops are.
Fifth- Serve with mashed potatoes or other vegies. YUM.


For the chicken recipe, click here


Any questions, just ask and I will get back to you as soon as I can.

ENJOY!!

Chicken? Yes, Please!!

Chicken. I LOVE chicken. It's SO GOOD!! So, my sister wanted to make her mashed potatoes and I needed to make something to go with them. We had chicken. PERFECT! Except my mom doesn't care for chicken. Sinner. Haha. So, I picked up some pork chops, which she liked, but I'll save that recipe for another post.

Back to the chicken! I was going to grill them, but there was no propane in the tank and I'm too chicken (haha) to try and switch an empty one for a full one. So, I had to pan fry my chicken. Good news is: they turned out almost as good as they would have if I had grilled them.

I kind of did a lot of different stuff, so hopefully you all can keep up.

Ingredients
Chicken breast, preferably boneless, skinless for easier cutting
Chef Merito's Pollo Seasoning (or your preferred chicken seasoning)
Orange Soda (whichever brand you prefer)
Oranges, 2 or 3
Olive Oil (Canola will do just fine)
Pepper
Garlic Powder
2 Large Bowls
1 Small Bowl
1 Large Frying Pan
Cooking Spray

First, I cut up the boneless, skinless chicken breast in half and then cut the biggest part of the breast vertically. Before I cut the chicken into pieces, I cut off any extra fat.
Second, I put the chicken in a large bowl (the size bowl clearly depends on how much chicken you are making) and soaked the chicken in the soda for about 30 minutes.
Third, I mixed about 1/3cup of the pollo seasoning, 2tsp garlic powder and 1Tbsp pepper with the juice from half of an orange in a small bowl. Stir. (This also depends on how much chicken you are making.) I then added about 1-2 Tbsp oil to the mixture and stirred until the mixture was completely combined. I removed the chicken pieces from the soda soak and put them in another large bowl. I added the pollo seasoning mixture to the chicken and made sure it was wide spread over all the chicken and let it marinate in the fridge (covered with plastic wrap, the wrap touching the chicken so there was no air between the plastic and chicken) for at least 30 minutes, if not longer or as long as you want to marinate.
Fourth, I cooked the chicken. Here is where its more tricky. Duh, it's on the stove. Anyway. You want to have the pan hot. Spray the pan (with cooking spray) and place a few pieces of chicken in the pan. Ok, this is where you can either keep the chicken nice and moist or dry and dry. Don't turn the chicken until you can see that 'white edge' where the pan is cooking the chicken through but still pink on the top. This can take anywhere from 5-10 minutes depending on how thick the pieces are. If you don't have a meat thermometer, you will have to cut the middle open slightly to see if the chicken is cooked all the way through. If it's not, and the side its cooking on is blackening, just flip it over or put it in a part of the pan where the flame of the stove isn't hitting the bottom of the pan (usually the edge of the pan is safe).
Fifth, if you are cooking a lot of chicken, turn the oven on to 200dF. Spray cooking spray into a glass pan (i used a 13x9) and set it in the oven. When a piece of chicken is done cooking, just place it in the oven and you should be fine. The juices from the chicken will set up in the bottom of the pan, but it will keep (or should keep) the chicken moist. If you want, you can add a half orange, cut side facing up, in the pan.



==Andersen Girlie's Tips==

-If you are going to grill or bake this chicken, you don't have to cut it up. They just cook more quickly in smaller pieces. Times will be completely different. If you want the times, just ask and I'll comment the answers back to you.
-I used Shasta's Orange Cream Soda to soak my chicken. Again, just preference.
-If you think the chicken is drying out while you are cooking it in the pan, just sprinkle some of the juice of an orange on the top.
-If you don't have a glass pan, get one. No, seriously. Go get one right now. Still, if you can't get one right now, you can probably just use any 13x9 pan. Make sure you spray it though. If you don't, you might get the chicken stuck to the pan. You wouldn't want that.

For the pork chop recipe, click here

If you have any questions, feel free to ask and I will get back to you as soon as I can.

Eat this chicken and ENJOY!!!