Bone-In Pork ?Ribeye? Chops

Posted by johngl

This time of year it is pretty easy to find bone-in rack of pork. If you cut a rack into individual chops, you’ve got yourself a real “ribeye” style treat (Texans tend to call this a cowboy cut).  If there are only a few of you, you’ll even have enough of the rack left for another dinner.

Bone-In Pork “Ribeye” Chop with Butter-Roasted Baby White Potatoes and Parmigiano-Reggiano Cheese

Start with your rack of pork:

You might notice that this still has the silver skin on the backside of the ribs. Just peel it off.  As Alton Brown would say, that isn’t good eats.

The silver skin peels off really easily, just get under a corner of it at a bone and lift it right off.

I cut these three chops off the small end of the roast.

These are really nicely marbled:

I sprinkled some kosher salt on these right after I cut them off the rack. I left them out on the counter top until they come up to about 60°. If they have just come out the fridge, it will take them about an hour to warm up. This also allows time for a “dry brine” of sorts.

I applied some ground black pepper prior to cooking. Also, if you like a crispy crust, you might want to sprinkle on some corn starch.

These are happily sizzling in a well seasoned, smoking hot cast iron pan. Just before I dropped in the chops, I put about 4 tablespoons of olive oil into the pan. It started smoking immediately, so I got the chops in quickly.

After about 4 minutes, I gave them a flip:

These have crisped up nicely. I let these brown for another 4 minutes or so then pulled them off to let them rest and redistribute the juices.

Allow me to jump to the potatoes for a minute:

These are baby white potatoes. I cleaned and halved them. I also grabbed some herbs and garlic…

I took the basil and sage and minced them up along with the garlic. I then took a third of a stick of butter and melted it in a small saucepan.  To this, I added about a quarter cup of olive oil and the herbs. I allowed the herbs and garlic to steep in the butter and oil for several minutes.

I poured the butter/herb/garlic/oil mixture over the potatoes until they were nicely coated. At this time I also added some salt and pepper and mixed it all up some more. The potatoes went into a shallow tray and a 350° toaster oven for about 40 minutes. I timed this so they came out at the same time the chops were ready.

I plated the chops and potatoes, then shaved some Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese over the potatoes. I finished them with some freshly chopped chives.

I realized I had a duck/beef/shiraz reduction left over from an earlier meal and decided to reheat it and pour some over the pork chops.

If you give these techniques a shot, be sure not to overcook the pork. A little bit of pink in the middle will not hurt you. Really.

All of that wonderful marbling kept these chops tender and juicy. Most glorious mother-in-law said these were the best pork chops she’s ever eaten. She ought to know pork, she spent a major portion of her life working a hog farm in Iowa, so I will take her compliment to heart.

On the potatoes, I’d never used this particular recipe before, but I will definitely use it again. The butter roasting leaves the potatoes moist and rich and the parm cheese added a salty-nuttiness to them as well.

I picked up this rack of pork at Costco for $3.00/lb. It is totally worth it — this is some really tasty pork!  And, as I indicated earlier, I have more than half of the roast left.

Tune in for a roasted rack of pork in a future post.