It’s taken me a few years, but I’ve finally gotten Katie excited about eating pork.  So lately I’ve been playing with some different recipes.  One of our favorite restaurants in Fort Collins, the 415 (http://thefourfifteen.com) has a delicious pork chop with this maple bourbon glaze that I fell in love with.  So I played around with re-creating my own take on it.

Truthfully, I’m notoriously bad about measuring ingredients when I’m coming up with recipes, so these are just ball park numbers. The best way to become a better cook: experiment, and don’t be afraid to mess up.  Usually you can fix it (unless you accidentally confuse sugar for salt or something like that!).

Ingredients:

2 Tablespoons Bourbon

1/4 Cup Soy Sauce

1/4 Cup Maple Syrup

2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar

1 Tablespoon Olive Oil

2 Tablespoons Thai Chili Paste (or more if you like it really spicy)

2 Cloves Garlic, sliced

Whisk together all of the above until its well mixed.  Taste.  Adjust as you wish – if you want it spicier, add more chili paste.  If you want it sweeter, more maple syrup, saltier, more soy sauce, etc.

Once its mixed, add it to a ziplock with 2 Pork Chops (boneless or bone-in, as you wish) and marinate.  If you’re in a hurry, you can let it sit on the counter for about an hour.  If you have time, stick it in the fridge for up to 6 hours or so.  After they’ve marinated, take the pork chops out and reserve the marinade.  Make sure there’s not garlic sticking to your chops.

Put the marinate in a small sauce pan over medium heat and reduce to half.  It should form a nice thick syrup.  Whisk periodically to help it along.

While your sauce is reducing, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Now get a cast iron pan on medium high heat and add the chops.  Cook until it starts to caramelize, about 4 minutes, then flip.  You want to get a nice sear on both sides, but don’t burn in.  Keep an eye on it, depending on your heat level you may need a little more or less time.  Once you’ve got the sear, stick the whole pan in the oven and cook for a few more minutes.  You want an instant read thermometer to show you about 145°.  Take the pan out and put the chops on a plate or cutting board to rest for 3 to 5 minutes.

Meanwhile your sauce should be reduced and ready to go. Once its done, take it off the heat and stir in 2 tablespoons of butter, one tablespoon at a time.  Wait for each tab to melt before you add the next one.

After the chops have reseted, put each on a plate with some delicious sides (this time I made celery root purée and sautéed green beans).  Drizzle sauce over the pork chop and serve a little extra on the side if you’d like.