A craving for pork chops and a gift of some habaneros made me want to try this recipe from the NY Times Cooking. Serves 4:
Pork Chops with Carrots and Habaneros
- 4 thin ½” boneless pork chops (about 1½ pounds total)
- 1½ teaspoons paprika
- Salt
- ¼ cup neutral oil, such as grapeseed
- 4 medium carrots, thinly sliced
- 1 lime (zest and juice)
- 2 habanero chiles, halved and seeded
- ¼ cup honey
- Chopped cilantro, for serving (optional)
Pat the pork dry and season all over with the paprika and a big pinch of salt. Set aside.
Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the carrots, season with salt, and stir occasionally until crisp-tender and charred in spots, 3 to 5 minutes. Transfer the carrots to a plate and zest the lime over the top. Cut the lime in half.
Add the pork and the chiles to the pan. If you need more oil add it now. Cook, until browned, 3 to 4 minutes. Flip and cook until firm to the touch, 1 to 3 minutes. Transfer the pork to the plate (leave the chiles in the skillet).
Reduce the heat to medium-low, add the honey and juice from half the lime. Stir constantly until thickened and dark like maple syrup, 1 to 3 minutes. Turn off the heat, add the pork, carrots and any resting juices back to the skillet. Turn to coat in the glaze. Serve sprinkled with the cilantro and enjoy!
My verdict:
Habaneros are hot! They kind of drowned out or neutralized the flavor of the carrots and made the pork chops very spicy. These were easy and good but will not kick our favorite pork chops with mustard and cornichons out of the top spot.
I was gifted the habaneros by a friend who decided to grow his own, since they’re so hard to find in France. It’s been so long since I worked with them, I truly forgot how hot they can be. I left the habaneros in to make the glaze, but if you don’t want that much heat, take them out and/or use less of them.
The butcher was conned into cutting some thick pork chops, so the cooking time was longer-about 15 minutes for the chops. You can use more carrots if you want (and maybe that will give the carrots a more pronounced flavor) or sub some other veg, maybe some chopped up butternut squash now that we’re moving into winter vegetables.
The cilantro was sort of lost, except for the color, so if you’re out, don’t fret or make a special trip to the market for it.
