Pork Chops with a Parmesan-Sage Crust and Sweet Potatoes with a Honey Glaze

*Post by Angela.

After the marathon that was preparing for pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving dinner, I took a little hiatus from the kitchen to recover. I decided to get back out there with a hearty, cool-weather-appropriate dish the other night. I found some beautiful, thick-cut pork chops at the store, and decided to prepare them with a parmesan-sage crust, to go alongside some sweet potatoes and smitten kitchen's creamed spinach.

List of ingredients for the sweet potatoes:

• 2 1/4 lbs red-skinned sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 6 tbsp butter
• 3 tbsp honey
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• Salt and pepper

First, I preheated the oven to 350 degrees, then combined the sweet potato cubes, butter, honey and lemon juice in a baking pan, making sure the cubes were well-coated. I seasoned the pan generously with salt and pepper, covered it with foil and popped it in the oven for about 50 minutes, stirring occasionally.

BOOM. Finished. The butter, honey and lemon juice bath gave the softened orange cubes a pretty sheen, one that was surprisingly not too overwhelmingly sweet. The colorful side went perfectly with...

...the juicy pork chops.

List of ingredients for the pork chops:

• 4 thick-cut, boneless pork chops
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1 1/2 cups panko bread crumbs
• 1 cup grated parmesan
• 1 tbsp dried sage, crumbled
• 1 tsp grated lemon peel
• Salt and pepper
• 2 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp olive oil

First, I rinsed the chops and patted them dry with paper towels. I set up three dishes, and filled one with the flour (seasoned with salt and pepper), one with the egg, and one with the panko, parmesan, sage and lemon peel (well combined). I coated each chop with flour, shaking off the excess.

Next, the chops visited the egg station. If you look closely, you can see that I violated the most basic rule of breading things - using one hand to coat with dry ingredients and one hand to coat with wet ingredients. Needless to say, my hands were kind of a floury mess at the end of the process.

Finally, each chop got a nice panko-parmesan-sage-lemon peel crust. I made sure that the breading was firmly pressed into the chops, and just to be sure it stuck, I covered the coated chops with plastic wrap and let them sit for about 10 minutes (to let the crust set).

When it was time to cook the chops, I preheated the oven to about 450 degrees and melted the butter and olive oil together in a pan over medium high heat. I seared the chops on the stove for about 2 minutes a side, until the crust was a nice golden brown.

I finished the chops off in the oven for about 15-20 minutes, then plated them with the sweet potatoes and creamed spinach. The crunchy crust was great, with a nice saltiness from the cheese, herbaceousness from the sage, and a brightness from the lemon peel. It was a really basic, but really filling and tasty meal, one that would be great for entertaining less adventurous guests. 

Comments

[Jessica]

This looks amazing and simple. Something I can easily make. I may try it with a light pinot noir!

[Angela]

Thanks, Jessica! I love simple. And yes, this recipe is just that. I bet it would be perfect with a light pinot noir!