Recipe: Rhubarb and Brown Sugar Skillet Pork Chops

Christine Gallary
Christine GallarySenior Recipe Editor at The Kitchn
I grew up in a Chinese food-loving family, eating my first restaurant meals in Oakland's vibrant Chinatown. My love of food but lack of cooking experience led to me Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, where I graduated with a Diplôme de Cuisine in French cooking. After culinary school, I learned how to test and edit recipes in test kitchens at Cook's Illustrated and CHOW, falling in love with the process of rigorously testing recipes to make sure they were foolproof for the home cook. I've worked with thousands of recipes over the past 15 years, including developing recipes for the James Beard-award winning Mister Jiu's in Chinatown cookbook. Living in the delicious diversity of San Francisco, I never get tired of finding new ingredients or cuisines to try. My favorite type is Cantonese home cooking — I'm on a quest to recreate the dishes my grandmother used to make. All the food I test at home is eagerly tasted and enjoyed by my husband, Hayden, and daughter, Sophie, while our little dog, Mochi, looks wistfully on.
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published May 17, 2016
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Credit: Maria Siriano

Serves3

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(Image credit: Maria Siriano)

Rhubarb is often thought of as an ingredient for sweets, and while I would never turn down a slice of strawberry-rhubarb pie, rhubarb can do double duty in the world of savory foods as well. Stew it with onions, spicy ginger, and some soy sauce, and now you have a tangy sauce that you can braise pork chops in until juicy and tender.

(Image credit: Maria Siriano)

One sturdy skillet is all you need for this dish, and cast iron works well if you have one. After bone-in pork chops are browned, sauté onions, rhubarb, and ginger in the same pan until tender, and then add chicken broth, brown sugar, and soy sauce to form a sauce to simmer the pork chops in.

Serve the pork chops and sauce over rice pilaf and some steamed vegetables for a complete dinner. And don’t be shy about picking up the pork chop bone to gnaw off the last bits of meat — you can’t let those tasty bits go to waste!

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Rhubarb and Brown Sugar Skillet Pork Chops

Serves 3

Nutritional Info

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons

    vegetable oil

  • 3

    (1-inch-thick) bone-in pork chops

  • Kosher salt

  • 1/2

    medium yellow onion, diced

  • 1 cup

    diced rhubarb (about 7 ounces)

  • 1 tablespoon

    finely chopped peeled fresh ginger

  • 1 cup

    low-sodium chicken broth

  • 2 tablespoons

    packed dark brown sugar

  • 1 tablespoon

    soy sauce or tamari

Instructions

  1. Heat the oil in a large frying pan or cast iron skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Meanwhile, pat the pork chops dry with paper towels and season generously with salt on both sides.

  2. Add the pork chops to the pan and and sear until golden-brown, about 3 minutes per side. Remove to a large plate (the pork chops will not be cooked through).

  3. Reduce the heat to medium and add the onion. Season with salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the rhubarb and ginger and cook until the ginger is fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the broth, sugar, and soy sauce, stir to dissolve the sugar, and bring to a boil.

  4. Nestle the pork chops into the sauce and add any accumulated juices from the plate. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook uncovered, flipping halfway through, until the pork chops are just cooked through and the thickest part registers 140°F on an instant-read thermometer, 6 to 8 minutes. Remove the pork chops to a clean plate to rest.

  5. Increase the heat to medium and simmer the sauce until it thickens slightly, about 5 minutes more. Taste the sauce and season with salt as needed. Serve the pork chops with the sauce.

Filed in:
dinner
easy
Gluten-Free
Ingredient
Main Dish
pork