Pork Chop with Spicy Noodles

ecipes that don't allow at least some flexibility just aren't worth keeping around. Tonight's recipe from the Real Simple plan worked so well as a pork chop dish, even though it called for pork cutlets. Since the grocery store butcher didn't anticipate my needs in advance, I took a chop and made it work. Oh, did it work. This is easily one of the best meals I've cooked myself in a long time. The udon noodles were new to me, as were cooking with shitake mushrooms. Everything was incredibly easy in this recipe, and I loved how much heat the stock picked up from just one little pepper.

THURSDAY:



Pork Cutlets with Spicy Noodles

Serves 4

Hands-on Time: 30m

Total Time: 30m

Ingredients

* 4 cups low-sodium chicken broth (I used home-made)
* 1 1 1/2-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and sliced
* 1/2 pound udon noodles
* 1/2 pound shiitake mushrooms, stems discarded and caps sliced
* 1 red jalapeño pepper, sliced (I substituted a red Thai pepper. Spicy!)
* 4 thin pork cutlets (about 3⁄4 pound total) (I used one thick-cut boneless chop)
* kosher salt and black pepper
* 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
* 1 large egg, beaten
* 3/4 cup panko bread crumbs
* 2 tablespoons canola oil
* 2 scallions, sliced

Directions

1. In a large pot, bring the chicken broth and ginger to a boil.

2. Add the noodles and cook, stirring, until the broth is nearly absorbed and the noodles are al dente, 4 to 6 minutes.

3. Add the mushrooms and jalapeño and simmer until the mushrooms are just tender, 1 to 2 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, season the pork with ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Coat with the flour, then the egg, and finally the panko.

5. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the pork until cooked through, 2 to 3 minutes per side.

6. Slice the pork and serve over the noodles. Sprinkle with the scallions.

Tip

To lower the heat on this dish, remove the seeds from the jalapeño before slicing.