Coconut Pork Chops with Peanut-Coconut Sauce

Alrighty, so this is the recipe that inspired me to start a food blog. Apologies for the bizarre grammar and tone - I originally posted this for a group of close friends, and I'm doing a very weak re-edit instead of a proper rewrite.

Scroll to the bottom for the ingredient list/recipe...


I had pork chops. Pork chops are cheap, which is very good around here these days. We've been eating a lot of pork chops so I wanted to find something different to do with them. Eventually I will put up some of my go-to recipes, but on the night in question, I wanted something new and different. I didn't have one recipe that I tweaked this time, I instead spent an hour or so looking at various recipes that used elements that interested me and combined a few ideas into something that turned out relatively tasty. 

I had 4 rather thick boneless pork chops, but there was enough sauce for double that... here's how it went:

First, breaded the chops by dipping them in egg and then coating them in a mixture of bread crumbs and flaked coconut into which I had put a few screws of ground pepper, a pinch of cayenne and a pinch of curry powder. I tossed that in the fridge for a few hours because I had to go pick up the fam, but I'm sure you could do it immediately before cooking.

The sauce, I used a can of coconut milk, about half a cup or so of peanut butter - we just had generic sandwich peanut butter instead of yummy natural peanut butter and it worked just fine. Then I splashed a couple teaspoons or so worth of fish sauce in, and the juice of a lime. Put all of it on the stove and boiled it for a little bit, then I strained it and tossed it in the fridge for a bit. (If I had any ginger or garlic I probably would have used some, but it was grocery day and I didn't). I strained it because it was a little curdly looking due to the fact that I dumped everything in and boiled it - but some of the quick research I've done says it is probably best to gently cook sauces that may curdle. Either way, I just strained the chunky bits out and it tasted fine. Really.

So skip to later on...

I put some plain basmati rice on the stove, I've been addicted to brown rice for so long I forgot how nicely sometimes a white rice compliments certain meals.

Took the chops out of the fridge and let them sit for maybe half an hour while I tried to clear enough space to work with and heat up a pan to fairly hot - like 7ish on the electric dial, and made sure my thick pan actually GOT that hot. Splooshed some oil in the pan and browned the chops for about 4-5 minutes on each side. Gotta watch that the coconut doesn't burn, but it will toast nicely and smells like lovely toasted coconut. With thinner chops I probably would have cooked them for less - the object at this point not being to cook them through, just to brown the top and bottom.

As soon as they were brown on both sides, I dumped the sauce into the pan, put a lid on it and turned it down to about 3 and left it to simmer for about half an hour (till the rice was done). Flipped them over at the halfway point. (could have baked them in the oven after browning, but this way I only used one pan instead of a pan and a casserole dish). Note: when you dump the sauce in, don't forget to use a wooden spoon to scrape up all the bits stuck to the bottom of the pan and incorporate them into the sauce.

On the side:
The white basmati rice was perfect. I was a bad mommy and didn't do vegetables. Boo me. I'm sure my kids will live.

The Verdict:
YUM. The $5 Walmart chops were like butter. Tasty coconut-coated pork-butter smothered in peanuty happy sauce. The kids totally dug this one, because it used flavours that are tasty treats to them. Hubby and I loved how soft and perfectly cooked the chops were. I'm just that good, folks.

Ingredient list:

• 4 - 8 pork chops (as long as you have a pan big enough) *yes, I'm quite sure you could use chicken instead of pork
• a can of coconut milk
• about half a cup of peanut butter, any kind
• juice of a lime (do yourself a favour and never use reallime or reallemon in recipes. They're around $0.37 each... squeeze them yourself)
• couple splashes of fish sauce
• couple grinds of a pepper mill
• pinch of cayenne
• pinch of curry
• bread crumbs - 1/4 - 1/2 cup
• about the same amount of unsweetened flaked coconut as bread crumbs
• a beaten egg
• enough rice to make everyone happy. Basmati worked great.

could also add but I didn't because I'm lazy/didn't have on hand:
-some garlic, maybe a clove minced
-some ginger - about a tbsp or so minced

The Short Version:

1. Coat the chops first in beaten egg, then in a mixture of bread crumbs, flaked coconut, a pinch of pepper, pinch of cayenne, pinch of curry, just pinch some things that will taste nice with a coconut-peanut flavour base, really
2. Brown the chops
3. Meanwhile, in a saucepan, slowly heat the coconut milk, peanut butter, fish sauce, lime, ginger, garlic until it's hot and combined.
4. When the chops are browned, dump the sauce in, scrape up the bits, put a lid on the pan, crank it down to simmer, and cook for half an hour or so, flipping the chops over at the halfway point.
5. Eat, drink, be merry.