Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Taiwanese Pork Chop (Pai Ku Fan)




"This pork chop recipe has a great flavor using Chinese five-spice powder. If you can find sweet potato powder, use it instead of cornstarch. Serve this with plain white rice and a simple vegetable side."



http://pork.allrecipes.com/az/83792.asp

INGREDIENTS:
4 (3/4 inch) thick bone-in pork chops
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 tablespoon white wine
1/2 tablespoon Chinese five-spice powder
vegetable oil
vegetable oil for frying
cornstarch

DIRECTIONS:
With a sharp knife, make several small slits near the edges of the pork chops to keep them from curling when fried.
Into a large resealable plastic bag, add the soy sauce, garlic, sugar, white wine, and five-spice powder. Place chops into the bag, and close the seal tightly. Carefully massage the marinade into chops, coating well. Refrigerate at least 1 hour, turning the bag over every so often.
In a large skillet, heat enough vegetable oil to fill the skillet to a depth of about 1/2 inch. Remove chops from resealable bag without wiping off marinade. Lightly sprinkle cornstarch on both sides of the chops.
Carefully add chops to skillet; cook, turning once, until golden brown on both sides and cooked through.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello. Could you please help me? I have tried this recipe several times unsuccessfully. It is not crispy enough and the crust falls off. I also have tried to tweak the recipe in many different ways but it doesn't seem to work.

I am trying to get a really crunchy crust like the one in the Taiwanese restaurant that I eat at. Any ideas on how I can make it crispier and also make sure the crust does not fall off? Thanks!

Unknown said...

Also, what is the reason for using sweet potato starch instead? I haven't tried that yet. =P Thanks again!

Lee Ping said...

Remove the garlic before you apply the cornstarch or sweet potato flour. That way, your crust should stay on. The sweet potato flour is to give it the crunch like the Taiwanese Restaurant. If you can find sweet potato flour, use that instead of the cornstarch.

Lee Ping said...

I will post an article on pork chops (Taiwanese Style) in my new blog
http://hipfood.wordpress.com

Did you use cornstarch or sweet potato flour?

Anonymous said...

I used cornstarch before. I will try sweet potato starch next time. Thanks!

Also, does sweet potato starch leave a very thick crust? The crust at the restaurant I get it at has a really thick crust...maybe 2 millimeters. I was thinking they dip it in starch, marinade and then starch again. This is the method I was going to try next. One of the things I tried was dipping it in cornstarch, egg, and then cornstarch again. Although the crust was crunchy, it didn't have enough flavor because of the extra layer of egg and cornstarch. That is why I think that maybe the extra dipping in the marinade will give it the flavor it needs from the additional layer of starch. Please tell me what you think. Thanks again! =P

Lee Ping said...

The photo that you see is marinated pork chop coated with sweet potato starch, not cornstarch.

Using sweet potato starch will produce a pork chop that is very similar to the restaurants. I use a ziplock bag (plastic bag) filled with about 4 tbsp of the sweet potato starch, put one in at a time to thoroughly coat the marinated pork chop.

I think if you use sweet potato starch instead of cornstarch, there is not a need to do extra dipping in marinade and re-dip in starch, you will be pleased with the result.

I made pork chop again tonight. Same delicious result with the sweet potato starch.

Anonymous said...

Thanks so much for your help!