Bourdain's Pork Chop Sandwich — Step-by-Step Guide & Transcript

[00:02] foodwishes.com with Anthony Bourdain's pork chop sandwich. That's right, there's a Bourdain biopic coming out called Tony. And to celebrate, I'm going to show you my

[00:15] version of his version of Macau's famous pork chop sandwich, which Bourdain thing in his cookbook. And I now fully understand why he said that. And to get started, we'll go ahead and put together the marinade. We'll

[00:29] start with a whole bunch of garlic, followed by some brown sugar, some Chinese five spice powder, plus a little bit of sesame oil. soy sauce, as well as some Chinese black vinegar,

[00:43] which if you can't find, you can use a combo of half rice vinegar, half And then we'll finish up with some Chinese rice wine. use some sake. And as usual, we'll give you all these

[00:56] substitutions in the written recipe. And what we'll do is give that a quick mix and set it aside while we prep our pork chops. And what we want to use here is about a 6 or 7 oz bone-in rib chop, which is

[01:09] basically the ribeye steak for pork. And yes, we're leaving the bone in. And then as far as trimming goes, this one was pretty well trimmed, but there's a little chunk of fat in this area that I do like to trim out.

[01:23] going to do is take our knife, and we're going to cut in about 1 in all the way little bit of a membrane that was holding on the fat. the way around, which not only makes this look cooler,

[01:38] but it's also going to guarantee our pork chop stays flat when we cook it. different ways. Right, one like the version Bourdain fell in love with in Macau. And then we'll do the crispy breaded version that

[01:50] appears in his cookbook. And while we're doing this, if a little and trim it off like you see me doing here. can move on to do a little bit of pounding.

[02:03] Which you can do with one of these tools, or just use the bottom of a heavy And after we flatten that out to about a quarter inch or so, we'll go ahead and transfer this into a zip top bag. And I'm only showing one, but I did that

[02:16] to four chops total. And yes, you always want to put your bag in a bowl in case there's any leaks. Which if you use a bowl never happens. always happens. And that's it. We'll go ahead and pour

[02:29] in our marinade. And we will seal the bag while pushing And then to make sure our chops are evenly coated with the marinade, let's minute. And of course, while this is marinating,

[02:42] it's not a bad idea to do that again and maybe flip the bag a few times. fridge for anywhere between 1 and 12 hours, or at least that's what Bourdain has in his cookbook. All right, I think the ideal marination time is about 8 to

[02:56] 10 hours. So, you decide. And then next step, I'm going to show you one optional condiment for this. Which is going to be some soft room temp butter that I mixed with some sambal chili sauce.

[03:08] just served as is, or maybe with a little bit of just the sauce over the But since they butter the Portuguese style rolls they serve it on, I thought sauce together. Which I'm going to apply

[03:21] And by the way, my butter was a little too cold. So, I'm going to let this warm up on the counter a bit and then give it another mix before I serve. a sandwich, we'll pull our pork out of the marinade, and we will dry it off

[03:35] towels. And we'll want to make sure there's none of that garlic stuck to the oil. And once our pork chop's nice and dry, shallow fry this in a pan in some vegetable oil, which I heated to 350°

[03:52] over medium-high heat. And then once I carefully place my pork chop in, I turn the heat down to medium, and we will fry that for about 3 to 4 minutes per side, or until it's done to your liking.

[04:04] ugly, but I was definitely using a splatter guard over the top of the pan between shots. And speaking of splattering, as long as you only turn this once, it's not going to be too bad. But you know me, I love to turn things.

[04:17] So, when I turn that back over to take a look at the other side, it started to splatter a lot more. So, I did it again. I know, I just can't help myself. And because of the sugar and the vinegar

[04:29] some fairly dark caramelization in spots. Which don't worry, is not a problem, and it's going to taste great. But anyway, once that's cooked through and looking beautiful, we'll go ahead and pull that out of the pan, and we'll

[04:42] let that rest on a plate for just a couple minutes while we make our toast. And I'm using some nice Japanese-style milk bread, but Bourdain just use regular white toast, and that's also going to work out fine. But anyway,

[04:54] we'll drizzle over any and all accumulated juices. Oh, no, you can't throw those away. And once that was done, I topped this with my sambal butter, plus a few fresh cilantro leaves, which is not done in

[05:08] the authentic version or Anthony Bourdain's version, but I like them, so And after taking way too many pictures, I grabbed a knife, and I spread some of that butter on my top toast, as over the top of the chop.

[05:22] And as you might imagine, I was extremely excited at this point, since this looked and smelled fantastic. And once I had that properly buttered, I grabbed a big serrated knife, and I cut this in half, slicing parallel to the

[05:34] bone. Oh, yeah, pro tip, do not try to cut through the bone. And then I went ahead and stacked the two halves, just like a food blogger would have done back in 2012, since as everybody knows, Bourdain loved

[05:47] food bloggers. But anyway, I finally took a bite, which was nothing short of magnificence. All right, the meat was very flavorful and didn't overcook it, it was still nice and moist. And I really did enjoy that

[06:02] sambal butter on this, which as I mentioned is not traditional and optional. So, you decide. I mean, you are after all the Tony Bourdain of whether to enjoy it like this or plain. But I do think he would

[06:15] have enjoyed it. And of course, after we finish this, we get to gnaw on that bone to finish a meal. And while this one used Bourdain's marinade and toasted bread delivery system, the cooking method we used,

[06:29] where the chop is simply pan-fried, is basically how they do it in Macau. Whereas Bourdain's version in the cookbook is actually breaded before it's show you next, and then we'll talk about which one was better.

[06:42] And what we'll do first, after we pat that pork chop dry, is season it on both salt, after which we will sprinkle it on both sides with a flour. And with the first version, I thought the soy would provide enough salt, and

[06:55] it almost did, but I thought it needed a little more seasoning, so I made the Oh, and yes, for this crispy breaded fried version, I did slice off the bone, which is going to make this easier and safer to eat. And once our pork is

[07:09] seasoned and floured, what we'll do is pour over one beaten egg, and we'll keep flipping that over until it's evenly coated. And when I'm just breading one or two things, I like this do it on a plate method instead of setting up the

[07:21] three-pan breading station. All right, I think it's just easier. And once that's coated in egg, we'll place that on top of a plate of panko breadcrumbs, and we'll sprinkle some more over the top, and then we'll press

[07:33] those firmly into both sides. And don't be afraid to use a little pressure here. nice and sharp, and the more we drive those into surface of the meat, the come out. And that's it. We'll shake off the

[07:47] plate. At which point I like to pop it in the fridge for at least 15 or 20 minutes so that that breading really adheres. immediately. But either way, we'll heat our oil to

[08:00] But either way, we'll heat our oil to 350° again over medium-high heat. heat to medium. And we'll fry this for about 3 minutes per side. Or until it's beautifully golden brown and crispy and cooked

[08:13] through. And then I pull that out of the pan onto And then onto a slice of toasted milk bread. and I did not think I needed the butter here, I just applied some straight

[08:27] sambal to the top. Along with my probably highly And I went ahead and topped that and sliced in half. And that, my friends, I must admit, was the superior version.

[08:40] And I remember when I first heard about this, I was a little bit confused since the sandwich Tony fell in love with in Macau was not breaded before it was fried. So I was wondering why the version in his cookbook was. But then I

[08:52] remembered, Anthony Bourdain had a fetish for fried foods and was crazy for cutlets. So it all really does make sense, especially after you taste this version. Right, the big flavors, the incredible texture. This really was

[09:06] Although if you do take the bone out and fry it like this, you don't get to have first one. But whether you do the boneless version from the cookbook or the pan-fried version that's bony, in honor of Tony, I

[09:21] really do hope you give this a try soon. So please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts, a printable written recipe and much more info as usual. And as always, [music] enjoy.