5 Ingredients Or Less (Sort of)

Around 15 years or so ago, my father-in-law bought a CD titled “1 Million Recipes.” (I know it was awhile ago because people were still purchasing things on CD–ADORABLE!!) Anyway, most of the recipes were fairly unremarkable recipes for home cooks. I only remember one, because it’s one I still use. It’s called “Chinese Pork Chops,” and I’ve made it many, many, MANY times. I think one of the reasons I go to it again and again is because it has so few ingredients, it’s easy to remember the recipe and it’s easy to put your own spin on it.

Chinese Pork Chops

Ingredients:

• 4-6 bone in pork chops
• 5 tbsp. water
• 4 tbsp. sugar
• 3 tbsp. vinegar (cider/white/rice or white wine all work fine)
• 2 tbsp. soy sauce
• 1 tbsp. sherry

Directions: 

1. Mix all ingredients together (save the pork chops, of course).
2. In a skillet, heat some oil ’til it’s rippling, then lightly brown the chops.
3. Pour in the soy-sugar mixture. Bring the heat up to high/med-high and let the chops cook through while the sauce thickens.
4. When the sauce forms a thick glaze, immediately remove pan from heat.
5. Serve chops and glaze over hot cooked rice.

Now, this is very basic. But’s its easy to add some flair. These days I usually add some fresh or ground ginger, as well as a little dash of sesame oil and Sriracha to the sauce, and serve the whole thing with chopped cilantro on top. A squeeze of lime over everything would be good too, I imagine. I’ve added chopped bok choy to the glaze towards the end of the cooking time, which slows down the sauce to glaze process considerably (because it adds so much water to the mix), but it’s healthy and makes for a great one-pan meal.

The bottom line is that this is quick, easy (and cheap) recipe to work with. What are you favorite quick/easy/cheap, no-fuss, no-muss recipes?