Chinese Pork Chop or Pai Gu

Serve with vinegar or Japanese Tonkatsu sauce.

When you're sick and it's your birthday, you need comfort food. It was my birthday Tuesday, and our entire household was either sick or just recovering. But I wanted to celebrate my special day.

Hudson and I went to our local market and bought pork chops, for Pai Gu, to make just like my mom used to. Pai Gu is a common Chinese pork chop dish served with fried rice and stir fried vegetables.

My mom would coat them with bread crumbs and pan fry them, and we would eat them with a variety of vegetable dishes. This time we just steamed some broccoli but we enjoyed it.

We started late that day so I was only able to marinate them for a couple hours, and then I coated them with Japanese bread crumbs called Panko. The Japanese make a pork chop in a similar fashion. I like pan frying them like my mom used to but I didn't want to cook them in batches. I tried to bake some and pan fry two or three chops. The pan fried pork was crispier but the coating came off, and the baked Pai Gui's coating turned mushy in the oven. We still thoroughly enjoyed them.

After dinner, we celebrated with store-bought cupcakes. I forgot to buy candles, but we lit a large candle instead. It was a simple and easy birthday celebration and I was just happy to have homemade Chinese food with my family.

Pai Gu                               
10 thinly sliced pork chops
1 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
3 sliced garlic gloves
Black pepper
Egg
Panko bread crumbs

Pour 1 cup soy sauce and 1/2 cup red wine vinegar into a large air-tight container to marinate your chops. Toss in 3 sliced garlic gloves. Place your pork chops into the marinade and sprinkle some black pepper over the meat. Refrigerate for 1 hour and move the pork chops around so each piece gets to soak in the marinade.

After about 1 to 2 hours, remove from the refrigerator. Lightly beat one egg and pour about 1/2 cup of Panko bread crumbs on a plate. Saturate each pork chop in the egg and then coat with the Panko.

Heat up 1/2 cup of vegetable oil in a large skillet. Cook each pork chop at medium-high heat for about 5 minutes each side.

If you decide to dry to bake them, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Place the pork chops in one layer on a baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes and then flip each chop. Bake for another 10 minutes and serve.