Japanese-Style Crisp Breaded Pork Cutlets

In order to make the wontons the other day, we had to buy four boneless pork chops.  So I was looking for something different to do with the remaining two.  In the Cook’s Illustrated Cookbook I found the following recipe.  I cut the recipe in half and used half the oil in cooking.  I rarely fry. 

Ingredients:

6 (3-4 oz.) boneless pork chops (My two chops weighed 12 oz.  I cut each one in half)

½ C cornstarch

1 ½ C Panko breadcrumbs or more

1 egg

1C + 1T vegetable oil (I used half the called for oil for cooking, it was plenty)

Directions:

1.      Place the chops between 2 sheets of wax paper and pound to ¼” thick

2.      Place the cornstarch in one pan.  The egg mixed with the 1 T of oil in the second pan.  And the panko in the third. 

3.      If making the full recipe, heat the oven to 200 degrees to hold the chops as you will be frying in batches. 

4.      Heat the oil until shimmering.  Not hot enough and your fried food will be greasy.  I have an infrared sensor and heated to 350 degrees.

5.      Fry for about 2 minutes per side.  I fried 2 at a time.  The full recipe fried 3 at a time. 

They were crisp and very tender.  I served this with baked sweet potatoes and stir fried cabbage, onion and carrot mixture.  I liked the stir fry.  Jim treated it like I was trying to poison him.