It’s a Nightly Challenge
It comes at the worst time. I’m tired from the days chores and projects, I’ve already cooked cooked two meals, and everyone’s home from work and I just want to be in the living room visiting with them. But, dinner must be made, so it’s gotta be fast. It’s gotta be cheap because that’s who I am. And it has to be tasty, or what’s the point?
What’s on the menu tonight?
Pork chop sandwiches. Adam and kids love ‘em, they come out to about $1/person, and I’m in and out of the kitchen in 25 minutes.
I start with pork chops. I put them between two layers of parchment paper and thin them out to 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick with the flat side of a meat tenderizing hammer.
Wax paper would work, but it absorbs the moisture faster than parchment paper and tears easily, so you have to use so much. I get my parchment paper at DollarTree.
Coat the chop in flour, dip it in egg, then coat it in panko bread crumbs. Mix the eggs with a little water. It thins it and keeps the egg from slicking off of the floured pork chop.
Panko are Japanese bread crumbs. Original, or Italian style bread crumbs will work. But they won’t brown up and get crispy like panko. It really makes a big difference.
Drop it in a pan with a little oil preheated over medium high heat. Because it’s hammered out so thin it will cook up super fast!
Serve it up on a toasted bun. Really, each chop will make two good sized sandwiches. This time we had homemade fries made from the sweet potatoes we grew over the summer! YUM!
The Cost
- I get the pork chops at Aldi. They come 7 in a pack and run around $4.50. I use 5 for one dinner, so about $3.21 for tonight.
- I don’t even know how to figure the flour. The cost is nominal.
- The eggs came from my yard. I’m not counting the cost of the chicken feed, so I’m calling them free.
- The panko crumbs cost about $2.50 a box at the market, but I purchased several boxes at a discount grocery store for 50 cents a box.
- Buns are less than a dollar.
That comes out to about $5.00 for 5 people.
Variation
I also make these using chicken tenders. Throw a pickle on them and they’re as close to Chick-Fil-A as you can get from your own kitchen!!
It's amazing how big a chop you get when pounded thin. Oh, and amen on the Panko crumbs. They rock!
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We are big meat eaters. We eat it with just about every meal. I have a lot of people to feed, so if I can "stretch" the meat it saves a lot of money.
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I hear you on stretching the budget that way. I almost always do a batch of beef 'n noodles after a pot roast. Gets me two weeks of meals out of one roast.
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That situation sounds so familiar! I seem to spend all my time cooking some days!
I've never used a tenderiser before, so dumb question coming up! Why can't you tenderise without the paper?
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Not a dumb question. I should have explained that. You can tenderize without paper. I use it for two reasons.
The meat trys to stick to the hammer. That slows me down a little, and just gets on my nerves.
When you hit meat with a hammer, it tends to splatter a little. The paper keeps that under control. It also makes clean-up a little faster as most of the meat juice goes into the garbage with the paper, instead of puddling on the counter.
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Oh, okay. Thanks. 😁
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