Best Pan-Fried Pork Chops

I tried something different for dinner tonight and it turned out great. This is from Cook's Illustrated Nov/Dec. 2010 Issue. 

I read their article "Improving Pan-Fried Pork Chops"- wow, those people over at Cook's Illustrated sure make a chemistry experiment about food. Very interesting reading. I was curious if all their tedious instructions to breading a meat item would really make that much difference. 

Well, the family was pleased so that's enough confirmation for me.

Here is what I did tonight:

3 pork loins (I had A LOT of breading mixture and milk left over could definitely cover much more)

2/3 Cup cornstarch

1 cup buttermilk (I NEVER have this on hand so I did 1 cup milk with a tablespoon of lemon juice, stir, let sit 5 minutes)

2 tbsp. dijon mustard

1 tsp. garlic salt

3 cups cornflakes crushed

vegetable oil for frying

Place 1/3 cup cornstarch in shallow dish. In another dish/bowl whisk buttermilk, mustard and garlic til smooth. Process cornflakes, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper and 1/3 cup cornstarch in food processor. (putzy! you could just crush cornflakes in a bag with a rolling pin and mix in the other ingredients...kind of a pain to clean out the food processor for that little bit...but to each his own!)

So you have a dish of cornstarch mixture, one dish of the milk mixture and one dish of your cornflake crumb mixture. 

Cross hatch your pork loin with a knife, both sides. Then dredge in cornstarch (the feel of the cornstarch on the meat really gave me the willies- like cotton or nails on a chalkboard kinda thing). Then dip in milk mixture, then coat with breadcrumbs.

Place on a plate until all pork is coated.

Get your skillet or fry pan nice and hot with some oil in it and fry these about 5-6 minutes each side. 

The breading was very nice and crispy- not soggy at all, which is what the chemist's over there said it would be. 

I did deviate some from ALL their instructions but I'm a Mama cooking for a family, not a test kitchen. 

Then this went in the frying pan, never to be seen again. No picture- but they were so nice looking, perfectly browned and dee-licous. 

I served this with Linguine with a red sauce and normandy vegetables.

If you really want to see the Cook's Illustrated Crispy Pan Fried Pork Chops you can head over here but, it looks like you have to sign up to see anything.

Head over HERE for a printable recipe. Scroll to the bottom to "print this page".