Pork piccata
Thin golden pork cutlets in a bright lemon, caper and butter sauce, tossed with angel hair so none of the sauce goes to waste.
- 40 min total
- 35 min hands-on
- A little more hands-on
- Serves 4
- About $2.19 a serving
- 610 calories
Dolly says: Read the steps once before you start. Everything goes smoother after that.
Ingredients
For 4 servings.
- 8 oz angel hair pasta
- 1 lb boneless pork chops, boneless, about 3 chops
- ¼ cup butter, divided
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- ¾ cup chicken broth
- 2 lemons, 1 juiced, 1 thinly sliced
- 2 tbsp capers, drained
- 2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
From your pantry
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp black pepper
- ⅓ cup all-purpose flour
- 2 tbsp olive oil
Each serving has about 610 calories, 33 g protein, 55 g carbs and 29 g fat, and costs about $2.19 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No butter? Ghee works.
- No chicken broth? Vegetable broth or bone broth works.
- No lemons? Limes work.
- No fresh parsley? Cilantro works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
Bring a large pot of salted water for the pasta.
Bring to a boil. It means heating a liquid on high until it’s fully boiling before you move on. A lid on the pot gets it there faster, which makes it a good moment to chop something.
How you’ll know: Big bubbles break all over the surface, and they keep coming when you lift the lid.
High heat
Pound the chops to about ¼ inch thick between two sheets of plastic wrap, with the salt and pepper, and press them into the flour, shaking off the extra.
Season. Seasoning means adding salt, pepper or spices to bring out a food’s flavor. A little at a few stages tastes better than a lot all at the end.
How you’ll know: When you taste it, it tastes bright and like itself, not flat and not salty.
Food safety: Wash your hands, the board and the knife with hot soapy water after touching raw meat, and don’t rinse raw chicken in the sink.
Heat the oil and 1 tbsp of the butter in a large over medium-high.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Medium-high heat
Cook the cutlets in batches 2 to 3 minutes a side, until and the middle reads 145°F.
Golden brown. Golden brown is the color of good toast, somewhere between yellow and light brown. It means the outside is cooked and crisp but not burnt.
How you’ll know: It looks like toast and smells toasty; dark brown with a bitter smell means it went too far.
Medium-high heatTimer: 5 min
Food safety: Steak, pork chops and other whole cuts are safe at 145°F in the middle, then let them rest for 3 minutes before cutting.
Move them to a plate.
Drop the pasta into the boiling water and cook it as the package says, usually about 3 minutes.
High heatTimer: 3 min
Dolly’s tip: Angel hair cooks fast, so start it only once the pork is out of the pan.Turn the skillet to medium, stir in the garlic for 30 seconds, then pour in the broth and lemon juice and .
Scrape up the browned bits. It means loosening the brown bits stuck to the pan with a wooden spoon, usually right after adding liquid. Those bits are concentrated flavor, and they melt into the sauce.
How you’ll know: The bottom of the pan looks clean again, and the liquid turns darker and richer.
Medium heat
3 minutes, until the sauce by about a third.
Simmer. Simmering means keeping a liquid just below a boil, with small bubbles rising gently. It cooks food evenly and lets a sauce thicken without scorching on the bottom.
How you’ll know: Small, lazy bubbles break the surface every second or so, and nothing is churning.
Reduce. Reducing means simmering a liquid with the lid off so some of the water steams away. The sauce gets thicker and its flavor gets stronger.
How you’ll know: The level drops in the pan, and the sauce coats the back of a spoon instead of running off.
Medium heatTimer: 3 min
Take the pan off the heat and swirl in the rest of the butter, the capers, lemon slices and parsley until the sauce turns glossy.
Dolly’s tip: Off the heat is the trick. On the heat, the butter melts into grease instead of a creamy sauce.the pasta, it with a few spoonfuls of the sauce, and serve the cutlets on top with the rest of the sauce poured over.
Drain. Draining means pouring off liquid, like tipping pasta into a colander or spooning extra fat out of the pan. Pour hot grease into a can or jar, not the sink, where it hardens and clogs the pipes.
How you’ll know: Only a few drips are left, and the food isn’t sitting in a puddle.
Toss. Tossing means gently lifting and turning food so everything gets coated, like pasta in sauce or vegetables in oil. It coats every piece evenly without mashing anything.
How you’ll know: Every piece looks glossy or evenly coated, with no dry spots hiding underneath.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
