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Oven Fried Pork Chops - Italian Style
Pork Chop Recipes
What sorts of pork chop recipes do you and your family like? We love pork chops, and I don’t think I’ve tasted one that I didn’t like – unless it was way overcooked and had the texture of leather. We like them fried, grilled, baked, broiled, roasted, and smoked. I have to admit, though, I think fried pork chops are my favorite of all my pork chop recipes. I season them, dip them in an egg wash, and double coat them with flour before frying them in oil in my old black iron skillet. Of course, I don’t always feel like standing over the hot stove and frying – especially in the hot southern summer months. When I’m in the mood for fried pork chops but don’t want to go to the trouble of doing it the traditional way, I just let the oven do most of the work.
Oven Fried Pork Chops
Oven fried chops are pretty easy to make – easier than frying in hot oil on the stove. If you go about it the right way, the results are delicious. The coating on the meat is nice and crunchy, while the meat itself is moist and juicy.
To get results that are similar to frying, you’ll have to use some type of fat. I most often use butter, but you can also use margarine, cooking oil, lard, melted vegetable shortening, or bacon drippings. I think I’ve tried them all, and I really like the flavor the butter imparts to the pork and to the coating.
If you want a low carb oven fried pork chops recipe, you can do that, too. Just use soy flour, almond flour, or coconut flour for the coating. To give the breading more texture, you might want to mix some ground pork rinds to the flour.
When you arrange the chops in the pan, try not to let them touch. If there’s some space between each piece of meat, the breading will get crispier.
Oven Fried Pork Chop Recipe
The recipe I’m including below includes Italian flavorings. If you want to make a more traditional American recipe, it’s easy. You can use plain flour or plain bread crumbs. Sometimes I use a combination of the two – half flour and half breadcrumbs. I’ve also use crushed Ritz crackers for the coating, and I know people who use cracker meal, cornmeal, dry instant mashed potatoes, crushed cornbread stuffing mix, crushed saltines, or crushed cornflakes.
What about trimming the fat from the meat? I never trim the fat from pork chops I’m going to fry in the oven. The melted fat helps with the “frying” process. If you like, you can always trim the fat after the meat is cooked. You can also get rid of more fat by draining the cooked pork on paper towels or wire racks. Oh, here’s another tip: From my experience, the best chops for oven frying are about ½ inch thick. Also, I like to use center-cut chops for this method of cooking, but to save money, you might want to use cheaper pork chops. You can usually save even more money by using pork steaks instead of pork chops.
For the cheese in the coating, use the dry, powdery parmesan cheese that usually comes in a cardboard can. The parmesan you find in the bags in the refrigerated section has too much moisture.
Once the pork chops are cooked, you can cover them with flavored tomato sauce, if you like. You might even want to sprinkle some grated mozzarella on top. Believe it or not, the chops are great served with pasta!
Rate my pork chop recipe. Thanks!
Cook Time
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 4 - 6 pork chops, about 1/2 inch thick
- 2 eggs
- 1 1/2 cups dry Italian bread crumbs
- 1/2 cup parmesan cheese
- 1 teaspoon Lawry's garlic salt
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
- spaghetti or marinara sauce, optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line a large baking pan with foil and add butter. Place pan in oven until butter melts. Swirl butter around to coat entire pan.
- Rinse pork chops and pat dry with paper towels. Beat eggs in a medium bowl.
- In a pie plate, combine bread crumbs, parmesan, garlic salt, onion powder, and basil.
- Dip each pork chop into eggs and then roll in crumb mixture. Pat the crumbs onto the meat to make sure they stick.
- Arrange pork chops on baking pan and cook for ten to twelve minutes, until coating is golden brown. Turn chops over and bake for an additional ten to twelve minutes.