Mexican Pork Chops

March. Spring. The light returning. The annual miracle. Fourteen hours now and climbing. The light is the reward for the endurance, the photons the payment for the darkness, the exchange rate of the Alaskan year: five months of dark for seven months of increasing light. The exchange is not fair. The exchange is Alaska. I take it.

The book has a cover. Sarah sent the mock-up — a photograph of a kitchen table, a bowl of adobo, the light coming through a window that could be any window but looks like the window in my apartment, the window through which the stove light glows at midnight. The title: "Adobo in the Last Frontier: Filipino Cooking from an Alaskan Kitchen." The title says everything. The title is the intersection. The title is the moose and the vinegar and the Alaska and the Philippines and the kitchen where all of it meets.

I stared at the cover for an hour. The staring was processing — the visual confirmation that the book is real, that the pages exist, that the life I lived is now a thing someone can pick up in a bookstore and hold. Hold. The word that means everything in my life — holding patients' hands, holding Mia, holding Lourdes, holding the adobo. The book is the next thing held. The book is held by strangers. The holding is the sharing. The sharing is the point.

I made chicken adobo. The recipe from the cover. The recipe from Chapter One. The recipe from week one. The recipe that is the whole book condensed into garlic and vinegar and soy. The adobo was the same. The cover was new. The new holding the same. The same held by the new.

The adobo was already made — already eaten, already held — but the evening wasn’t finished, and neither was the cooking. On nights when something big lands in your life, I find I need to stay in the kitchen a little longer, to keep my hands moving and the stove going as a way of staying present in the miracle of it. These Mexican Pork Chops have become my second act on nights like that — bold with cumin and chili, quick enough that they don’t pull you too far from the feeling you’re trying to hold onto, but substantial enough to remind you that the body is here, that the evening is real, that the light through the window is yours.

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 20 minutes | Total Time: 30 minutes | Servings: 4

Ingredients

4 bone-in pork chops (about 3/4 inch thick)
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes with green chiles, undrained
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 medium white onion, thinly sliced
Fresh cilantro, chopped, for garnish
Lime wedges, for serving

Instructions

Season the chops. In a small bowl, combine chili powder, cumin, smoked paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper, and oregano. Pat the pork chops dry with paper towels and rub both sides generously with the spice mixture.
Sear. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Once shimmering, add the pork chops and sear 3—4 minutes per side until a deep golden-brown crust forms. Transfer to a plate and set aside.
Build the sauce. Reduce heat to medium. In the same skillet, add the sliced onion and cook 3 minutes until softened. Add the minced garlic and tomato paste and cook 1 minute, stirring constantly, until fragrant and the paste darkens slightly.
Simmer. Pour in the diced tomatoes with their juices and the chicken broth. Stir to scrape up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Bring to a gentle simmer.
Finish. Nestle the seared pork chops back into the skillet. Spoon the sauce over the top, cover, and cook over medium-low heat for 10—12 minutes until the pork is cooked through and registers 145°F on an instant-read thermometer.
Rest and serve. Remove from heat and let rest 3 minutes. Garnish with chopped cilantro and serve with lime wedges alongside rice, warm tortillas, or roasted vegetables.

Nutrition (per serving)

Mexican Pork Chops — The Savory Simplicity That Holds Everything Together