Weeknight Pork Chops —The Pork That Brought Six Hundred Pasteles Home

Week 500. I notice round numbers. I will not stop noticing them.

Five hundred Sundays of writing this blog to you, mi amor. Almost a decade. The first post was March 2016. I was fifty. I was running the food service at Hartford Hospital. I had four kids and no grandchildren. Mami was seventy-nine and lived in Bayamón and Hurricane María had not yet broken our world. I was a different woman.

This week was an ordinary December week. Tuesday food bank: pollo guisado. Wednesday I prepped for the pasteles workshop on Saturday. Thursday I sat with Mami for three hours. Friday I made arroz con dulce. Saturday was the workshop.

The Saturday pasteles workshop ran from 9 AM to 5 PM. Thirty students, three assistants, me. We grated yautía for two hours. We made the masa. We cooked the pork filling. We assembled the pasteles. We tied them. We cooked them in three big pots. We ate at 4 PM — a full Puerto Rican meal made by thirty hands. Diana was there. She had been through cohort 1. She came to the workshop as alumni. Hector was there. Mr. Patterson directed traffic. Yolanda taught alongside me. Marcus did the prep. The kitchen was a hive. Twenty pasteles per student to take home. Six hundred pasteles total in one day.

At the end of the day Diana came to me at the front counter. She said, "Mrs. Carmen, I have to tell you something." I said, "Diana, what?" She said, "Mrs. Carmen, last week I cooked pasteles for my mother's anniversary. I cooked them by myself in my own kitchen. Forty pasteles. They were my mother's pasteles, the ones she used to make. I made them with your method but my mother's seasonings. I — I cooked my mother back into the kitchen, Mrs. Carmen. I cooked her back. I have not had her in twenty years. She came back, Mrs. Carmen. The pasteles were her. I ate them and she was there." She was crying. She said, "Mrs. Carmen, you taught me to cook my mother back." I said, "Diana, I am very glad." She hugged me. She left.

I stood at the counter. Eduardo was waiting at the door because he had come to drive me home. He said, "Carmen, what was that?" I said, "Eduardo, that was — that was the whole thing." He held me. He drove me home. I cried in the car. He did not say anything. He drove. Wepa.

The pork was the heart of Saturday — the sofrito-scented filling we tucked into every one of those six hundred pasteles — and I came home with pork still on my mind, pork still in my hands, pork still in my chest alongside everything Diana said to me at that counter. Not every night can be a workshop, and not every night should be; some nights you need the flavors of that big kitchen but in something simple enough to make while Eduardo sits at the table and the house is quiet. These weeknight pork chops are what I reach for on those nights — honest, savory, and done before you have time to overthink anything.

Weeknight Pork Chops

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

Ingredients

• 4 bone-in pork chops (about 3/4 inch thick, approximately 6–8 oz each)
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped (for garnish)

Instructions

1. Season the chops. Pat the pork chops dry with paper towels. In a small bowl, combine garlic powder, onion powder, smoked paprika, oregano, salt, and pepper. Rub the seasoning evenly over both sides of each chop.
2. Heat the pan. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering, about 2 minutes.
3. Sear the pork. Add the pork chops in a single layer. Sear without moving them for 4–5 minutes until a golden crust forms. Flip and sear the other side for another 4–5 minutes, until the internal temperature reaches 145°F.
4. Build the pan sauce. Reduce heat to medium-low. Add butter and chicken broth to the skillet. Scrape up any browned bits from the bottom with a wooden spoon and let the sauce simmer for 2–3 minutes until slightly reduced.
5. Rest and serve. Remove chops from heat and let rest 3 minutes. Spoon pan sauce over the chops, garnish with fresh parsley, and serve immediately.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 310 | Protein: 32g | Fat: 18g | Carbs: 2g | Fiber: 0g | Sodium: 390mg