Description
Anthony Bourdain’s Macau-style pork chop sandwich is spicy, crunchy and seriously one of the best sandwiches I’ve ever had in my life. It.Is.Money.
Ingredients
Units
Scale
- 8 boneless pork rib chops or cutlets (3-6 ounces each-see note)
- 2 cups of peanut oil (double that if using 2 pans)
- 16 slices of white sandwich bread
- Chili paste/sauce for sandwich topping
Marinade:
- 4 garlic cloves, peeled and rough chopped
- 1/4 cup soy sauce (I used low sodium)
- 1/4 cup Chinese cooking wine
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 1/4 cup black vinegar
- 1 tablespoon Chinese five spice
- 1 tablespoon dark brown sugar (regular fine too)
Dredging station:
- 3 large eggs, beaten with a splash of water
- 1 cup flour
- 3 cups panko bread crumbs
- Salt and pepper to taste (approx. 1/4 teaspoon each in the flour)
NOTE ABOUT RECIPE: Original recipe called for 6-ounce cutlets, but mine were already sliced and I weighed them: 3 ounces each and I thought that made a great cutlet for this sandwich. If yours are 3 ounces like mine you could double-up the cutlets per sandwich, but I found 3 ounces was enough.
COOK AND PREP TIMES DO NOT INCLUDE THE MARINADE TIME.
Instructions
- Make the marinade by adding the following ingredients in a large bowl: rough chopped garlic, soy sauce, Chinese cooking wine, sesame oil, black vinegar, Chinese five spice, sugar. Whisk together until well combined and set aside.
- Cover your pork cutlets with plastic wrap and pound to ¼” thickness. Use a mallet for this. If you don’t have one, use a rolling pin or pan.
- Add your cutlets to the marinade bowl and make sure they are all covered in the marinade. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. You could also use a Ziplock bag for this. Marinate for 1 to 12 hours. I marinated mine for 4 ½ hours.
- When the pork is ready, wipe the garlic chunks from the cutlets before breading and frying. This is important. Fried garlic will burn and ruin the flavor.
- Set up three shallow bowls for your breading station with the beaten eggs in one, flour-salt-pepper in another, and panko breadcrumbs in the third.
- Heat your peanut oil on medium-high while you bread the cutlets. Test the oil with a pinch of breadcrumbs or a flick of egg – if it sizzles it’s ready.
- Bread all the cutlets: First coat with flour on both sides, then dip in egg to cover completely, then panko breadcrumbs on both sides. Do this for all the cutlets.
- When the oil is ready, carefully place the cutlets in the pan and cook about 4-5 minutes on each side – until golden brown.
- Transfer cooked cutlets to a paper towel-lined sheet pan.
- Toast your bread and assemble your sandwiches. Spread your favorite spicy chili paste/sauce on top of the cutlet.
