I was browsing Heritage Farms butcher shop the other day and saw these chops. I have never heard of them before. According
to what I have researched they come from Puerto Rico and have been a staple of theirs since 1957. It consists of a bone-in chop,
straps of belly and the skin still attached to make chicharrons. Each chop weighs between 2.5 and 3 pounds. So being the adventurous
type I purchased their 6 pack of them.
I dry brined one in kosher salt overnight on Friday.
We found a marinade mix online from the Food channel and coated them yesterday with the mixture and let it also sit overnight.
We were hoping the rain would stop enough to put them on the grill but it didn’t.
Here they are out of the marinade and waiting to go into the oven at 350 for 15 minutes. I flipped it at the 7:30 mark.
Out of the oven and waiting for the oil to heat up to 350.
Here they are just out of the oil. Nice golden brown with fairly crisp skin.
My plate with some rice and Puerto Rican beans. My wife seems to always find some awesome recipes.
Dinner was delicious. The loin chop was cooked perfectly and was very tender and juicy. The belly was nearly perfect too. The only
complaint I have is that the chicharrons were not quite as crispy as we would have liked. We will definitely work on that when I do
the next one. Only thing we can figure is that the oil wasn’t quite hot enough. I need to buy an actual thermometer for oil since the
only one we have is for candy.
