I love my local grocery store, because they have CRAZY sales on protein almost every week. It's usually just one or two items designed to get people into the store with the expectation that they will buy a million other things while they're there (which works on me more often than I should admit.) But since it's just 5 minutes from my house, and I have to pass it almost daily on my way to or from somewhere else, I have no problem whatsoever going in there to stock up on their one crazy-priced item. That's what freezers are for, right?
Last week, they were selling pork cutlets for $.99/pound. I may or may not have purchased every single pack they had in stock. Just don't worry yourself about it.
And then I made this. And it made me super glad that I now have a freezer full of pork cutlets. :-)
Ingredients:
6-8 thinly sliced/pounded pork cutlets (You can buy them this way or just get boneless pork chops and pound them thin with a meat mallet.)
2 large oranges (zest and juice)
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon mustard (whatever is your favorite kind--I used Dijon)
salt
pepper
1 cup whole wheat Panko bread crumbs
1 cup whole wheat seasoned bread crumbs
2 eggs
1/3 cup milk
butter flavored nonstick cooking spray
1 generous tablespoon basil paste
1/3 cup olive oil
a few handfuls of baby greens
Instructions:
1. In casserole dish or wide-based bowl, combine zest and juice of one orange, honey, mustard and a generous pinch of freshly ground black pepper.
2. Season pork pieces generously with salt. Coat with marinade and chill in refrigerator for at least 2 hours or overnight if you have the time. (Note: this is not a liquidy marinade, but it is very "clingy," so as long as you make sure all pieces are covered, it should be fine even though the meat will not be immersed.)
3. When ready to cook, preheat oven to 350 degrees.
4. Set up dredging station by combining eggs and milk (seasoned with salt and pepper) in one pan and both kinds of bread crumbs in a second pan.
5. Dip each pork cutlet into egg mixture, shaking off excess each time, and then coat with bread crumb mixture. Place on parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Repeat with each cutlet.
6. Once all cutlets are coated, spray with nonstick cooking spray and place in oven for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, increase heat to 450 degrees and cook for an additional 5-7 minutes until pork is cooked through and nice and brown and crispy on top.
7. While pork is cooking, prepare gremolata sauce by combining zest and juice of second orange, olive oil, basil paste and salt and pepper to taste.
8. I served this by tossing baby greens with just a tiny bit of the gremolata sauce and then placing a cutlet over each bed of greens with an extra drizzle of sauce on top.
So yummy!