I’m not alone in feeling this way, but those days when I look at the time and realize oh crap, I have to make dinner now – always seem to sneak up on me. I mean I just had lunch and now I’m hungry all over again and I have to make dinner?? That can’t be fair, right?
Pan fried pork chops are super easy & mega flavorful
So while resisting the urge to call Mr K and ask him to bring take out, I just pull out my list of fast prep, easy dinner recipes! Delicious 30 minute meal ideas that I have up my sleeve for just those days. Like this easy chicken ramen stir fry or my cajun chicken pasta, or this instant pot short ribs recipe or my instant pot chicken thighs recipe that have all come about under similar time constraints! No matter how much I cook, and how much I love to cook, I’m always pleasantly surprised when something this delicious, this exquisite, comes together in less than 30 minutes and just like that, I’ve got dinner and it’s a home run! This Pan Fried Pork Chops (Five Spice Pork) with a side salad absolutely drips with flavor. I mean, just look at it, you could just about imagine those flavors running through the meat, dousing it with those great Asian flavors, and the fleshy, juicy, sweet peaches rounding it all out. Make this Five Spice Pork and Peaches, and I guarantee you will add this to your rotation right away! 🙂 While I’ve got nothing against take out or freezer meals (they serve a vital purpose and there’s a reason why they exist), I know I can do so much better with fresh wholesome ingredients and with this five spice pork recipe, I can get it all done in less time than it takes for one episode of Big Bang Theory. And I also want to switch things up a little every now and then, add some tasty variety to our weekday dinners, and that’s where these Smithfield All Natural Boneless Pork Chops come in handy! My hubs is a big fan of pork, and his favorite way to eat pork is actually this spicy Sri Lankan Black Pork Curry. It’s a spicy curry with fantastic flavors and made with Sri Lankan curry powder and tamarind. A couple of his other favorites are this easy pork ramen, pork carnitas, and roasted pork tacos. I make that curry using bone-in or boneless pork chops. But a good curry does take a little bit of time. My solution to that is this pan fried, Asian five spice pork!
Five spice powder
Asian five spice powder is a powerhouse of flavor that will instantly perk up your dishes with amazing Asian flavors and is great for quick and easy meals. It’s a blend of five spices (obviously) that’s used extensively in Asian cooking. You can get the ready made five spice powder from any supermarket, but if you wanted to put it together yourself, here’s what you’ll need –
Star Anise Cloves Fennel seeds Szechwan pepper Cinnamon
These spices go really well with a greasy meat like pork. Star anise, fennel seeds and cinnamon yield sweet notes, while the cloves and Szechwan pepper introduce a warm, spicy heat that works like magic in a pan fried pork dish. If you’re making the spice blend yourself, you can mix equal amounts of all five spices together or use more of one or another to enhance a particular flavor profile that you like. While the Five Spice Pork is really delicious on its own…those peaches… my god those peaches! I’m actually salivating right now, thinking about ’em. The sultry spices and the heat of this five spice powder work SO well with the sweet, fresh flavors of ripe peaches. And by pan frying them in the same pan after cooking the pork, not only are you enhancing the naturally sweet flavor of peaches, you’re also adding the pork flavor and a touch of five spice powder to them too.
Recipe notes
You can use boneless or bone-in pork chops for this recipe. Bone-in pork chops will take a little longer than boneless, but either way, I generally always use a meat thermometer to make sure the meat is cooked perfectly. With the varying thickness of different cuts of pork, the only foolproof way to make sure your pork is cooked properly is with a meat thermometer, so that’s certainly a worthwhile investment for the future, if you don’t already own one. That being said, these Smithfield All Natural Fresh Pork cook very quickly and it’s perfect for these Pan Fried Five Spice Pork chops. These chops were about 1 cm thick, and they only took 2-3 minutes per side on medium-high heat to reach an internal temp. of 165°F. If you liked this pan fried five spice pork and peaches recipe, don’t forget to subscribe for new (and free) recipes by entering your email address on the side bar (and get all these recipes delivered straight to your inbox), so you don’t miss out on a thing. You can find me on FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM, PINTEREST, YOU TUBE and GOOGLE-PLUS too.
