Pork Chops in a Red Wine & Citrus Reduction… AKA, winning

Ok this recipe sounds uber-fancy, but it is so ridiculously easy you won’t regret trying it.

After this past weekend, I looked in my fridge to make dinner and really didn’t want to go to the store and buy 25 different ingredients for a meal. Shamefully, all I was left with was a lot of lemons, limes, red wine, a red onion, and some margarita mix. (Yes, all remnants of a party where massive amounts of sangria were made.)

After careful review, I decided to leave the margarita mix out, I just have no idea how to put that into a healthy savory dish. BUT, red wine and onions go together like bread and butter, it’s just absolutely necessary in life. I wanted to add a healthy yummy protein, so I just bought some thinly sliced pork chops, some dried cherries, and got to cooking.

Ingredients:

4-8 pork chops (8 if they’re thinly sliced, depending on your grocer’s options)

1 lime

1 lemon

½ cup dried cherries

1 small red onion, diced

¾ cup red wine

salt & pepper

First, dice up your onion into small chunks, and heat up some olive oil in a large pan. Once the pan is hott, add the onions and let them cook down for 2-3 minutes until they begin to soften. Next, salt & pepper the pork chops & add to the pan, seasoned side down. Season the pan with a dash more salt & pepper. Add the dried cherries, and slice up 1 lemon and 1 lime. Squeeze some lemon & lime juice into the pan for an extra citrus kick. (by using the un-used ends when you dice up these babies). Finally, pour ¾ cup of red wine into the pan, reduce the heat, cover, and let the flavors marry for about 15-20 minutes. Once the lemon & lime slices start to shrink, uncover the pan to let the remaining alcohol cook off. Cook for another 5-10 minutes. Turn the heat off, cool, and serve. The cherries give a sweet bite, they’ve gotten nice and plump from the red wine, and the acid from the lemon and lime balance it all out perfectly. Don’t have dried cherries? Go for raisins! Or cranberries. Or apricots… basically use whatever you got! It’ll all be good. Red wine makes this dish a star. Buon Apetito!