Sometimes a recipe comes to you…

Wow! What kind of intro is that?! Recipes come to me in my sleep, in line at the seafood counter, checkout counter, bookstore, kitchen table, pillow talk, water cooler….love to eat.  I completely love talking about food.  My co-workers are amazing inspiration.  We eat together, share leftovers, and stories of recipe incarnations.  Today I went to the grocery store at noon to pick up lunch for a few girls in the office.  At the deli counter were prepared Cuban Sandwiches.  I love a Cuban!  And that’s how it happens.  How can I deconstruct a Cuban sandwich and turn it in to “What’s for Dinner?”

Cuban Stuffed Pork Chops.  Makes perfect sense.  The Recipe I found by Bobby Flay called for a beautiful citrus marinade.  We scaled it back to the juice of 1/2 orange and 1/2 lime, 1/4 rind of both.  The marinade gives the chops a wonderful bright flavor, however it’s the classic Cuban sandwich ingredients in the middle that make this dish so fantastic.

We served these chops with some simple Crispy Sweet Potato Chips.  Check out this great microwave recipe by Our Best Bites.

Note: done is a little tricky since the chops are stuffed.  Individually you must decide your level of doneness.  We recommend an instant read meat thermometer and don’t forget to rest all meat for about 10 minutes = 5 more degrees of doneness.

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Cuban Stuffed Pork Chop with Sweet Potato Chips

Course Entree

Prep Time 2 hours hours

Cook Time 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 2 hours hours 15 minutes minutes

Servings 2

Author lightly adapted from Bobby Flay

Ingredients

For the marinade…

• juice of 1/2 orange plus 1/4 of rind
• juice of 1/2 lime plus 1/4 of rind
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup cilantro leaves
• 3 garlic gloves
• salt & pepper

For the chops…

• 2 butterflied pork chops pounded to 1/4″ ish thickness
• 4 thin slices deli ham
• 4 thin slices Swiss cheese
• 1 Tbl. mayonnaise
• 1 Tbl. Dijon mustard
• 2 dill pickles thinly sliced

Instructions

For the marinade…

• Combine all ingredients in a food processor and puree.

For the chops…

• Butterfly the pork chops and pound to 1/4″ ish thickness, then place in zip top bag with marinade for 1-2 hours.
• Then layer-in thin sliced ham & Swiss cheese with a schmeer of mayo & Dijon, topped with a few thin sliced dill pickles.
• Fold the butterflied chop in half and grill over medium heat until done, 3-4 minutes per side..

Notes

Note: done is a little tricky since the chops are stuffed. Individually you must decide your level of doneness. We recommend an instant read meat thermometer and don’t forget to rest all meat for about 10 minutes = 5 more degrees of doneness.

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