‘The Pioneer Woman’: Ree Drummond Shares the Secret to Perfect Pork Chops

Ree Drummond has developed plenty of shortcuts over the years and one of her secrets to making fried pork chops that are juicy and tender couldn’t be easier. The Pioneer Woman star’s recipe uses just 7 ingredients and is ready in 5 minutes.

Ree Drummond reveals her secret for perfect pork chops

Drummond wrote about her pan-fried pork chops recipe in a 2009 blog post on The Pioneer Woman website, sharing her easy trick for the best-tasting chops that cook in no time. The Pioneer Woman star uses a very thin cut of meat for the recipe, referring to it as “pork breakfast chops or breakfast pork chops.”

She explained, “Basically, these are bone-in pork chops that are cut extremely thin. There are as many different incarnations of ‘pork chops’ as there are grains of sand in all the beaches of the world (hyperbole much?) but just look for the thinnest cut — bone still in — as you can find.”

‘The Pioneer Woman’ star’s quick pan-fried pork chops are an easy weeknight dinner

Drummond made her pan-fried pork chops on an episode of The Pioneer Woman. “These things are so wonderful,” she said as she sprinkled salt and pepper over both sides of the meat.

“Now all I’m going to do is dredge these in a really simple flour mixture,” she explained. Drummond combined flour, salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper, then coated both sides of the pork chops in the mixture. “And that’s as complicated as it gets,” The Pioneer Woman star said.

After coating the pork chops, she fried them in a big skillet with canola oil and butter, cooking them for two minutes on each side, “until they’re nice and golden and crisp.”

She shared in her blog post how much her husband Ladd loves her pork chops recipe. “If you think this isn’t Marlboro Man’s idea of a perfect meal (there’s an iceberg wedge with ranch dressing over to the side), then … you don’t know Marlboro Man,” Drummond wrote. “Pepper, seasoning … tons of surface area in relation to the meat inside. That means flavor, baby.”

The full recipe is available on the Food Network website.

Drummond’s cheesy hash brown casserole is a perfect side for pork chops

Drummond made an easy side dish to go with the pork chops — a cheesy hash brown casserole she said has “cowboy written all over it.”

She fried bacon until it was crisp and removed it from the pan. Then she melted butter in the skillet and added chopped onions, chiles, and jalapenos, cooking over high heat until the vegetables were browned. Then she added an easy store-bought timesaver ingredient: frozen potatoes.

“Part of what makes this hash brown casserole so easy is I use frozen hash browns,” Drummond explained. “I love using these for dishes like this because you really can’t tell that you didn’t use fresh potatoes. They’re all uniform in size and you can pull them right out of the freezer and pour them in.”

She stirred everything together and cooked the mixture until it browned, then added chopped bacon, salt, and pepper, and poured everything into a buttered baking dish. Drummond topped the casserole with cheese and bacon and baked it in a 375 degree Fahrenheit oven for 30 minutes.

You can find the full recipe on the Food Network website.