Pork piccata is a great alternative to the more obvious chicken piccata. It’s easier to prep. It’s less likely to dry out. And it has more flavour. What is not to love here?
Does the world need another chicken piccata recipe? I’m pretty sure not. And yet, here I am doing it. I justify it to myself because I have two observations to share.
One – why so much lemon? I see recipes with the juice of two lemons. Two lemons. That’s half a lemon per portion. Then they claw back the acidity by adding a bunch of butter. It’s adding calories to hide a flaw. Crazy.
Two – it’s always chicken (or maybe veal). I like pork piccata. It’s more forgiving than chicken and much cheaper than veal. Tasty, forgiving and cheaper. You decide. Maybe I’m the crazy one here. Wouldn’t surprise anyone. But I think pork piccata works…
I’ve used pork tenderloin here. If you wanted bigger pieces maybe a small loin could sub in but you’d need to be careful because you run the risk of tougher meat. The tenderloin is pounded a bit so it’s a fair size. Kind of veal picatta size.
And for the record, they are adding butter to balance a ton of lemon so they can add more butter. Fat tastes good. But it’s a lot of calories for not much gain.
pork piccata
Ingredients
- 1 14 oz ounce pork tenderloin
- flour to dredge the pork
- 2 Tbsp butter in all
- 2 Tbsp olive oil in all
- Juice of 1/2 lemon
- 1/2 cup chicken stock
- 1 Tbsp capers
- Italian flat parsley minced. Don't use curly parsley.
- salt
- pepper
Instructions
- Remove any silverskin from the pork tenderloin.
- Cut the pork across the tenderloin into 3/4 inch medallions.
- Pound the medallions to 1/4 inch thick.
- Season both sides of the pork with salt and pepper.
- Heat a heavy skillet over medium heat.
- Add one Tbsp butter and one Tbsp olive oil.
- Dredge the pork in the flour and fry until the edges start to turn white, about 60-90 seconds. Only add as much as will fit comfortably in one layer.
- Flip and cook another 45 seconds to one minute. You don't want to overcook the pork.Remove pork from pan.
- Add remaining Tbsp olive oil and repeat with the remaining pork.
- Deglaze the pan with the lemon juice, stirring constantly. When it has almost completely evaporated add the chicken stock and simmer for about 1 minute.
- Return the pork and accumulated juices to the pan to warm up the pork. Simmer about a minute. The flour from the pork will thicken the sauce slightly. Add the capers.
- Off heat add the remaining one Tbsp butter to enrich the sauce. Jostle the pork around a bit to distribute the butter. Awkward but easier than removing all the pork. Adjust seasoning.
- Sprinkle with Italian parsley.
Dear Romain,
I hope you do not mind that I send a longer comment. In the last 7 weeks our family was hit by corona. I lost my smell and taste, so that I did not want to cook anymore. At this moment I feel much better and the smell and taste is nearly completely back. So this was the moment to cook another dish from your amazing website! Celebrating the recovery and having a family dinner!
This dish was another hit! I have to give you the regards from my wife for this amazing recipe.
Glebekitchen recipes are not just about combining ingredients but also about cooking technique. Whatever I cooked up to now from glebekitchen was perfect, and while eating I could not believe that I made it myself (with all credits for you!). Today I jumped up and down on my chair because of the delicious taste of this recipe, and the children loved it (the jumping…). And they loved this dish, too! They said (in Dutch): “Glebekitchen is beast!”, meaning – in their language – that it is amazing ;-). My wife said that this is her next number one from your site, so we think that actually your whole site is a number 1!
The capers added extra acidity and flavor, next to the lemon juice, and also the flour worked well to thicken up the sauce. We had a fresh salad with it and some baguette, together with a Brancott Estate Sauvignon Blanc Late Harvest 2019 which was a perfect support.
Thank you so much again for delivering us so many fantastic food experiences, happy family moments, silences during dinner while tasting and development of my cooking techniques. Long live glebekitchen!
Daniel – I am always delighted to hear from you! I am sad to hear you and your family were infected but happy to hear that everyone is on the mend and that your sense of taste and smell is coming back. I have been making this dish for my whole adult life so I am extra glad to hear you and your family though it was “beast”:-).
And a nice sauvignon blanc sounds like a perfect pairing!
Cheers from Ottawa!