Chinese Salt and Pepper Pork Chops are the best! I remember this dish from when I was a chubby kid growing up in the small resort town of Liberty, NY. Every month, my family would make the two hour Saturday morning pilgrimage in our white Chevrolet station wagon to Manhattan’s Chinatown.
Kind of reminiscent of Little House on the Prairie…heading into town on a wagon to buy coffee and a sack of flour from Mr. Whipple at the General Store. Only with more Chinese people.
We’d first have dim sum, and then pay a visit to my grandparents’ tiny apartment, where we would all converge with our aunts, uncles and crazy younger cousins. Sunday morning would be a mad rush to the butcher, Chinese bakery, and fresh vegetable stands.
We’d then head to a tiny mom and pop general store for miscellaneous sundries, where everything was packed wall to wall—cartons and boxes stacked in the narrow aisles, and a good amount of merchandise hanging from the ceiling above our heads.
With the next month’s provisions purchased, it was off to Sunday dinner with extended family before the long ride back to Liberty. At that dinner, we would inevitably have this Cantonese salt and pepper pork chops dish.
We still love Salt and Pepper Pork Chops, and we order it whenever we go to a good Cantonese restaurant (like the one mentioned in our Stir-Fried Shrimp and Eggs post). This Salt and Pepper Pork Chop version is probably the most common of several variations.
Personally, we like the Cantonese version the best. It’s all about expectations my friends–kinda like you’re expecting a Big Mac, but in a drunken stupor, you end up walking into a Burger King and getting a Whopper. It’s good, but it’s just not what you were expecting, and certainly not the same.
Generally, restaurants serve the pork chops with the bone in, but they have the butcher cut them very thin. At home, we suggest you use thin cutlets of boneless pork, to make things easier. We also suggest a fattier cut of pork like the shoulder. This dish is nothing without a bit of fat.
So here we go with the recipe.
Salt and Pepper Pork Chops: Recipe Instructions
Combine the pork, 3 tablespoons water, Shaoxing wine, salt, sesame oil, and five spice powder (if using) in a large bowl. Use your hands to mix and coat the pork evenly. Let sit at least 15 minutes.
Move the pork to one side of the bowl, add the ingredients for the coating (flour, cornstarch, white pepper, oil, and water). Mix until you get a loose batter. Next, combine the pork and the batter until everything is well-coated, and set aside.
Heat the oil in a small sauce pot to about 250 degrees, or until you put in a piece of garlic and it bubbles a little. Toss in the garlic and cook until it just starts to turn color (30 seconds). Scoop it out onto a paper towel to drain. Be careful not to brown the garlic, or it will be bitter.
Heat the oil to 380 degrees using a thermometer, fry the pork in batches until golden brown, and place on a paper towel to drain.
Once all pieces are done, drain the oil leaving 1 tablespoon in the wok and heat your wok over very high heat until just smoking. Add the long hot green peppers and long hot red pepper, salt, and white pepper to the wok and toss for about 15-30 seconds until fragrant. Turn off the heat, and add the pork chops and the fried garlic.
You can now practice your pow wok skills to toss everything together.
Serve your salt and pepper pork chops immediately with white rice, and maybe a little extra salt and white pepper.
Enjoy this Cantonese Salt and Pepper Pork Chops recipe!
Salt and Pepper Pork Chops
Ingredients
For the pork and marinade:
- 1 pound pork shoulder (sliced about 1/3 inch thick into pieces about 4 to 5 inches across)
- 3 tablespoons water
- 1 ½ tablespoons Shaoxing wine
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1/8 teaspoon five spice powder (optional)
For the coating:
- ¼ cup all purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1/8 teaspoon white pepper
- 1 1/2 tablespoons oil
- 3 tablespoons water
And everything else:
- 3 cups peanut oil (for frying)
- 3 cloves garlic (thinly sliced)
- 3 long hot green peppers (sliced crosswise into thin rounds)
- 1 long hot red pepper (sliced crosswise into thin rounds)
- ½ teaspoon coarse sea salt
- 1/8 teaspoon coarsely ground white pepper
Instructions
- Combine the pork and marinade ingredients in a large bowl and use your hands to mix and coat the pork evenly. Let sit at least 15 minutes.
- Move the pork to one side of the bowl, add the ingredients for the coating, and mix until you get a loose batter. Next, combine the pork and the batter until everything is well-coated, and set aside.
- Heat the oil in a small sauce pot to about 250 degrees, or until you put in a piece of garlic and it bubbles a little. Toss in the garlic and cook until it just starts to turn color (30 seconds). Scoop it out onto a paper towel to drain. Be careful not to brown the garlic, or it will be bitter.
- Heat the oil to 380 degrees, fry the pork in batches until golden brown, and place on a paper towel to drain.
- Once all pieces are done, drain the oil leaving 1 tablespoon in the wok and heat your wok over very high heat until just smoking. Add the green and red peppers, salt, and white pepper to the wok and toss for about 15-30 seconds until fragrant. Turn off the heat, and add the pork chops and the fried garlic. You can now practice your pow wok skills to toss everything together. Serve immediately with white rice!
Can I use pork shoulder steaks for this?
Sure!
Hi, I did make this using the instructions provided. But are there alternatives cooking instructions if we wish to do this by baking them off in the oven?
Hi Kat, I have not tried baking these in the oven, but if you line a sheet pan with aluminum foil and brush it with oil, you can lay the pork on the sheet pan and spray them lightly with vegetable oil again. I would try 475 degrees F or if you have a convection roast setting, all the better. Good luck and let us know how it turns out if you try it ;-)
I’d like to make this with an air fryer since I find that sometimes frying things wastes a lot of oil. Are there any modifications that you would suggest to make this air fryer friendly?
I just tried making something similar in the air fryer last night and it turned out pretty well. Instead of deep frying the pork, put in the air fryer and spray with oil. Air fry at 360 degrees for 9 minutes, shaking and spraying with oil a few times. Then increase heat to 390 and air fry an additional 6 minutes, or more until browned and crispy. Cook the garlic with the peppers in the wok per the recipe, and then toss in the air fried pork. Or I guess you could put the garlic in the air fryer with the pork, but probably only in the last couple of minutes so it doesn’t burn.
Also, instead of making the batter, perhaps just mix the oil in the pork, and then dredge in the flour/cornstarch/white pepper? Not sure how a wet batter works in the air fryer.
Hi Leslie, I have not tried it in an air fryer, but even air-frying requires oil. If you have a cut of pork with nice fat, it should be ok. BTW, that oil used in deep frying should be run through a fine mesh strainer and saved for stir-frying. It has lots of flavor!
Hi, I’m looking forward to trying this but I have a question about step 4 (maybe a dumb question!) Do you dispose of the oil before heating the wok to smoking? I would assume yes but I am not sure. Thanks!
Hi Ashley, thanks for your question! You are right and I modified the step to clarify the process.
“Once all pieces are done, drain the oil leaving 1 tablespoon in the wok and heat your wok over very high heat until just smoking.”
Thanks to you and your question, we continue to improve our recipes :)
wow. i thought they sounded delicious, but boom baby! fantastic. i made them twice, tonight third time. first time messed up timing and added garlic just before peppers, so not as impactful as crispy garlic bits. last night kept in batter in fridge added more flour to thicken, got sequence right, and this recipe is a true cornerstone. my store had thicker chops on sale so that is what i had, so cooked longer and lower to get that crunch, sliced them through bone.
thank you Bill and all for the joy you bring to our lives!
Hi essell, you’re so welcome and glad we could be part of your culinary joy!
Can I use pork tenderloin for this recipe?
Hi Cindy, you can.
Hi! Is it okay to skip the shaoxing wine? If not, what can be a good sub?
Hi V, you can use a dry sherry or Asian rice wine.
This came out amazingly delicious. I took a couple of the suggested ideas from the comments including adding a good amount of water to the meat and a little baking soda and oil massage before adding the marinade ingredients and I highly recommend it. The meat was crispy and moist. Thanks!
Hi Melanie, yes, good to add water to the meat even before marinating to make the meat more tender and juicy!
This turned out a lot better than I thought it would. I was prepared for a soggy, charred mess, but it was moist and flavorful. Be careful not to overcook the pork, as it will dry out if you let it.
Hi Mike, thanks for sharing your cooking experience and tips!
Hello, this is my first recipe that I’ve tried on your blog, and am puzzled where I went wrong… I followed the recipe, marinated the pork shoulders that I cut in thin strips. The result was a batch of under-marinated (could still take the natural “pork”/poultry taste) and tough pork pieces. They looked and smelled fantastic, but one bite in, and I felt something was wrong. Can you provide some guidance? Do I need to wash the pork before marinating? And/or tenderize the pork before cutting into strips? I’ll try this again. Thanks!
Hi Grace, you should definitely wash the pork thoroughly before cutting and check to make sure it is fresh. If you did both and the pork still tastes porky, it is normal because pork is pork ;-)
Also check that you are not cutting the pork too thickly or reduce the thickness to 1/4 inch. The pork shoulder should have marbled fat which makes it more tender and more flavorful. Try to avoid the lean pieces for this recipe. Lastly, if you like super-tender pork, add an initial step of marinating by using 1/8 teaspoon of baking soda with 2 teaspoons of oil and work the oil and baking soda into the meat with your hands. Add the rest of the spices and let the meat marinate for an additional 15 mins (30 mins or more). Baking soda tenderizes and will reduce the “porkiness.” Hope that helps and happy cooking!