Pork Milanese

This was another recipe from the Everyday Italian book by Giada de Laurentiis. This one at least was an everyday meal. It was simple enough to prepare, and everyone liked it. I had frozen the marinara sauce from the same cookbook that I used in Lasagna so I defrosted that, added it to some linguini and had that for a side. Turned out to be a very nice meal. I rearranged the directions a little to the order I did them.


Ingredients

• 1/3 cup flour
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 1/4 cups bread crumbs (I only used about 1/2 the mix including this and the next 2 ingredients.)
  
• 2/3 cups Parmesan cheese
• 2 teaspoons dried basil
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 4 8-oz center cup pork loin chops (each about 1 inch) (Mine were less than 8 oz each and I used 5.)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 2 Tablespoons butter
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 lemon, cut into wedges. (Oops, I forgot this part.)

Directions

1. Place the flour in wide, shallow bowl. (I used a plate that was semi deep.) Place the eggs in another wide, shallow bowl. Mix the bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, basil, and thyme in a third wide, shallow bowl. (Only used 1/2 of this, so could make 1/2 as much next time.)
2. Using a meat mallet, pound the pork chops until they are 1/4 inch thick. Sprinkle with the salt and pepper.
3. Preheat the oven to 150 (mine only went down to 170. I actually did this step since I was doing 5 chops, and my oven was already hot, and I had the stuff out from other cooking..... Not sure I would for the kiddos on a normal night.) Line a baking sheet with a rack.
   
4. In a large, heavy saute pan with high sides, melt the butter in the oil over medium heat until hot.
5. Working with one pork chop at a time, dredge the chops in the flour to coat lightly, then dip in the beaten eggs, then coat with bread crumb mixture. Carefully place pork chops in the oil mixture and cook until light golden brown, about 3 minutes per side. (I fit 3 in the first batch.) Transfer the chops to the baking sheet. Keep cooked chops warm in the oven. Repeat with remaining chops.
   
6. Place 1 pork chop on each of 4 dinner plates and serve immediately with the lemon wedges.