Braised Pork Chop with Caramelized Onions

Simple and quick pork chops with caramelized onions cooked in soy sauce, brown sugar, and rice wine.

Cost: 10/10

Simple: 9/10

Environmentally-Friendly: 8/10

Delicious: 10/10

Click here for the description of our scale

Just throw in some onions, pork chops, sugar, and rice wine, and stew it in a pot. No skills required.

If you really need a recipe to impress but have not sharpened your skills yet, this recipe is perfect for you. This is ridiculously quick and cheap. You only need to turn on the stove and wait for magic to happen.

Just throw some onions, pork chops, sugar, and rice wine, and stew it in a pot. It’s really that easy. No skills required.

This recipe also saves you tons of money. I used some leftover pork chops, a nearly-empty bottle of soy sauce, brown sugar, and rice wine. It’s so budget-friendly that I can cook three meals for four people with only $10. That’s a total of 8-10 servings. It’s just so effortless.

This is a recipe that I’ve eaten since my childhood. It’s so simple that I learned to prepare it when I was 10. This is one of the best budget recipes if you are a student on a tight budget.

Create Relevant Content

______________________________________________________________________

Recipe

Prep time: 10 min.

Cook time: 90 min.

Total: 100 min.

Servings: 8 (Adjust ingredients proportionally for other servings)

Utensils

*Stewing pot

Spatula

Cooking pan / wok

*You can also use a Tatung multi-cooker, but mine is too small and can’t cook so many servings.

Ingredients and Costs (Total: 8 ingredients)

2 kg Pork chops: NT$350 ($11.93)

5 tbsp of Soy Sauce: NT$15 ($0.50)

2 tsp Salt: NT$3 ($0.10)

2 tbsp Brown sugar: NT$6 ($0.20)

3 tbsp Oil: NT$3 ($0.1)

3 onions (400-500g): NT$30 ($1.00)

2 tbsp Rice Wine: NT$5 ($0.17)

Five spice powder: NT$5 ($0.17)

Some water

NT$73.7 / $2.44

NT$36.85 / $1.21 per serving (CALCULATIONS YET TO BE VERIFIED)

*Optional Ingredients

2 tsp White Pepper: NT$4.5 ($0.15)

2 tsp Sesame oil: NT$3 ($0.10)

1 tbsp Chinese rock sugar: NT$6 ($0.20)

2 Chilis: NT$8 ($0.27)

*I added these to enhance the flavors of my pork chops, but they depend on your preferences.

Steps

1. Preheat and add oil in the cooking pan. *Wait for 30 seconds to a minute (Look at Tips & Notes). Sear the pork until it has a golden, caramelized crust to enhance the texture and the savory flavor. Set the pork aside.

2. *Stir fry the onions in the same pan until it’s caramelized (i.e. until it’s golden to dark brown). This step brings out the rich, sweet flavor of the onions.

3. Put the pork inside the pot. Add all the other ingredients (the seasoning) in the pot. Keep stirring your ingredients for a few minutes.

4. Cover 2/3 of your ingredients with water. Put the lid on and simmer for 60 to 90 minutes.

5. Add more seasoning (anything) before turning the stove off (optional, depending on your preference). Plate it and top with some chilis, scallions, or garlic of your choice.

Tips & Notes:

1. *Preheat for about a minute if you don’t have a nonstick skillet. Wait until you can clearly see the trace of the oil on your pan. This way, your pan turns into a nonstick pot for a moment.

2. *We stir fry the onions after searing the pork because the pork releases some aromatic meat juices. This saves you some oil and thus your money.

_________________________________________________________________________

Substitute Ingredients

Pork chops: You can also use beef brisket or short ribs if you don’t have pork.

Brown sugar: This is highly recommended but you can also use Chinese rock sugar if you can find some. It’s sweeter and is a nice touch to your savory dish.

What Should I Serve With The Pork Chops?

I served my pork with some rice and bok choy. The pork will also pair beautifully with ramen and lettuce.

You can save the caramelized onions and serve them as a side dish (Rice, fried eggs, and onions seem like a pretty nice meal). You can also cook the onions with other ingredients such as beef for your next meal, so you do not need to spend more money buying extra onions.

Do NOT throw away the remaining sauce in your pot. You can cook more food with it, such as scrambled eggs or stir fry vegetables. This saves you a lot of money because you do not have to make another sauce.

Enjoy your food! Remember, NEVER WASTE FOOD!