Cooking a tender pork sirloin (Solomillo al Whisky)
A popular dish in Andalusia consists of pork sirloin chops in a whiskey sauce.
I've tried to recreate this at home by marinading for a short time and then frying, but the meat ends up rather tough, not anything like the tender melt-in-your-mouth variety I recall from Spain. (The marinade called for whiskey, lemon, and mustard, with crushed whole garlic cloves.)
Does anyone have any tips on how to properly cook pork sirloin to that effect?
Best Answer
OK, with chops you have a some considerations, one is the quality of the port, next is how thick they are, last is how long you cook it. First, get the best quality you can. Get friendly with a butcher is my suggestion, as supermarket quality can be spotty. Next, get thicker chops. Your pork is probably tough because it is overcooked, and it is easy to overcook thin chops, so thicker chops stay juicier and more tender. Try to get them at least 1 inch or 2.5cm thick. You want your pork pink in the middle, not cooked through.
Third is how long you fry them. For very thin chops no more than 3 minutes a side, but for 2.5cm ones do 6 minutes on the first side, and 4 on the other. Scale those times up for bigger chops. I use an app called BB Meat Master for my cooking times, but there are websites with the cooking times as well.
Alternatively you could braise them, fry them off quickly, then pour in the marinade, cover, and cook for about 20 minutes depending on thickness.
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