Looking for something to liven up your pan-seared pork loin chops or grilled chicken breasts? Reach into the panty for some high-quality sour cherry preserves, or, better yet, into the freezer for some homemade sour cherry jam or preserves and you're about ten minutes away from a lip-smacking, sweet-and-savory, restaurant-quality, pan sauce. It's worth mention the same sauce can be made with blueberry or peach jam or preserves too -- I like to serve blueberry sauce with duck or quail, and, man-oh-man, peach sauce is marvelous with ribs or chicken.
4 thin-ish (about 1/2"-thick) bone-in pork loin chops
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
all pan drippings from pork chops
freshly-ground sea salt and peppercorn blend
a sprinkling of garlic powder
a sprinkling of onion powder
1/2 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup port wine
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon herbes de Provence
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
3/4 cup sour cherry jam or preserves
~Step 1. Over low heat, in a 12" nonstick skillet, heat oil. Add chops and lightly-season tops with sea salt, peppercorn blend, and, a sprinkling of garlic and onion powder. Increase heat to medium-high and sauté chops until just cooked through and light golden, about 5 minutes per side. Transfer chops to a plate and cover with a piece of foil to keep warm.
~Step 2. To make the sauce, in a 1-cup measuring container, stir together the chicken stock, wine and balsamic vinegar. Add the liquid to the hot skillet. Using a spatula, deglaze the pan by scraping up all the flavorful browned bits. Add the herbs de Pprovence and allspice. Adjust heat to a steady simmer and continue to cook until mixture is reduced by half, about 6 minutes. Stir in the sour cherry jam or preserves. Continue to simmer, stirring almost constantly, until mixture is reduced by half again, about 6 more minutes. Remove from heat and set pan aside about 6 more minutes -- sauce will thicken as it cools a bit. Store leftovers in refrigerator and reheat in the microwave -- sauce will loosen as it heat up.
Simply lip-smacking perfect on poultry or pork:
Sour Cherry Preserves and Balsamic Pork-Wine Sauce: Recipe yields 3/4 cup sauce and 2 large, or, 4 small servings.
Special Equipment List: 12" nonstick skillet; fork; aluminum foil; spatula; 1-cup measuring container; large spoon
Cook's Note: If I've said it once, I've said it a million times, "almost everything tastes better with a perfectly executed sauce on top of it, underneath it or to the side of it." I stand by these words with barbecue being no exception. When I'm eating barbecue, more often than not, it's the sauce that "turns me on". For every style there is a sauce, and while I know what type of sauce to pair with which each style of barbecue, I also know when not to sauce at all (Texicans are crazy). Try my ~ Sweet and Savory K.C.-Style Cherry BBQ Sauce ~
"We are all in this food world together." ~ Melanie Preschutti
(Recipe, Commentary and Photos courtesy of Melanie's Kitchen/Copyright 2020)
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