Miso Pork Chops

I've always had trouble with pork chops. They always end up chewy and dry. My best pork chop was the ones braised in mushroom sauce...and even those weren't that great. They still had a bit of a chewy dryness to them. And don't get me started at how they are when i bring them for lunch the next day.

I was browsing the oriental aisle at the local Loblaws and found that they started selling tubs of miso paste. I remember reading about miso being amazing on meats and fish. So I bought a tub of red miso (akamiso), which is best for red meat. Use the lighter colored miso for fish.

Apparently the combination of miso paste, sake, and mirin is magic. I wasn't going to believe it until I had it. I didn't have sake so I subtituted with white wine. I also ran out of mirin, so I used sugar mixed in a bit of water.

Approximately 1 1/2 pounds of your choice meat
1/3 cup miso
1/4 cup mirin or 4 tbs sugar
3 tablespoons sake or white wine

1. Mix miso, mirin, and sake in a bowl until well blended and smooth. Rub the marinade on your meat and refrigerate for at least 5 hours.
2. Scrape off marinade from meat and pat dry with paper towel. Do not rinse the meat.
3. Prepare the meat the way you want to; pan fried, oven baked, grilled...

I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by the texture of the meat. Even after nuking it for lunch, it was still amazingly tender. I really liked the taste as well...Kevin was not as enthusiastic about it though. If only Kevin liked it, i'd make it again. I just might anyway.