Sticky Porkchops

Ingredients

• 4 Pork chops
• 2 tbsp Honey
• 3 Garlic cloves, crushed
• Soy sauce
• 1 thumb sized piece Ginger, sliced
• 1 tbsp Chinese Five Spice

Method

Make a soy-based-sauce|marinade by whisking soy sauce with honey until the honey fully dissolves — this prevents grittiness when it caramelises later. Crush the garlic|garlic cloves to break the cell walls and release sulphur compounds that drive the marinade's punch. Add the ginger slices (don't mince them; they'll fragment and muddy the glaze) and chinese-cuisine|Chinese five spice, stirring until the spices coat the liquid evenly. The ratio is critical: use just enough soy sauce to come halfway up the thickness of your chops. Submerging them entirely leaches the meat's own flavours into the brine — you want osmotic exchange, not a brine bath. Place the chops in the marinade, turn them once, then cover and refrigerate for three hours total, flipping halfway through. This isn't arbitrary timing; soy's sodium and honey's sugars penetrate the surface proteins within 90 minutes, and another 90 minutes allows the aromatics|aromatics to perfume the flesh without over-salting the centre.

Remove the chops from the fridge 15 minutes before cooking — cold meat won't sear properly and the interior will cook unevenly. Pat them dry with kitchen paper; any marinade clinging to the surface will steam rather than caramelise. Heat olive oil in a heavy-bottomed pan over medium-high heat until it shimmers. The chops should sizzle immediately on contact. Don't move them for the first three minutes — you're building pan-frying|crust through the maillard-reaction|Maillard reaction. Flip once, then cook the second side for another three minutes. The marinade will have thickened slightly; baste the chops with this glaze as they finish cooking. Internal meat-doneness-temperatures|temperature should reach 63°C for medium — use a probe thermometer to check the thickest part without cutting. The meat is done when it's pale throughout with no trace of pink at the bone, though a thin line of colour there won't hurt.

resting-meat|Rest the chops on a warm plate for three minutes before serving. This allows the proteins to reabsorb their juices; cutting straight away will see them run onto the plate. The glaze will have set into a glossy amber shell by then. Serve with rice to catch the pan juices.