Thai Pork Chops with Caramelized Onions/ Potato Salad in a Pan

Being a new mom, and a wife who gets tired of cooking, I am constantly looking for new recipes that are really good, really fast, and really easy-- all at the same time. For my first recipe, I would like to share: Thai Pork Chops with Caramelized Onions with Potato Salad in a Pan on the side. Here is what the meal looked like on my plate!

Thai Pork Chops with Potato Salad in a Pan on the Side

I combined the two dishes into one meal and will go through how I cooked both of them at once. Feel free to seperate the dishes if you feel like it.

Ingredients needed for Pork Chops:

3 Tbsp brown sugar

3 Tbsp peanut butter

2 Tbsp soy sauce

2 tsp grated ginger

1 garlic clove, minced

1/4 tsp crushed red pepper

1/2 large onion, sliced

1/3 cup orange juice

4 (1 inch thick) pork chops

1/2 tsp salt

Ingredients for the Potato Salad in a Pan:

(To make 4 servings)

2 large baking potatoes

1/2 onion, diced

4 pieces of bacon

2 cloves garlic, minced

dill

salt

pepper

1. Start off by putting the brown sugar, peanut butter, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, and crushed red pepper in a small saucepan. Over Medium-high heat, mix it together into a sauce.

Before melting and mixing:

After melting and mixing:

2. Once the sauce is melted together, add in the sliced onion and saute for about 10 minutes. I like to turn down the stove a little to about medium heat. You should stir this off and on.

When it is down sauteing, the sauce will have thickened a bit to look like this:

3. While the onions are cooking for that 10 minutes, peel and cube your potatoes. Put the cubes into a bowl with about 1/3 cup water and microwave the potatoes on high for 3 minutes. This gets the potatoes a little softer before you fry them.

Also, take a few minutes to chop up the bacon into smaller pieces and the onion for the potato salad into chunks. Set these aside for now.

4. At this point, the recipe says to take the onions out of the sauce-- that the sauce is actually supposed to be more liquidy. In the 5 times I have made this recipe, my sauce has NEVER been liquid. So I reserve enough of the onions to garnish the pork and leave the rest in the pot.

I have also left the onions totally in the sauce and it worked fine too.

Either way, stir in the orange juice into your sauce and mix til it is combined well.

5. Once the sauce is mixed, brush it over both sides of your pork chops. Sprinkle salt on the chops.

6. Grill the pork chops over medium-high heat for about 4 or 5 minutes on each side, or until done. I like to use my George Foreman grill.

7. While the chops are grilling, fry your onions in a pan over medium high heat in 2 tbsp of olive oil. Let the onions brown up and then add in the bacon. Fry this for a minute or two more and then add the potatoes, garlic, salt, and a few shakes of dill.

8. Stir the potatoes every minute or so, so no one section is stuck to the bottom of the pan. YOu get the best taste if the potatoes get nice and brown, but don't burn.

9. When plating your pork, put the onions on top and a little of your sauce.

And most important, when making this recipe is to have a good sous-chef!