Pan-Fried Pork Steak

Cooking method

1. Step 1:

   

   How do you pan-fry a pork steak? Gather your ingredients. Use fresh rather than frozen meat here, or the finished steak may come out dry. Which cut you choose depends on your taste: for fattier meat, go with pork belly; for meat with light marbling, use the neck (shoulder); and if you prefer leaner meat, ham or loin works well.

2. Step 2:

   

   Rinse the meat and pat it dry with paper towels. Since we'll be frying it in oil, any moisture hitting the pan will cause a lot of splattering — so dry it thoroughly. Cut it into steaks about 1/2 inch (1 cm) thick. Don't make them too thick or they may not cook through, and don't make them too thin or they'll be dry.

3. Step 3:

   

   Lightly pound the meat with a meat mallet or the blunt side of a knife. It helps to cover the meat with plastic wrap and pound through it — that way you avoid a lot of splatter.

4. Step 4:

   

   Here's what the meat looks like after pounding it with a knife.

5. Step 5:

   

   Season the pieces with pepper. I use a pepper blend, but a single kind — black or red — works fine too. You can also add your own favorite seasonings, like garlic powder, khmeli-suneli (a Georgian spice blend), or anything else you like.

6. Step 6:

   

   Brush both sides of the meat with a tablespoon of vegetable oil.

7. Step 7:

   

   Heat the remaining oil in a skillet. Any vegetable oil works, from ordinary sunflower to pricier olive oil — but it must be refined so it doesn't burn during frying.

8. Step 8:

   

   Add the meat to the well-heated oil and fry over fairly high heat for about 7 minutes. You want a good crust to form, sealing the juices inside.

9. Step 9:

   

   Then carefully flip the meat and fry the other side for another 5 to 7 minutes.

10. Step 10:

    

    Season with salt only at the very end. Salting earlier draws out the juices and can dry the meat out.

11. Step 11:

    

    Serve the steak hot, right after cooking. Enjoy!