Today, on this lovely Monday morning, I am launching a new segment here on HTNBS. From here on out, every Monday’s post will be based around a meal that can be cooked from start to finish in 30 minutes or less.

The idea here is to demonstrate that quick food can still be good food. And, even with limited time you can have a healthy and delicious home cooked meal.

These meals are based around a family of four. However, they can be scaled up or down to adjust to your family size, and still remain with the 30 minute cooking window.

Without further ado, I present…

30 Minutes Or Less – Pork Chops with Smashed Potatoes

Okay, I started this meal at 5:45 pm and was eating by 6:12 pm. Before you say, “Yeah, but your a chef…” I had to stop to take pictures every few minutes. The time I lost taking pictures should make up for any speed advantages I have.

Ingredients

Here’s what you’ll need;

• 4 pork chops (any cut will do)
• 20 or so baby potatoes ( I used red and white potatoes) \
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1/2 a baseball sized onion
• frozen peas and carrots (or any other vegetables you would prefer)
• salt and pepper
• 2 sprigs of rosemary (or thyme)
• 2 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp milk
• 1/2 cup white wine or chicken stock
• 1 tbsp olive oil

Here’s how this is going to work. Because the whole idea is to do this in under 30 minutes I am going to write the recipe based on time. Don’t get too caught up in it. The point is just to show you exactly how I did this so you understand how it can be done.

Let’s do it.

Directions:

5:45 pm

Turn the oven on to 400°f and start preheating a large oven safe skillet over medium high heat.

5:47 pm

Potatoes rinsed, topped with hot, salted water, and put on the burner on high.

5:51 pm

Pork chops are seasoned with salt and pepper. Olive oil is added to the skillet and the pork chops are placed in to sear.

5:54 pm

Onion is sliced and garlic is crushed and peeled. Pork is flipped and onion and garlic are added into the pan.

5:56 pm

Wine or stock is added to the pork chops along with 1 tbsp of butter, and 2 sprigs of rosemary or thyme. Once the wine starts to boil the pan goes in the oven.

5:59 pm

Frozen vegetables go in a pot, get covered with hot water and are put on a burner on high.

6:00 – 6:08 pm

Take a few minutes and tidy up any mess you’ve made.

6:09 pm

Pork is checked for doneness and removed from the oven. It is set aside to rest.

6:10 pm

The potatoes are drained, and lightly mashed (only enough to break up them up) with the remaining butter, milk, and some salt and pepper.

6:13 pm

The vegetables are drained.

6:14 pm

Dinner is served!

Explantation

There are a few important things to note about this meal. Things that can be applied to a lot of meals.

Number 1

Because the pork chops (which were about 1 inch thick) were seared on both sides in a hot pan before going in the oven, their over all cooking time was reduced by half when compared to baked pork chops.

The fact that the pork chops went into the oven in the hot pan, with hot wine or stock, also sped up the cooking process. The wine or stock also adds flavour to the pork chops.

Number 2

The flavours in this dish are simple. The pork is seasoned with salt and pepper, and then the brunt of the flavour comes from the few additional ingredients. The herbs, the liquid, the onion, and the garlic.

The liquid left in the bottom of the pan after the pork is cooked can be spooned over the pork as a light sauce.

Number 3

Baby potatoes have thin skins that can be easily eaten and are delicious. I used these to save time peeling, cutting, and mashing larger russet potatoes. They’re called “smashed” potatoes because the intention isn’t to mash them into a smooth texture. We want to just hit them once to break them apart.

Seasoning the potatoes with the salt, pepper, butter, and milk adds flavour and makes them a little more than just a broken potato.

Number 4

You can use any kind of vegetables you want for this. Peas and carrots are what I had on hand. I do recommend frozen vegetables for quick meals, especially in the winter. This is because there is no prep time and often in the winter frozen vegetables are more nutritious than anything you can buy fresh.

Conclusion

I want to make it very clear that this meal can be prepared by anyone in under 30 minutes not just me.

I hope that you enjoyed this post. I’m excited to write more of these 30 minutes or less as I think they’re going to be fun to put together. I think and hope that the information provided is valuable. If it is, or even if it isn’t I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

Thanks, Chef Ben

Here are a few of my favourite kitchen tools on Amazon.