Pork Loin: 3 meals for $16!
What’s one of the best meat deals at Costco—or anywhere? It’s the pork loin.
At only $1.98 a pound, it’s a fantastic deal for eating well and stretching your food dollars.
Today we’re taking an 8 pound pork loin and turning it into three meals for the whole family—breakfast sausage, guisada de puerco for tacos, and pork chops. All this for only $16 of meat.
Take a look at how much meat this one cut of pork yields!
To see the whole preparation, including the cutting and grinding of the meat, take a look at my YouTube video here.
First, the sausage. Pork loin is a very lean cut of meat. So, to make a tasty sausage, we need to add a fattier cut. I recommend adding 1/2 pound of fatback if you can find some at the grocery story. My store was out, so for the video I used 1/2 pound of bacon and it worked just fine. Along with the bacon, I cut 2 pounds from the end of the pork loin. Then, I took this portion of the loin, mixed it with the bacon, and put it through the grinder twice. The second grind is key for getting the right consistency.
To the ground sausage, add my mix of spices:
1 Tbs Sage
1/2 tsp Red Pepper Flakes
1 Tbs Brown Sugar
1 Tbs Kosher Salt
1/2 tsp Black Pepper
1/2 tsp Dry Thyme
Once you’ve added the spices, make into patties and cook on a hot skillet. Delicious!
The second recipe is for a taco mix, guisada de puerco, which basically just means braised pork.
This makes for the best Taco Tuesday lunch or dinner you’ve ever made!
Here’s the recipe:
2 lbs pork cubed
1 medium onion (chopped)
2 poblano peppers (chopped)
4 cloves of garlic
2 lbs tomatillos (quartered)
1 bunch cilantro (chopped)
1 lime
1 beer
4 cups chicken broth
Here’s what you do. Heat a large pan over medium high heat. To the hot pan, add the 2 lbs of cubed pork. Sear the meat and then remove. Add to the pan the onion, poblano peppers, and garlic cloves. Sauté them for about 3 minutes. Now add the beer to the mix. Scrape the bottom of the pan for the flavor crystals—let’s get all those good flavors in the mix. Let it simmer for about 3 more minutes to reduce some of the liquid, then add the seared pork back into the mix. Add the tomatillos, chicken broth, and cilantro. Then, cover the pan, reduce heat, and let it braise for about 2 hours.
Now, add lime juice and salt to taste. Take a pastry blender or potato masher and give the mixture a push. You want to break up some of the mixture, but still leave some of the chunks. At this point, you can put it back on the heat for awhile to reduce some of the liquid. Or, you can do what I did—strain some out and put it on a taco!
Important pro tip here: double up with corn tortillas! Don’t use flour. That’s a no-no.
And for meal #3, let’s make some seared pork chops.
Here we go: keep is simple and season the chops with just some kosher salt and pepper. Remember to season both sides! In a screaming hot pan, with some oil, sear both sides of the meat. Next, cook them in the oven until they reach an internal temperature of 145 degrees. Once they do, pull them out, put them back on the stove, and start the butter basting process. Add some butter and thyme, and baste until they reach an internal temperature of 155 degrees. That’s all there is to it. So very good!
$16, three meals, and a whole lot of good eating. Enjoy, and I’ll see you next time!
—Brad