Coffee and Coriander Pork Chops

Coffee on a pork chop sounds like a gimmick until you taste it. Ground coffee, cracked coriander and salt, rubbed on and chilled for a few hours, give a thick bone-in chop a dark, savory crust and a juicy pink center. Five ingredients, one skillet, and one rule: do not skip the resting time.

• 2 bone-in pork chops, 1½ inches thick (10–12 oz each)
• 1 tablespoon coarsely ground coffee
• 1 teaspoon coriander seeds, cracked
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon butter

Serves two. That is the whole list.

1. Mix the coffee, coriander and salt and rub it over both sides of the chops.
2. Set them on a plate, uncovered, in the fridge for 1 to 4 hours. The salt goes deep, the surface dries — that is where the crust comes from.
3. Take them out 15 minutes before cooking. Heat a heavy skillet over medium-high heat until a drop of water skips across it.
4. Lay the chops in and leave them alone for 4 minutes. Flip, add the butter, and spoon it over the meat for another 4 to 5 minutes, until a thermometer in the thickest part, away from the bone, reads 140°F.
5. Rest on a warm plate for 5 minutes — it climbs to 145°F on its own — then serve.

Roasted coffee and seared meat share the same aroma family, the pyrazines. When you taste the chop, your brain adds them up into a darker, more savory pork rather than coffee. Cracked coriander adds a citrusy note, linalool, keeping the crust bright. And the salt, given a few hours in the fridge, dissolves some of the muscle proteins, so the meat holds its juices through the sear instead of pushing them out.

No. It tastes like a deeper, roasted pork chop. Nobody guesses coffee unless you tell them.

Any medium or dark roast, ground coarse. Not instant, not flavored.

Yes, but they cook faster. Go by the thermometer, not minutes: 140°F, then rest.

You can, up to 12 hours; the salt only goes deeper. For a chop this size I find 1 to 4 hours enough.

Yes. That is the USDA number after resting, and a light pink center is exactly right.

I am Marina Staver, a private chef in Miami and South Florida. I cook dinners in people's homes: birthdays, anniversaries, dinner parties, quiet evenings for two on a Wednesday. I plan the menu around what you actually like, shop for it, cook it in your kitchen and leave it clean.

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Sources: USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, Safe Minimum Internal Temperature Chart (pork 145°F, 3-minute rest).