How to Make Hard Cider Sauce for Pork

This sweet, savory sauce has its origins in French cooking. Totally aromatic, it'll fragrance your home and call to mind a crisp fall evening. Serve the pork with hard cider sauce alongside mashed potatoes to sop up the hard cider sauce and give an extra kick to the spuds. The apple brandy taste of Calvados adds a complexity to this dish that is flavorful, but subtle.

Things You'll Need

• Large sauté pan
• Wooden spoon
• Platter
• Foil
• 3 tbsp. butter, divided and sliced
• 1 1/2 pounds pork cutlets, pounded thin to 1/4"
• 1 cup hard cider
• 1/2 cup chicken stock
• 1 tsp. grainy mustard
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp. onion, minced
• 2 tbsp. Calvados
• Salt and black pepper, to taste

Instructions

1. Melt 2 tbsp. of butter in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Meanwhile, season cutlets on both sides with salt and pepper.

2. When butter is melted and sizzling, place cutlets in the pan. Cook through, turning once after about 4 minutes.

3. Remove cooked pork from pan and place on a platter tented with foil.

4. Deglaze pan by adding hard cider and chicken stock. Scrape up browned bits with a wooden spoon.

5. Add garlic and onion, and simmer over medium heat for about a minute.

6. Add mustard and Calvados, stirring thoroughly to combine.

7. Finish hard cider sauce by swirling in the remaining tablespoon of butter.

8. Return cutlets to pan and warm through. Serve immediately with hard cider sauce drizzled on top.

Tips & Warnings

• If necessary, cook cutlets in batches, as they will not properly brown if overcrowded.

References

• Food Network: Mustard Pork Chops; Nigella Lawson