Name: Chuletas de Puerco Criollas (Cuban-Style Pork Chops)
Yield: Serves 4 to 6
Cuisine: Cuba
Ingredients: Freshly ground black pepper to taste (optional); 8 to 12 thin center-cut pork chops, ½ to ¾ inch thick; ½ cup fresh bitter orange juice, or ¼ cup regular orange juice and ¼ cup fresh lime juice; Salt to taste; ½ teaspoon dried oregano leaves; 2 to 4 cloves garlic, or to taste; ½ cup dry sherry or vino seco (Cuban dry cooking wine); 1 large onion, thinly sliced into rings; ½ teaspoon ground cumin; ¼ cup Aceite de Achiote (Achiote-Flavored Olive Oil), or ¼ cup olive oil and 1 teaspoon bijol (annatto seed seasoning)

Preparation info

Serves
4 to 6

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Eating Cuban

By Beverly Cox and Martin Jacobs

Published 2006

About

The first pigs arrived in Cuba when Columbus landed on the island in 1492, and pork has been a favorite meat since those early days. Cuban Americans will tell you that the pork in Cuba tastes different from pork in the United States. That might sound like food nostalgia, but after eating the moist and flavorful pork in Cuba, I have to agree. According to my friend Juanita Plana, who grew up in Cuba, one of the secrets of Cuban pork is that the pigs are fed on palmiche, the fruit of a