Seared Pork Chops with Sauce Soubise

Traditionally, Sauce Soubise involved mixing classic bechamel sauce (milk based, thickened with roux) with sauteed onion puree. This makes for a fairly thick, creamy style sauce that has fallen out of favor in recent years. The use of vegetable purees to thicken and enrich sauces, however, has much potential for modern use.

This recipe makes use of the fond (brown meat pieces left in the pan) from seared pork chops to create a delicious pan sauce that is finished with creamy onion puree. This sauce makes for an intriguing eating experience since it is not commonly seen (at least not by me!) I found it to be quite delicious and to have a clean flavor--certainly complimentary to the chops--tasty, savory a bit sweet, and not too assertive. I've only made this at home thus far; in a restaurant setting adding a few attractive garnishes to the sauce would make for a better presentation. As it is written here the dish looks a little plain.

Stewed Onion Puree

1 T whole butter
1 lb yellow onions (3 medium), halved, cored, and sliced lengthwise
1 T heavy cream

1. Melt butter in small heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium-low heat. Add onions and sweat gently, stirring very frequently to prevent browning. Cook until onions are very tender and all liquid has evaporated from the pan. Stir in heavy cream.

2. Puree in food processor or blender until smooth. You may have to let the mixture cool slightly before pureeing, but do not cool completely. Set puree aside.


Pork Chops with Modern Soubise

4 rib or loin pork chops
2 T olive oil
1 T butter
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 batch stewed onion puree (above)
to taste salt, pepper, red wine vinegar
2 T fresh parsley, finely chopped

1. Dry and season pork chops with a little salt and pepper. Heat a heavy-bottomed saute pan (preferably not nonstick) over medium heat. Add olive oil then butter. When foaming subsides
add chops to the pan. Cook until very well browned, then flip over and finish cooking on second side. Chops should be about 150 degrees internal temperature. Transfer to a plate and cover with foil.

2. Pour burnt fat from pan and deglaze with the chicken stock. Allow to reduce slightly (by about 1/4.)

3. Whisk in the onion puree and heat to a simmer. Adjust thickness to your preference by reducing sauce a little (to thicken) or thin with a little more chicken stock or heavy cream. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and red wine vinegar. Add accumulated chop juices from plate to sauce and combine.

4. To serve, arrange chops on serving platter or individual plates, top with a little sauce, and sprinkle with fresh parsley. Serve remaining sauce alongside to pass at the table. Enjoy!

Serve this dish with most any steamed vegetable and perhaps roasted red potatoes. The sauce here is probably not abundant or creamy enough to work for mashed potatoes.


This recipe can be found in the wonderful book Sauces: Classical and Contemporary Sauce Making by James Peterson. I aquired my copy through The Good Cook cookbook club, and it is well worth the price. The text is written largely from a professional kitchen perspective, but any home cook with a little ambition and a desire to learn a wealth of information about sauces of all kinds should check this one out. The best feature of the book is that it is not simply recipes. Peterson goes into detail on the techniques and principles behind the sauces, then gives the reader recipes as examples of many of the sauces in practice. This gives the reader opportunity use what she learns in a number of applications, not just in a single recipe.