pan-grilled hoisin pork steaks (a 3-ingredient recipe)

3-ingredient pan-grilled hoisin pork steak.

Sometimes the rescuer in me wakes up, and seeks out neglected ingredients that have been sitting in a lonely corner for far too long. It makes me happy when I save them from oblivion and find them a good home. On a plate. In my belly.

My recent efforts revolved around a full bottle of hoisin sauce in Simon's fridge. No one really knows who bought it, or how long it has been there. Every time I open the fridge, it niggles at me a little. I started to think about how awful the bottle of hoisin sauce must feel, because surely if you are a bottle of hoisin sauce, all you want to do is mingle with other delicious things, to create even more delicious things.

Because I'm that kind of crazy woman.

It just so happened that I won a competition and received the prize of an incredible meat tray around that time (thanks, The Vegetable Connection and Cherry Tree Organics!) so there were plenty of carnivorous delights to go around. One of the items in the meat tray were some lovely boneless butterflied pork steaks. I thought they would match well with the sweet, rich hoisin sauce, which is often described as a Chinese BBQ sauce.

And thus, these 3-ingredient pan-grilled hoisin pork steaks came into our world.

pan-grilled hoisin pork steaks

1/4 cup hoisin sauce* (more to taste, later, if desired)
1 tablespoon oil with a high smoke point (e.g. rice bran oil, grapeseed oil, sunflower oil, peanut oil)
2 boneless pork butterfly steaks or chops (approx. 300g / 2/3lb total, and 2cm / 3/4" thick)

Combine hoisin sauce and oil. Rub all over the pork steaks and let them marinate for 1 hour, or longer.
Heat a grill pan over a medium high flame. Once the pan is hot, slap the steaks down. Cook for about 3 minutes on each side. (If they curve up during the cooking process, you can press them down a little so that they continue to sear well and evenly.)
Remove the steaks from the pan and rest for another 3 minutes before serving.

If you'd like to brush a little more hoisin sauce on your pork, or add other condiments like pepper... go for it!

I served mine with a simple vegetable side dish: steamed bok choy, drizzled with soy sauce and sesame oil. (This is only 3 ingredients, too - yay!)

*Since this recipe has so few ingredients, it is important that you use a hoisin sauce that tastes good to you. The one I rescued from Simon's fridge is Ayam brand, and it also happened to be gluten-free. However, not all hoisin sauces are gluten-free, so if you are that way inclined, do check the label and list of ingredients. I also try to look for sauces that have a fairly natural ingredient list.

easy-as-anything pan-grilled hoisin pork butterfly steak with a simple side of bok choy.