Popcorn Pork
Created by Mr. Mom Russell Pohl - Chef. Blogger. Traveller
(corporate@mrmomsworldcatering.com)
Ingredients
- 5 lbs Johnton's Pork Tenderloin cut into ¾ inch cubes
- Vegetable Oil, Canola Oil or Peanut oil if using a deep fryer, fill to appropriate levels with oil or if cooking on stovetop, fill pot slightly less than halfway - safety first
Wet Batter
- 2 cups buttermilk
- 2 medium eggs
- salt and pepper to taste
Dry Mix
- 4 cups all purpose flour
- 3 Tbsp garlic powder
- 3 Tbsp onion powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pepper
Orange Sweet Sauce (optional flavour)
- 3 medium oranges/tangerines juiced
- 1 Tbsp cornstarch
- 2 cups water separated
- 3 Tbsp honey
- 1 Tbsp sesame seeds
- salt to taste
Sat and Pepper (optional flavour)
- sea salt
- coarse pepper
Lemon (optional flavour)
- 2-3 lemons cut into wedges
- sea salt
- 2 green onions 1” pieces sliced on the diagonal for garnish
Instructions
- Cooking temperature should be at 345⁰F to 350⁰F.
- Beat together wet batter ingredients so that egg is blended well.
- Mix dry mix ingredients together.
- Dredge enough pork through you wet batter to comfortably fill your pot.
- Shake off the bulk of the wet batter then dredge the pork in the dry mix. Once nicely coated, drop piece by piece into the heated oil.
- You can prepare the next batch by dropping into the wet batter, but do not move into dry mix until fryer is free.
- When pork is golden brown, remove and place on cookie sheet covered with paper towel to absorb excess oil.
- Note: When deep frying pork, it is important that you not overload your fryer. These cook really quickly. You want to avoid shaking your basket or stirring your oil. Pork should be a golden brown.
Orange Sweet Sauce (optional flavour)
- In a sauce pan, stir together 1.5 cups water, honey, orange juice and bring to a boil.
- In a cup, stir together cornstarch and 0.5 cup water. Making sure the cornstarch sludge is thoroughly mixed, add to your pot, reduce heat to medium and stir until thickened. Salt to taste.
- Tossed freshly fried pork into the sauce then serve over rice. Garnish with sesame seeds. If you are like me and do not like your pork too saucy, put very little directly on your popcorn pork and serve additional sauce to the side.
Sat and Pepper (optional flavour)
- This is all a matter of taste. Sprinkle salt and pepper immediately after your pork has come off the paper towel to reduce the oil. Serve immediately or reheat in the oven. Great as a party appetizer or “game night” food.
Lemon (optional flavour)
- Straight from the paper towel, put into shallow serving dish and squeeze lemon over your popcorn pork, salt to taste and serve with green onions on top. Serve additional wedges for those that may like the tang of the lemon. The lemon should be the keynote flavour.
Showing 2 comments
Could you prepare these ahead of time freeze and then fry as you need them ?
Hi Dennis! Yes, you can prepare these ahead of time. You’ll just have individually quick freeze the pork cubes on a lined pan so that they don’t freeze together. Cheers!