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I believe in diving into local cuisine. When I moved to Florida a little over three years ago, I started making all things Southern. It wasn’t too long before I made grillades (pronounced Gree-Yahds). They are seared meat medallions served in a spicy gravy over grits. Because I moved to Florida from Arizona, there is still a lot of Mexican influence in my cooking. It should be no surprise that I opted for El Yucateco habenero hot sauce when I made the grillades gravy.
El Yucateco makes many different sauces with varying levels of heat. My local Publix carried their green, red and XXXtra hot Mayan Kutbil-il sauce in the Latin foods section. My kids have quickly claimed the black label sauce for themselves, pouring the #sauceon everything from eggs to pasta. That left me with the green and red; and I am not complaining. Those sauces are really tasty with a nice bite.
Grillades, despite sounding like they are grilled, are medallions of beef or pork that are dredged in flour and then browned. The “trinity” of celery, onions and sweet peppers along with garlic and tomatoes are added and then a roux is used to thicken up a gravy made with broth and hot sauce. Traditionally they are served over grits and eaten for brunch or breakfast. I served mine for dinner, but no one complained about the time change. 
I used boneless pork ribs instead of medallions. I extended the simmering time to allow them to get really tender. The El Yucateco red sauce gave the gravy a nice bite, but it didn’t overpower the flavor of the meat. I like to use hot sauce in a subtle way as that extra special something that makes people say, “Yum!” Serving extra sauce as a condiment on the side let anyone who wanted more zing to get it.
This inexpensive habenero sauce is great because a little goes a long way. You can find more recipes using this flavorful sauce HERE.
Pork Grillades
Author: Frugal Antics of a Harried Homemaker
- 2-3 pounds boneless pork ribs cut into 3 inch lengths and trimmed of excess fat
- ¼ cup flour + 1 Tbsp
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp ground white pepper
- 2 Tbsp olive oil, divided
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 1 red bell pepper, chopped
- 3 ribs celery, chopped
- 1 Tbsp minced garlic
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 1 14 oz can petite diced tomatoes, partially drained
- 1 tsp thyme
- 1 tsp marjoram
- 2 Tbsp El Yucateco Red Habanero Sauce
- 4-5 cups cooked grits (or cooked egg noodles if you aren’t a grits fan)
- Combine ¼ cup flour, salt and white pepper in a shallow pan.
- Dredge pork in flour.
- Working in batches, brown all the meat in 1 Tbsp olive oil in a large nonstick pan.
- Remove meat to a plate and add onion, bell pepper, celery and garlic to the pan.
- Cook on medium heat until all vegetables are soft.
- Remove them to the same pan as the meat.
- Add remaining 1 Tbsp oil and 1 Tbsp flour to the pan.
- Cook and stir until the mixture turns a dark tan.
- Add the chicken broth, stirring while it cooks to thicken.
- Add the meat, vegetables, tomatoes, thyme, marjoram and El Yucateco sauce to the pan.
- Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.
- Cover and let simmer for 50-60 minutes.
- Serve over hot buttered grits (or optionally egg noodles)
To make this gluten free, use sweet rice flour instead of all purpose flour and make sure your broth is gluten free as well.
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