The Eaten Path: Tomahawk pork chops are having a moment – this is gourmet eating on a budget

About one quarter the cost of its beefy cousin, still a decadent cut made even better with a creamy lemon caper sauce

In case you haven’t noticed, tomahawk pork chops are having a bit of a moment.

It might be because of some hidden or random culinary trend wave that also saw cauliflower or Brussels sprouts get foodie attention in recent years. 

Or maybe it’s because of the fact that they are a freakin’ amazing cut of meat and food is just too damned expensive.

Last spring in a moment of selfishness I saw a local shop advertising tomahawk steaks for a big Father’s Day treat, so I ordered one. When it came time to go pick up my 1.2-kilogram (2.6 pounds) Frenched bone-in ribeye cut of beef, I realized that I hadn’t asked the price. At $99 per kilograms, that was a $120 steak.

Was it worth it? As a food experience, sure. Was it smart? Maybe not. I mean, even though that much meat was enough for almost five meals, that’s still more than $20 per meal just for the protein.

But recently I had a well-cooked tomawawk pork chop at a restaurant in Vancouver, then had one again as one of the five courses at the remarkable gourmet prix fixe offered at the Chilliwack Airport Restaurant.

Then about a month ago, I saw that one of the three local Save-On grocery stores was selling them at the butcher counter. Time to give it a try.

Sticking to the cost-of-food issue, I was also in Ontario recently and saw them for sale at the Sobey’s in Gravenhurst. I looked at one that was a little under one pound, 420 grams, and at $2.24 per 100 grams, it was $9.43, about the same price as they were at Save-On in Chilliwack.

So that’s $22.40 per kilogram for a pork tomahawk versus $99 per kilogram for a beef tomahawk, less than one quarter the cost.

I know what you are thinking, ribeye is the best cut of beef there is and left on the bone Frenched in the tomahawk style, well there’s nothing better. Agreed. But this is more than a poor substitute. It’s so much better to work with than a regular pork chop or pork tenderloin. 

This can be truly gourmet eating on a budget. I made a grilled tomahawk pork chop with a lemon caper sauce, which I served alongside a corn rosotto (recipe in The Eaten Path on Aug. 4, 2025) for a homemade, easy to cook, locally sourced meal. 

Here's a video of my inaugural version, below which is a recipe to try.

This is my recipe cobbled together from a 2020 version by New York Times assistant managing editor Sam Sifton, his adapted from Toni Tipton-Martin’s 2019 cookbook Jubilee: Recipes From Two Centuries of African American Cooking, which itself is a remix from chef Nathaniel Burton’s 1978 opus Creole Feast: Fifteen Master Chefs of New Orleans Reveal Their Secrets.

So from a revered Black chef in New Orleans in the 1970s to a modern cookbook to the NYT to Chilliwack, it’s a wild ride to a delicious result that if I can make taste amazing, you can too. It’s truly easy and so delicious anyone who doesn’t see you making it will be amazed at all the work they think you did.

Grilled tomahawk pork chop with a lemon-caper sauce

(If you like amounts in your recipes, sorry, I don’t. Just use your instinct - PJH)

Ingredients

2 tomahawk pork chops, one pound each or so
butter
shallots, chopped
chicken stock
fresh thyme
lemon, zested and juiced
capers
flour

Method

1. Turn your barbecue on medium-high. This is ideally prepared on a barbecue with an element on the side, which you will turn on medium flame under a large cast iron pan. If you don’t have that set up, you could (carefully) do the sauce on the pan on one side of the grill. Or it can all be done indoors on a stovetop if need be.

2. First, make yourself a Negroni or pour a glass of white wine or an IPA, then sear the fat cap in the cast iron pan next to the grill holding it with your tongs, then pop them on the hot grill.

3. Put some butter in the pan. Add shallots for about a minute or two until softened, starting to brown.

4. Add chicken stock, thyme, and lemon zest, stir for about a minute.

5. Add the capers and lemon juice and stir over medium heat.

6. Back to your chops, turn them and be sure to get a nice bark on the outside and not overcook them.

7. Add flour and more butter to your pan and simmer the sauce until thickened.

8. Pop your cooked chops into the sauce and spoon over the top before serving.

9. See corn risotto recipe for a perfect summer side. But with such a great cut of meat under such a sexy sauce, maybe don't spoil everyone. This would go amazing with some roasted skin-on potatoes, even a simple rice pilaf, all with a fresh green salad of any kind.

Your guest(s) will bow down at your cooking prowess, your high-end food, and no one has to know how easy it was to cook and that all the ingredients in total cost less than $25.

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Paul J. Henderson
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