Bone-In Pork Chop Sandwich

When you order a pork sandwich at Jim’s Original, mind your teeth. These babies come with bones. The Chicago institution has been churning out its famous bone-in pork chop sandwich for more than 50 years.

To make the meaty meal, butchers marinate thick slabs of pork loin in a brine. After searing the chops until brown and cooking further atop sizzling onions, they place everything on a burger bun along with yellow mustard. The wrapped sandwich is packed into a brown paper bag with a handful of fries and two pickled “sport” peppers, a tangy, slightly spicy local specialty that often tops Chicago-style hot dogs.

Though eating around the skeletal impediment takes some skill, enthusiasts swear by the bone-in meat’s juiciness and flavor. Or perhaps they’re drawn to the sheer thrill of gnawing on a bone. As one reviewer noted on NPR’s Sandwich Monday series, “Eating a bone-in sandwich is the lazy person’s equivalent of free-climbing a mountain. The danger just adds to the rush.”