Smothered Pork Chops

Pork chops have never been one of my favorite foods. We didn't have them very often when I was a kid, and when we did they were usually pretty dry, bland, and tough. Plus they were always cooked with rice, a side dish which i refused to touch at the time, so it was just too much work scraping every last grain of rice off the bottom of my chop. Nope, I wasn't a fan. 

As I got older I discovered that pork chops did have some redeeming qualities (as did rice, but that's another entry) and so I experimented with ways of preparing them. They were definitely edible, but never something I really loved or just couldn't get enough of.

Tonight, I discovered the wonders of the smothered pork chop. And I must say, I could eat my weight in these glorious little morsels. They were AMAZING. I literally ate a whole one out of the pan while they were still cooking. I called it testing (at least for the first bite) but it was just stuffing my face.

This is a very imprecise recipe because I was mostly eyeballing everything, but you'll get the idea.

I started with what I'm guessing to be about 1/3 - 1/2 lb of pork tenderloin cut into about 1/2 inch thick medallions/chops. They were lightly coated with a mixture of AP flour, cayenne, salt, and pepper and then browned on either side in a little bit of olive oil.

After the chicken pieces were browned, I removed them to a plate, and add a little more olive oil to your pan plus one small yellow onion that has been sliced, 3 cloves diced garlic, and about 1/2 cup of diced bell pepper (I buy a bag of the frozen little pieces so it was just a handful, but I'm guessing this is about what you'd get from one average pepper). Cook all this until it's soft and yummy smelling, then add a couple of tablespoons of Dale's seasoning (i think you're supposed to use worcestershire but this was what i had and it was really good). Then add about 2 cups of chicken stock, scrape all your bits from the bottom, put the browned pork pieces back in the pan, and cover. Allow the whole thing to simmer about 20 minutes until everything is tender and fabulous. If the sauce gets too thick, just add some more chicken stock.

I served it over pasta to help soak up all the sauce, but i think I may use a simple rice pilaf next time.

Other things to do differently next time: go easy on the breading, it kind of slid off when it was simmering. The seasoning was great though. 

When everything was said and done, this was definitely a new favorite. I will keep playing with it. But when you end up with something so tender you can cut it with a fork, can you really go wrong? If you try it, let me know what you think.

Coming Soon: Hospitality, Sleep, and I still haven't forgotten about Meatloaf and Crocheting!