OK, I'm not a fan of bone-in pork chops - wait, I know, "they have more flavor" but I swear, no matter how much I rinse the chops before I cook
them, I can taste the grit from the bone where they sawed them apart. UGH!
So, when I want pork chops, I buy a whole pork loin and have it cut into nice 1 1/2 - 2 inch chops (this is more cost-effective than buying them already cut - plus most butcher counters will cut it for free). This gives me versatility, in that I can cut a pocket into them and stuff them or if I want thinner chops, I can cut them in half or butterfly them. I usually vacuum seal them with 4 chops to a bag.
In this recipe, I rely on the convenience of cream of mushroom soup, but you could easily make a bechamel sauce and add mushrooms to it. A basic bechamel sauce to be posted soon.
Baked Pork Chops with Mushroom Sauce
Ingredients:
olive oil
4 boneless chops from a pork loin (about 1 to 1 1/2 inches thick)
salt, pepper, granulated garlic
8 oz fresh mushrooms
1 - 10 3/4 oz can cream of mushroom soup
1 soup can full - milk
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Trim away most of the visible fat on the chops. Season them with salt, pepper and granulated garlic.
Clean mushrooms and slice or rough chop. Mix soup and milk together in a mixing bowl, then add prepared mushrooms.
Heat an oven-proof skillet over medium-high heat. Brown chops on both sides before removing skillet from the heat. Pour mushroom soup mixture over chops. Cover (with foil or a lid - I have a silcone splatter guard I use as a cover in the oven), place into the oven and bake for 45 minutes to an hour. This makes them very tender.
The side dishes of choice for my family are mashed potatoes and green beans, but I try to serve a mixed green salad in place of the green beans whenever possible.
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