Smothered Pork Chops

Don't you just LOVE IT when they put those center cut pork loins on sale? I always have the butcher cut mine up into four 2.5 lb roasts. I use the whole roast when I've planned ahead about dinner and want something for the crockpot. But it's also great when I haven't given dinner a thought until 2 or 3 in the afternoon!  That's when I thaw it out and slice that puppy up into pork chops! (Please excuse my violent puppy slicing rhetoric.)

Smothered Pork Chops (Who knew there was so much violence in cooking?)

They're called "smothered" because they are covered in GRAVY! Who doesn't like gravy?

So I wish I had taken pictures of all the steps and ingredients but I was trying to fix dinner for my family for goodness sake! Please lower your expectations. Thank you.

Brown the pork chops in a little vegetable oil. Around 3 minutes a side should do the trick if you have the heat up nice and high. By nice and high I mean the browning of the meat may cause your smoke alarms go off for just a little while. Maybe I should of paid for the professional stove hood? Take the chops out of the pan and set them on a plate to the side.  It's time to make GRAVY!

That is pure goodness in the bottom of the pan! Add a tablespoon or so of vegetable oil and some . . .

sliced onions! Cook them up until they're all brown and yummy! If you find you're not getting any really good browning and softening you can add a little salt and . . .

a small chunk of butter. You've got to have some fat in the pan to make a truly yummy gravy! Butter DOES make everything better.  Stir that all around and then add the garlic and flour.

Stir that flour around and cook it for a minute or so till it's clinging to the onions and you don't see any dry floury spots anywhere.  Then you'll add some flavor . . .

Mmmmm, I like a teaspoon of dried thyme, a bay leaf and some freshly grated nutmeg!  After you stir those in you'll add . . .

The vermouth and chicken broth. Now turn the heat up and start stirring! It'll be gravy in a few minutes.  You might want to taste it right now and see how the salt is. Add more if you like. If you don't like wine in your food then well I don't like you either . . . excuse me, I mean feel free to not add it. You might want to add a tsp of  wine or cider vinegar just for the bit of pop a little acid gives a good rich dish.

Add the pork chops back to the pan. Make sure you add all those juices that dripped out of them onto the plate!  Now in a few minutes the chops are going to be warm and cooked through and if you're in a hurry you can go ahead and eat it.  But if you want to go for the gusto put a lid on your pan and turn the heat down to a simmer. Flip them every 10 minutes so the gravy goodness can get soaked into all sides and wait an hour or more (depends on how thick your chops are!). Those chops will start to break down and get all tender and melty!

After you've worked so hard on that delicious gravy feel free to . . .

prepare the side dish of your choice!

Oh and only children who have shoveled the walk get to eat dinner! See 2 Thessalonians 3:10

Smothered Pork Chops

6 pork chops, lightly seasoned with salt and pepper
2-4 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 Tbsp butter
2-4 cloves of garlic, minced
3 Tbsp all purpose flour
1 tsp dried thyme
1 bay leaf
freshly grated nutmeg
1 can of low sodium chicken broth
1/4 cup dry vermouth

Heat 1 Tbsp vegetable oil in large frying pan over medium high heat. Brown the pork in the skillet and remove from the pan. Brown onion in pan adding butter and extra oil if necessary. Add minced garlic and cook until you can smell it.  Add 3 Tbsp flour to onion and mix in. Cook for 1 minute.  Add herbs and spices to pan.  Stir in vermouth and broth. Bring to a simmer.  Add pork chops back to pan. Cover and simmer for an hour.