Pork Chop Favorites?

What are your favorite ways to fix pork chops?

Of course, I want my pork chops chicken fried with mashed potatoes and cream gravy.

I used to fix a country-style pork chop casserole where the pork chops were dredged in flour, put into a casserole dish topped with sliced or diced potatoes then covered with milk.  I have no idea what happened to the recipe and I have not gotten my tries without the recipe to work.

Then I had another recipe that called for sausage, pork chops, and a tomato sauce poured over that concoction and cooked in a skillet.

It is starting to get cool enough to fire up the oven so I have been looking at the picture at Pinterest.  There are some really yummy-looking pictures of potential recipes.

How do you like to cook pork chops?

Like you said, there is really only one optimal way to cook 'em.

But...

My wife sometimes makes a deal in the oven with a pork roast cooking on a rack over some root veggies and garlic. Absolutely killer.

I know, it's off topic, but I was thinking about pork and now I am starving. Hopefully talking about it will help me to cope.

A really tasty way to oven roast them is to cure them overnight in the fridge, rubbing them down with salt and pepper, red pepper flakes, oregano, parsley, basil and thyme, and either some of the oil from a jar of sundried tomatoes or a little red wine.  Or, you can use lemon zest - you just want a little brightness to the flavor.  Fennel is nice, too, if you like Italian sausage.  Oops, I almost forgot the garlic - gotta have garlic!

Janes Mixed Up Krazy Salt for a rub and grilled over wood coals.

I love an olive oil/ vinegar/herb marinade and then tossed on the grill.  Especially if it's bone-in with a bit of fat.  

I've always enjoyed a good thick chop stuffed. I find that you can vary things a lot with the stuffing using a baseline of butter-sauteed onion and bread crumb. I usually add some minced celery, minced garlic, and some fresh herbs in there. Once in a while I add mushrooms if I have them on hand. You butterfly the chop, stuff a few spoonfuls of the filling in, then lightly dredge the exterior in a blend of salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, and bake them at 350 F° until they reach 145 Fº internal temp.

My sister taught me how to make this one on the stovetop.

Pork chops -- one or more per person
Onions, chopped
Sauerkraut drained & washed. Save the brine in case you want a more sour taste to the final dish. Run a knife through the kraut once or twice just to get the strands manageable for a fork. Figure about a 1cup or more per person
Potatoes, peeled and quartered -- about a half or more per person
Caraway seed (or ground if you prefer) -- about a tablespoon or more (or to taste -- I like a lot)
salt and pepper
Water to cover

Brown the pork chops in a pot large enough to hold all the ingredients.  Set the chops aside, add and brown the onions and then add the kraut. Swish around a bit until the kraut gains a bit of color. There should be enough liquid in the pot to make it a bit steamy.  Add the caraway seeds or ground and a bit of S&P.  Give it a few minutes and taste again to see if you want to add more caraway -- I do, but I like caraway.  Add the potatoes then the browned chops on top. Cover with enough water to just cover the chops.  Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat to a simmer. Cover and simmer for an hour or so.  It's done when the potatoes are done.  Taste and adjust the seasoning.

You can also pour the liquid out of the pot (or remove everything else -- your call), and thicken the gravy with flour, cornstarch or even add more potatoes at the beginning so you can smash one of them into the gravy as a thickener. Frankly, I add more potatoes than I serve, then use a fork to mash some of them into the juice.  I just tip the pot -- no removing anything -- just smash a few potato bits into the sauce.

I like it this way, but you may want to bake it, like Oma -- https://www.quick-german-recipes.com/baked-pork-chop-recipe.html

We prefer to take a pork butt and make our own "chops", but with those or with actual chops, we marinate the pork with a mixture of soy sauce and melted butter, then grill them to temp.
The leftover marinade is boiled to kill pathogens and we wisk in some prepared mustard.
This sauce is used to baste the meat as it cooks, and as a plate sauce.

Barbara Manning wrote:My sister taught me how to make this one.

Pork chops -- one or more per person
Onions, chopped
Sauerkraut drained & washed. Save the brine in case you want a more sour taste to the final dish. Run a knife through the kraut once or twice just to get the strands manageable for a fork. Figure about a 1cup or more per person
Potatoes, peeled and quartered -- about a half or more per person
Caraway seed (or ground if you prefer) -- about a tablespoon or more
salt and pepper
Water to cover

Brown the pork chops in a pot large enough to hold all the ingredients.  Set the chops aside, add and brown the onions and then add the kraut. Swish around a bit until the kraut gains a bit of color. There should be enough liquid in the pot to make it a bit steamy.  Add the caraway seeds or ground and a bit of S&P.  Give it a few minutes and taste again to see if you want to add more caraway -- I do, but I like caraway.  Add the potatoes then the browned chops on top. Cover with enough water to just cover the chops.  Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat to a simmer. Cover and simmer for an hour or so.  It's done when the potatoes are done.  Taste and adjust the seasoning.

You can also pour the liquid out of the pot (or remove everything else -- your call), and thicken the gravy with flour, cornstarch or even add more potatoes at the beginning so you can smash one of them into the gravy as a thickener.

That is a favorite of mine, too!

Another of my favorites calls for thinly sliced pork, but I've finessed the cooking time (and the method -- for chops or pork cubes I'll use the Instant Pot or pressure cooker) using the same basic instructions. This is Nami Chen's recipe from https://www.justonecookbook.com/ginger-pork-shogayaki/ I use her site often for recipes and inspiration. It looks long and involved, but it's pretty easy to put together, and the cooking goes very fast.

It appears that there is a lot of sake in this recipe, but the alcohol burns away, and sake has about the same alcohol by percent as wine (about 15%). Look here for alcoholic and non-alcoholic substitutions: https://www.finedininglovers.com/article/sake-substitutes-in-cooking  

Ginger Pork (Shogayaki)
Ready in 20 minutes! Prep Time10 mins Cook Time10 mins Servings: 4 Calories: 361kcal
Ingredients
• 1.5 lb thinly sliced pork loin (I use paper-thin sliced pork from a Japanese grocery store; or, slice your own using my tutorial https://www.justonecookbook.com/how-to-slice-meat/)
• 2 Tbsp sake (for the pork)
• 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour (plain flour) (for the pork)
• 2-4 Tbsp neutral-flavored oil (vegetable, rice bran, canola, etc.) (for cooking)
• freshly ground black pepper (optional; season at the end)
For the Ginger Sauce
• 2 knob ginger (2 inches, 5 cm for 2 servings; remember to keep half of the ginger juice for marinating the pork)
• 1 onion (remember to use the leftover onion for slicing and stir-frying)
• 4 Tablespoons soy sauce
• 4 Tablespoons mirin
• 4 Tablespoons sake
• 2 teaspoon sugar
Instructions
1. Gather all the ingredients.
To Make the Ginger Sauce
1. In a small bowl, combine the soy sauce, mirin, sake, and sugar for the ginger sauce.
2. Scrape off the outer ginger skin with a knife (or spoon) and cut off any tough parts.
3. Grate the ginger, keeping the juice. Collect the grated ginger and squeeze out the liquid. You will need a total of 2 Tbsp ginger juice for 4 servings.
4. Add half of the ginger juice to the sauce bowl. Keep the rest to marinate the pork in a later step. Add as much grated ginger as you like to the sauce. (I add all of it.)
5. Next, grate the onion until you get 2 Tbsp of grated onion, including the juice, for 4 servings. Keep the rest of the onion for slicing later.
6. Add the grated onion with juice to the ginger sauce and mix it all together.
To Prepare the Ingredients
1. Cut the rest of the onion into thin slices.
2. If your pork slices are thicker than ⅛ inch (3 mm), cut several slits on the connective tissue (the white area) between the meat and fat. Red meat and fat have different elasticities, and they will shrink and expand at different rates as they cook. These slits will allow the pork slices to stay nice and flat while pan-frying and prevent them from curling up.
3. Sprinkle the rest of the ginger juice and sake on the pork slices.
4. When you're ready to cook the pork slices, lightly sprinkle with flour. It prevents the pork from drying up and keeps the juices inside the meat.
       If the pork slices are paper thin, which is less than ⅛ inch (3 mm) thick, you do not need to dust with flour.
To Cook the Pork
1. Preheat a large frying pan over medium-high heat. When the pan is hot, add the oil. Then, add the pork slices in a single layer, turning them over once the bottom is golden brown. Cook in batches so the meat sears properly instead of steaming in an overcrowded pan.
2. When the pork is no longer pink, transfer to a plate. Make sure not to overcook the pork at this stage as we will continue to cook it in the sauce later.
3. Once you've removed the pork, add more oil to the pan (especially if your pan is not non-stick) and add the onion slices.
4. Sauté the onion slices on medium heat until golden brown, about 6-8 minutes. When onion slices are tender and translucent, add the pork back to the pan.
5. Stir the sauce one last time and pour it over the pork. Bring the sauce to a simmer and spoon it over the pork for about 2 minutes. Season with freshly ground pepper to taste (optional).
6. When the sauce has thickened, the ginger pork is done. Transfer the ginger pork to a serving plate and enjoy.
To Store
1. You can keep the leftovers in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days or in the freezer for a month.
Nutrition
Calories: 361 kcal · Carbohydrates: 11 g · Protein: 40 g · Fat: 13 g · Saturated Fat: 3 g · Polyunsaturated Fat: 5 g · Monounsaturated Fat: 4 g · Trans Fat: 1 g · Cholesterol: 112 mg · Sodium: 758 mg · Potassium: 734 mg · Fiber: 1 g · Sugar: 6 g · Vitamin A: 1 IU · Vitamin C: 2 mg · Calcium: 17 mg · Iron: 1 mg

Bit more work but mouthwatering.

1st step: Salt pepper and fry them both sides good brown.

Then take a saucepan and fry an onion or two and 2-3 cloves garlic "slight brown"
add water to it and then the (thick cut) pork chops including the jus and brown pieces which usually stick to the pan.

To make it hunter style chuck some (a lot because I love them) chanterelles or button mushrooms to it

Add to taste more salt, pepper, Bay leaves, allspice (is important) and a little sizzle of nutmeg to the end.

Let it slow cooking for an hour and serve with mashed or boiled potatoes and red cabbage...

Even kids will gnarling the last bit of the bones...

To thicken the gravy use starch and not flour. Flour usually steals the taste..

This is a bit of a flavor outlier in this thread, but this is one of my favorite ways to make a sirloin or shoulder pork chop.

I make a really dark caramel with about 1/3 cup of sugar and same amount of water in a small pan. When it's dark amber, I add about the same amount of fish sauce and a couple of sliced shallots and stir until it dissolves and smoothes. I start a hot skillet with a little oil to crisp the pork chops and then pour the caramel over the pork and just cook them through - they don't take long and you don't need to get much color since you have the sauce to caramelize them.

I usually also make cabbage slaw with chiles, cilantro, and rice vinegar/lime juice  and serve it all with rice.

There are some recipes for this online, search "fish sauce caramel" and you'll find a lot, but they tend to be a little more complicated than this one which is a really simple go-to for me. My version is based on Nước Màu / Vietnamese caramel sauce (although I wouldn't say mine is in any way an authentic representation) so if you want to get a better idea of the concept, Andrea Nguyen is a great resource (and has a video on caramel sauce here:

Trim fat, dry off and dip in eggs and then bread with crumbled Ritz crackers mixed with just a bit of Lawrys seasoning salt.  Do 2 layers of breading and then oven bake on a rack over a pan till the meat reaches temperature at the core.  The double layer of breading holds the moisture in.