Submitted by Karen Coello.
Serves 6. Preparation 45 mins.
Ingredients:
- 6 1″ thick pork chops (loin chops from the supermarket work okay. Too thick and it takes too long to cook when hungry!)
- 2 Tbsp butter (I use a bit less)
- 2 medium baking apples (Gala works well), peeled, cored and diced
- 10 strips of bacon, diced ( I don’t do this much)
- 1 red onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 4 fresh sage leaves, finely chopped (I’ve used oregano if I don’t have sage)
- 1/4 tsp paprika
- 1 Tbsp lemon juice
- 1 Tbsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
Method:
- Ask your butcher to “pocket” your baking chops. If you need to do it yourself, use a 4-6″ knife and pierce the fatty side of the chop. Wiggle your knife side to side until your “pocket” is about 5″ long and 3″ wide (70% of the chop).
- In a medium pan (we recommend a cast iron skillet or dutch oven), melt butter over medium-high heat.
- Cook apples, bacon and onion until onion is softened and bacon is crispy, about 8 minutes.
- Add garlic, sage, paprika and lemon juice and toss for 2 minutes.
- Remove stuffing from heat, transfer to bowl and set-aside.
- Salt and pepper each side of pork chop, stuff it with as much stuffing as you can fit and use a skewer or toothpick to close and prevent spilling (about half of the stuffing will be leftover).
- Insert pork chops into the hot pan to sear on each side, cook each side of the chops for 5 minutes in hot pan over medium-high heat.
- Transfer pan/dutch oven to 350 degree oven and bake uncovered for 35 minutes.
- To serve, warm remaining stuffing and spoon on top of each chop.
Kaz says:
My daughter insists on doing the job of creating the pockets in the chops and peeling the apples. Another job she insists on doing is stuffing the chops – I do hope that with time she will get faster at this! This recipe is her current favourite. I minimise the oven time by cooking the chops in the pan a bit longer.
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