Smothered Pork Chops
This flexible, "no-recipe" recipe from The New York Times Cooking is classic, American-style comfort food; melt-in-the-mouth meat cooked in a rich, deeply savoury sauce. Serve it with steamed rice and wilted greens for a rainy day feast.
From the book
The New York Times Cooking: No-Recipe Recipes
Flavour-focussed meal suggestions from the editor of NYT Cooking
From weeknight pasta dishes to warming casseroles
Designed to encourage your creativity in the kitchen
Introduction
This is a bulwark against bad weather, one of the great rainy-day feasts. I like it with rice and sautéed greens. And I’m sorry, but if you don’t have a Dutch oven, one of those big, heavy numbers in which you can burble beans, bake bread, and make gumbo and stew, I really think you ought to get one. This recipe practically depends on it. You’ll have it the rest of your life.
Ingredients
| Flour | |
| Your favourite spices | |
| Pork chops | |
| Neutral oil | |
| Butter | |
| Onion | |
| Chicken stock | |
| Bay leaf |
Essential kit
You will need: a Dutch oven or casserole dish
Method
Mix some flour with spices—chile powder, salt, pepper, smoked paprika, red pepper flakes, or with Lawry’s seasoned salt or Old Bay seasoning. Dredge your chops in this mixture and sear them off in an oil-slicked Dutch oven, reserving the remaining dredging flour, until they’re crisp at the edges and brown. Set the chops on a plate. Dump the oil and wipe out the pot. Add some butter and sauté an enormous amount of sliced onions. When the onions wilt and go soft, add a few tablespoons of the leftover dredging flour and cook, stirring often, for 5 minutes or so. Add chicken stock, about a half inch deep, and a bay leaf and stir, then add the pork chops, which will sink into the onion and sauce. Cover the pot and put it in a 350°F/175°C oven for 45 minutes to an hour.
