Pork Chop with Apple-Pecan Stuffing
What’s for dinner?? The inevitable question pops up frequently. Sometimes I don’t have a clue. I hate getting into a cooking rut… cooking things I don’t have to think about that are quick and easy. It’s not that this pork chop recipe is difficult, in fact you can substitute 1/2 teaspoons of dry herbs for fresh so there’s less chopping. It’s easy to vary the recipe each time you make it. I love to throw in a handful of dried cranberries into the stuffing from time to time for a little added tart.
Ingredients
2 thick-cut pork chops (1 1/2”)
½ cup of panko bread crumbs
½ cup scallions, finely chopped (3 scallions, with green tops)
2 garlic cloves, minced
½ an apple, minced (Fuji or Gala), skin intact or peeled
½ cup pecans, chopped
¼ tsp fresh ground pepper
¼ tsp sea salt
½ tsp dry mustard
2 sprigs each of thyme, oregano and marjoram, leaves removed from stems and chopped
2 tab unsalted butter
2 Tab extra virgin olive oil (depends on absorbency of bread crumbs)
kosher salt and fresh ground peeper to taste
1/3 cup of chicken stock
1/3 cup of dry white wine
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Dry pork chops with paper towel and make a pocket, slicing horizontally into chop to bone. Melt butter, add olive oil and mix.
In a medium bowl, combine bread crumbs, pecans, apple, scallions and seasoning then mix. Add butter/olive oil mixture slowly and mix with fork. – if it’s too dry, add a little more olive oil. Stuffing should be crumbly but not mushy. Fill each pocket with as much stuffing as it will hold. Season each side with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper.
Heat an oven-proof skillet over medium-high heat. Drizzle a little olive oil in pan – just enough to coat it. Carefully place pork chops in pan and brown 2 minutes each side. Turn off heat. Add any leftover stuffing over pork chops and then add chicken stock and white wine to pan. Cover loosely with foil and place in oven. Cook for approximately 45 minutes, basting chops with juices every 10 – 15 minutes.
