Smothered Pork Chops

I picked up some of the huge pork chops from Family Harvest. I wanted to try to recreate the smothered pork chops that The Captain and I had at Farmhaus earlier in the spring, except with thicker, meatier chops. Here's what I came up with:

Smothered Pork Chops
1/2 cup flour (I used a white whole wheat)
1 tablespoon paprika
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning (I used Penzey's Tuscan Sunset)
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
olive oil
medium onion, diced
10 mushrooms, sliced
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 cups chicken stock (I used a home made roasted chicken stock)

Preheat oven to 350. Mix the flour and spices together.


Reserve a couple of tablespoons of the flour/spice mixture.


Prep the vegetables.

Put a saute pan on medium heat. Pat the pork chops with paper towels and place them in flour mixture. Get them coated and shake off excess.

Add enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan and cook chops on the first side for about 5 minutes or until the crust is nice and crispy and releases from the bottom of the pan without leaving its crusty deliciousness behind. Cook for 5 minutes on the second side and remove chops to a paper towel lined plate.

Add onions, mushrooms and garlic to the chop pan and cook for a couple of minutes. If you need additional oil, add some. Add 1 tablespoon plain flour and 2 tablespoons of the reserved seasoned flour to the pan. Cook until the flour browns and forms a crust on the bottom of the pan. Whisk in chicken stock.

Put chops back in the pan and cover with the mushrooms, onions and gravy. Cover pan and place in heated oven for 30 minutes.

I served it with mashed potatoes and asparagus. I realize asparagus season ended long ago here in MO, but I was craving a green veg. My green beans don't seem to want to produce in the 100 degree weather, and the green beans at the store didn't look too hot, so yes, I bought some asparagus that has probably travelled more extensively than I have this year, but DON'T JUDGE ME. :)

Look at the size of the chop on my plate!

A glamour shot:

The meat was incredibly tender. You would think that me and The Captain would have had some leftovers because of the size of these things, but they were so good we ate it all. Mmmm gravy!