RECIPE: Rec: Smothered Pork Chops This is for anyone who remembers the old-style pork chop that was

RECIPE:
C

curious1

Well-known member
braised and tender. It's a bit like the Italian-style pork roast cooked in milk. I had my doubts about the two hours, but these came out just so good and they were cut-with-a-fork tender. I halved the recipe using two chops. The milk appears curdled like it does in the Italian dish, but can be wisked together at the end and makes a delicious gravy. We enjoyed them with boiled baby red potatoes, the skillet-roasted brussels sprouts I've posted before and a salad with greens, julienned apple, sweet onion, Stilton and toasted walnuts. Yum! Recipe is from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Saving Southern Recipes.

Smothered Pork Chops

6 center-cut loin pork chops, trimmed of excess fat

1 to 2 teaspoons seasoned salt

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

2 tablespoons butter

1 large onion, finely chopped

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 cups whole milk

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1/4 teaspoon dried marjoram

1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley

Instructions

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Sprinkle chops well with seasoned salt. In an ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat, add oil. Add chops and brown quickly on both sides. Remove chops and set aside.

In the same skillet, melt butter. Saute onion until it begins to brown. Stir in flour. Add milk and whisk to combine. When smooth and creamy, add salt, oregano, marjoram and parsley and stir to combine.

Return chops to pan and stir to combine. Cover and bake for 2 hours or until very tender, stirring gravy 2 or 3 times to combine.

http://www.ajc.com/food/content/shared-blogs/ajc/southernrecipes/entries/smothered_pork.html

 
You mean there's actually a formal recipe for smothered pork chops?

Who'd a thunk it. It's just a southern style of cooking them. Most folks just wing it.

I use chicken broth and apple juice as the liquid, rather than the milk. And slice the onions thinly, rather than chopping.

Given the amount of liquid, two hours at that temperature can't hurt anything. But I don't cook mine nearly that long. Just about 40 minutes or so, at 350.

 
I follow the 2-hr rule, use 4 large sweet onions, and finish with heavy cream.

This may explain why I finish off the dish with an apértif of Zocor.

 
Thanks Curious, this is a new one for me and it sounds right up my alley.

I love this place!

If this is a "classic" regional cooking method, I'd imagine it would be similar to meatloaf where each region or household has their own method for prep.

 
Yes, I've made smothered pork chops as you describe and was raised on pork chops with

milk gravy. The idea of making the milk gravy as they cook was new to me. They were the most tender chops I've made with the "new and improved" pork. There are recipes out there for about anything. Isn't it nice we have a place to share them?

 
My husband's formal recipe is throw mush soup on chops after browning. That's what he

knew how to make before I came along. I've always found them to be so dry inside.

So since you recommend this, I think I'll have him try it.

I do Marcella's pork roast in milk (Milanese style, I think). My husband now starts gagging if anything is even slightly dry, i.e. must be soaking in goop, so it's not an encouraging prospect. No chicken breasts, no cookies without milk, cereal only if turned to mush. So we haven't had pork chops in about 4 years. You do give me hope though.

 
When I was a kid we NEVER had pork chops; they were too expensive. . .

my mom always bought pork shoulder steaks and "smothered" them. They were never called "smothered" but "pork steak with gravy and boiled potatoes" and were one of my dad's favorites.

The recipe was simple:

Brown pork steaks quickly in big frying pan a little oil, at least 1 per person (these were usually about 1/2 inch thick). I say big frying pan because there were both my parents and 5 hungry kids in our family!

Drain fat from browning pan, leaving drippings. Place steaks in pan and pour in just enough water to come to the top of the uppermost of the meat. Lay a thickly sliced onion separated into rings atop the meat and water, and perhaps add garlic, minced or garlic powder. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a bare simmer and cover tightly. Cook very slowly till tender. Remove the meat to a warm plate and thicken leftover juices as desired and season with salt and pepper. Replace meat in gravy and bring back to the boil briefly and then serve.

We always ate this with boiled quartered potatoes in their jackets, which we would mash on our plates with our forks and then run the gravy over all. Always had a green lettuce-tomatoe-cucumber salad with mayonnaise dressing. (the mayo dressing was mayonnaise thinned with milk and seasoned with Accent, garlic and onion powder)

 
Mistral, I'm curious to know about how long the cooking time was. Thanks. I'm just

beginning to discover steaks now. They didn't exist here before.

 
Though my mother cooked great Italian cooking but her pork chops were pork chop jerky

Her porkchops were: steam them for 30 minutes- then bread and fry them - then bake them, needless to say it was pork chop jerky. Believe it or not it took me years to like them again once I realized they could be cooked a different way.

 
Gee, I could not tell you how logn she cooked them, she just. . .

My mom just cooked them till they were tender. As they were pretty thin, I would guess they cooked in under 2 hrs, but she kept them on the stove over very, very low heat longer than that. I remember that the meat would fall off the bone and you could separate mouth-sized bites with your fork.

 
Sounds like my sister's ex-husband: my sister went to cook pork roast for dinner one night. . .

and he said "NO Way1" because he hated roast pork. He had only had the roast pork his mom used to make and it was incinerated jerky.

My sister conned him into trying her roast pork (which my mom had taught us all how to cook) and he loved it. The next time he mom tried to get him to eat some of her roast pork, he told his mom that he didn't want any because she just didn't cook it like his wife did!

 
This sounds great Curious, I'm going to make it tomorrow. Can anyone tell me>>>

if it would be ok to use fresh oregano and marjoram in place of the dried? I know to use double of fresh to what is called for of dried but would it not work as well because of the long cooking time? My herbs just don't get used often enough and I like to use them when ever I can. TIA

 
You could also put in a bundle of the herbs tied with a string at the start,

the long cooking will mellow the flavor but it will still add to the sauce. Then add minced herbs toward the end as Ang suggests.

 
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