Pork Chops in Apple Glaze

The other night we had pork chops for the first time in ages. In fact, it had been so long since I’ve made them that I couldn’t remember how. So I did a bit of recipe sleuthing on-line to get the basic idea (brown in pan then cover and bake to a temp of 145 F). I settled on a recipe for “Foodie Fun Apple Pork.” Of course I had to GAPSify it a bit, though. I served them up with rutabaga smash & spicy kale. The results were amazing!

So amazing, in fact, that we ate twice as much as I’d expected. To add insult to injury, someone who shall remain nameless scraped what I’d left on my plate into the compost. It was at least a quarter of my delicious pork chop, with sauce I had carefully refrained from eating so that I might enjoy it tomorrow!!! Yeah, I’m still hurting over that one.

Pork Chops in Apple Glaze

You’ll want to use a dutch oven or heavy cast iron skillet with a lid for this recipe. I have two cast iron skillets that go together to form one dutch oven, so I browned my chops in each pan, then combined them all when it was time to bake.
Ingredients:

• 2 4-6 oz pork chops per skillet
• 1 large onion
• 2 small apples
• 1 cup homemade stock – I used chicken In early GAPS stages always use the same kind of stock as meat
• 

  Pork browning in the pan

  2 large cloves garlic
• 1 Tbsp honey (optional)
• salt
• pepper
• lard or ghee if your cuts aren’t very fatty

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F
2. Slice your garlic into thin pieces.
3. Put a bit of your fat in the skillet, on medium to medium-high heat.
4. 

   All three pork chops in the big skillet with the apples and onions

   Rub garlic all over one side of the pork, then sprinkle salt and pepper on it liberally. Place in the skillet with the coated side down. Do the same to the top side of the pork, leaving the garlic on it this time.
5. Brown for 5 minutes, taking care not to allow the fat to smoke, then flip each piece of meat over and brown for another 5 minutes.
6. While the pork is browning, peel, core, and slice your apples, and slice up the onion
7. Transfer your pork to another dish and keep warm.
8. Put your onions and apples in the skillet you used for the pork, and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until they are soft. Add stock and honey and reduce until the liquid is nice and thick and the onions and apples are very soft.
9. Transfer the pork chops back into the skillet and cover.
10. Put the skillet in the oven and bake for about 20 minutes or until the internal temperature of the pork is 145 F. Be careful taking the lid off to check for doneness! I steam burned my hand several times. Ouch!

This post is part of Fat Tuesday, Slightly Indulgent Tuesday, Traditional Tuesdays, Hearth & Soul Blog Hop, Allergy Free Wednesdays, Real Food Wednesday, Gluten Free Wednesday, Full Plate Thursday, Pennywise Platter, Simple Lives Thursday.

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