I had two good reasons to make Smothered Pork Chops, a great price on some lean pork chops and a new caste iron skillet. I have to be honest, I have never used a caste iron skillet before. Caste iron scared me for some reason because it had to be seasoned and never washed like my normal pots and pans. I'm a soap loving girl, but you do not wash caste iron with soap. They recommend that you just give it a good brushing (I also used coarse salt) and then dry it well and apply some oil. Easy enough, but I stayed away anyway. So I finally took the plunge and bought a Lodge brand skillet. My newly purchased skillet sat in it's packaging for 2 months before I decided to use it on these pork chops. Once the skillet got fully heated, it browned my pork chops beautifully. I also made the smothered gravy and served it right in the skillet because it looks so nice. This is a very southern style dish and you can eat it with mash potatoes and your favorite vegetables. I'm proud to say this curry girl has conquered her caste iron fears and my beautiful new skillet (once used) is sitting (oiled) and waiting for me to use it again. :)
PS...If you don't like pork, you can easily substitute chicken in this recipe. :)
Ingredients:2lbs of lean pork chops (you can use bone-in or boneless)
3/4 cup of all purpose flour
Seasoning Salt ( I like Lawry's)
Lots of black pepper
1/2 tsp of dried thyme
1/2 tsp of granulated garlic powder
2 cloves of fresh garlic minced
1 onion sliced
1 bell pepper diced (frozen is good too here)
2-3 cups of milk
Butter, margarine and canola oil as need to fry.
Directions:
Mix your flour with some garlic powder, seasoning salt and black pepper. Dust your pork chops in the seasoned flour.
Add 2 Tbs of canola oil and 2 Tbs of butter to your pan and brown your chops. If you have a lot of thin chops like I did here, you will have to do it batches. Add more oil as necessary. Once browned and cooked, set pork chops aside to make the gravy.
Add more oil and butter to the pan and saute your onions, fresh garlic and bell pepper. Then season with seasoning salt, dried thyme and lots of black pepper.
To make the gravy, add your leftover seasoned flour (I used all of it) to the pan. Cook for a minute so the raw taste of the flour cooks out.
Then add your milk to the pan and stir or whisk until you get all the bits from the bottom of the pan and the ingredients to come together into a smooth gravy. Taste for seasoning. The gravy should be thickened up now and seasoned to your taste.
Then place all your pork chops into the pan and "smother" it with the gravy. Cook on medium-low for
5-7 minutes to give the pork chops some time to soak up some of the gravy flavor.
Serve immediately with some mash potatoes or cornbread stuffing, biscuits and vegetables. Enjoy.
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Mix your flour with some garlic powder, seasoning salt and black pepper. Dust your pork chops in the seasoned flour.
