This recipe is fantastic. I rarely give anything the full amount of stars, but this dish deserves it. It's easy, and there isn't much active time. When we made this last year, though, we decided that the stuffing was not worth making. It adds more active time to the dish, and it doesn't add anything to the flavor. In fact, it distracted from the other yummy aspects of the dish. Make this dish on a nice, lazy fall afternoon.
Stuffed Pork Chops with Roasted Apples and Calvados
When making this dish, we used naturally raised pork, and found that the humane breeding methods—the animals live outdoors on a diet of vegetarian feed free of antibiotics and steroids—yielded meat with more marbling than most supermarket varieties.
Credit: Christopher Hirsheimer
9 small yellow onions, peeled and halved lengthwise
2 stalks celery, trimmed and diced
1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
1 tsp. dried sage leaves
1 cup fresh bread crumbs
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 double-cut, bone in, pork chops
4 cooking apples, peeled, quartered, and cored
1⁄2 cup calvados
1. Preheat oven to 300°. Melt 4 tbsp. of the butter in a large nonstick skillet over low heat. Finely chop 2 of the onion halves and add to the skillet along with the celery, garlic, and sage. Increase heat to medium and cook, stirring often, until soft, 3–5 minutes. Remove skillet from heat, stir in breadcrumbs, and season stuffing to taste with salt and pepper. Use a sharp knife to make a deep pocket in the side of each chop, fill each with a quarter of the stuffing, then close each one with a toothpick. Season chops with salt and pepper.
2. Wipe skillet clean and return to medium-high heat. Brown stuffed chops, 2 at a time, making sure that both sides and the edges get nicely browned, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer chops to a large roasting pan.
3. Reduce heat to low and melt remaining 4 tbsp. butter in skillet. Put melted butter, apples, calvados, and remaining onions in large bowl and season to taste with salt and pepper. Toss well. Increase heat to medium-high, put apples and onions in the skillet, and sauté until evenly browned all over, 8–10 minutes. Scatter around the chops in the roasting pan. Cover pan tightly with foil and roast until chops are tender, about 3 hours. Remove toothpicks before serving.
SERVES 4
Ratings & Reviews (2)
I'm sure you noticed the incredibly long cooking time. Going against every ounce of common sense in my being I did cook them that long - only change was,after 2 1/2 hours, to uncover the roasting pan and raise heat to 400° to brown them a little more. The meat was fork-tender and not too dry. The apples disintegrated after 3 hours, so if you want whole apples you may want to add them later, although you get a sauce this way.
Stuffed Pork Chops with Roasted Apples and Calvados
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