NOT Your Average Stuffed Pork Chops

Why are these NOT your average stuffed pork chops?

#1 only 2 out of 5 people in our house like  bread stuffing

#2 everyone in our house loves CHEESE. 

#3 extremely inexpensive since almost every ingredient came from Aldi

Ingredients:

1- pork loin - It gave me 10 thick pork chops 

(one isn't shown as I set it aside for my youngest)

1- package of mushrooms (any kind) diced up

1- package of your favorite kind of finely shredded cheese

2 tablespoons of minced garlic & more for rubbing on the loin

(you can add less if you aren't a garlic fan or more if you are an extreme garlic lover)

2 tablespoons of minced onion

(if you don't have any, you can always use onion soup mix, JUST THE ONIONS)

1/2 stick of butter

olive oil

salt and pepper -season to taste

1 clove of garlic, peeled but whole (not shown)

skewers (not shown)

If you have never made stuffed pork chops before, please check out my post "How To Stuff A Pork Chop".  It will give you step by step directions on how to make the pocket, fill it, and close it  up. 

Step 1: I rubbed the whole loin with some minced garlic.  Again, this is a preference as to how much you want to put on it.  I also salted and peppered the loin.  

Step 2: Cut the loin into 1 1/2 inch thick chops. Set aside.

Step 3:  Dice up your  mushrooms

Step 4: On medium heat, put some olive oil into a frying pan

Step 5:  add in the mushroom, garlic, and onions cooking until soft

Step 6: When the mushroom mixture is done cooking , put in a bowl and add in the cheese.  The hot mixture will melt the cheese beautifully. Our stuffing is done! Set aside.

Step 7 : Stuff your pork chops! (if you don't know how, please check out my post with step by step directions.)

Step 8 : Heat up a non-stick frying pan on medium high.  You are going to want to SEAR the outside of the chops.  Set your oven to 350 degrees and have a baking dish sprayed and ready.  In the the frying pan add 2 tablespoons of oil and half of the butter.  Put the garlic clove in.  I could NOT find my clove of garlic, so I had to use minced garlic....I do NOT suggest that.  They burnt!   The clove is one piece to flavor the butter/oil mixture.  If it burns, you can take it out and replace it.  Not that easy with many pieces of garlic! Add more butter as needed.

Now place a few chops in the pan trying to get the sides to lay as flat as possible to get a good sear.

You want to tilt the pan so you can use a big spoon and ladle the hot butter/oil mixture over the side of the chop.   This helps cook the other side while the one side is searing.  Do this for about a minute, checking the other side to see if it is seared enough.  **REMEMBER**  You are not FULLY cooking the chop at this point.  Just searing the sides for the chops to be baked, keeping all the juices inside.

Look at that beautiful sear! 

Step 9 : After each chop is seared, put IMMEDIATELY into the baking dish.  When all the chops are in, bake for about 15 minutes.  Take one out to check, if there is no pink, it is done. If there is some pink, but back in the oven for 5 minutes at a time. 

I had to use two dishes as they were so big!  My second pan (2nd picture) shows alot of the stuffing that came out.  They were still juicy and good though! 

That is it!  I hope you will try my "NOT Your Average Stuffed Pork Chop" recipe!  If you do, let me know!