A Pork Paradise

Okay, so I eat a lot of chicken, because it's the lowest calorie protein. As I've worked to lose weight and still provide my body with the nutrients and energy I need, I've turned to other meats. Specifically, the Other White Meat: Pork.

I took a recipe I got from Cook's Country (I love watching their shows on Saturday afternoons!) that used bone-in pork chops and took 1.5 hours in the oven. One and a half hours?!

I don't have time for that. I like to be in and out of the kitchen in less than a half hour. Sometimes that includes cooking time and sometimes it doesn't. But I definitely don't have time to let my chops cook for 1.5 hours.

So I did some modifying for my busy lifestyle. I came up with these breaded pork chops with an onion pan sauce. It's a pork paradise!

Depending on what's on sale at my grocery store, I sometimes use thin-cut, boneless pork chops and do all four (I have four people to feed every night). But if I get a thicker chop like what you see here, I'll only do two.

The trick to eating less is making sure every bite has a ton of flavor. So everything is seasoned, every step of the way.

First, the pork. Get your pan on the stove over medium-high heat with 2 T. olive oil. It needs to be H-O-T before you put in your meat. That's the trick to cooking protein. A hot pan.

While the pan is heating, mix together:
1 T. garlic powder
1 T. onion powder
2 t. celery salt
1 t. salt
1 t. pepper (I always back off on the pepper. It's not my favorite flavor. If you like it, add a bit more.)
1/2 c. panko breadcrumbs

Coat your chops in the seasoning mixture. I use my hands to pack it on, because the bigger breadcrumbs can keep the finer seasonings from adhering.

When the pan is hot, put the chops in. Don't touch them. Don't move them. Let the pan do it's work.

These are quick-cooking, depending on the thickness. For the thin ones, I literally time them for 2 minutes, and then flip them. For these thicker chops, I gave them 4 minutes on the first side, and 3 on the second. 

See what happens when you start with a hot pan and let it do it's work? Golden brown! And brown is delicious.

Remove the chops from the pan. Add 1 T. butter and another splash of oil.

Then add:
1 onion, chopped (I like a smaller onion when I'm eating it, so the size of the chop here is small)
2 cloves garlic, chopped
Season veg with salt and pepper

Cook for a couple of minutes.

Be sure to stir! You don't want the garlic to burn.

Add 1 c. of beef broth and scrape up all the delicious bits from the onions and pork chops. Mix together 1 T. cornstarch with 1 T. water and add to the pan. 

Add pork back to pan (along with any juices that have come out), and cover. Cook for a couple of minutes, or until chops are cooked through.

Slice and serve with your favorite side! This is the broccoli slaw I love.

Deliciousness in less than a half hour!