Chef's notes:
I remember the first smothered pork chop I ever tasted. It was in a makeshift restaurant in rural Georgia near Savannah. It was such an odd little restaurant that had I not been with my friends from the area, I would have never known it was there. I remember the smothered pork chop was bone-in and cut pretty thinly. I think that actually tasted better than the thick ones. A thinner-cut pork chop is nice and crispy when fried. Man, was it good. I can’t remember much else about the smothered pork chops, but they were tasty. I wanted to try and make some myself, so I came up with this recipe. It came out pretty well, too, so check it out.
Ingredients
- 3 bone-in pork chops
- 3 Tbsp all-purpose flour
- 1 Tbsp of seasoning salt
- 4 Tbsp butter
- 2 Vidalia onions, sliced thinly
- 2 cups chicken stock
Pork Chops Dredged and Pan-Fried in Butter then Smothered with Sweet Vidalia Onion Gravy
- Pick up some pork chops. I wanted to do this recipe with a thin-cut pork chop, but it seems they can be difficult to find. So, I used these, which were just under an inch thick. They worked just fine. If you can find thinner ones, try this recipe out and take a couple photos to send to me!
- Lightly flour the pork chops. Mix up your flour and seasoning salt, and dredge the pork chops in it. You may want to do this just before you fry them, but if you do it ahead of time, you can always re-dredge them if they get soggy in spots. The flour is there to get crispy and keep the meat from getting too crispy. Reserve the leftover flour and seasoning salt mixture; there should be about two tablespoons in total. This will serve as the thickener for the gravy in step 5.
- Fry the pork chops in butter. Melt the butter in a medium frying pan over medium-high heat. Once the butter begins to brown a bit, add the pork chops to the pan. Once the pork chops get nice and brown on the first side, flip them over and brown the other side. Remove them to a plate and set aside for later.
- Fry the onions and deglaze the pan. For this recipe I used Vidalia onions because I really love saying the word “Vidalia.” Plus, smothered pork chops being a southern thing, I reckoned it would be good. Which it was. If you can’t get your hands on Vidalias, try some sweet yellows or Walla-Walla onions.
- Finish cooking the pork chops and finish the gravy. After the onions have cooked down to a light-brown paste, add the remaining flour mixture that you saved from dredging your pork chops. Stir the flour mixture into the onions until it’s all absorbed. Then deglaze the pan with the two cups of chicken stock. Stir until thickened. Add the pork chops back to the pan and cook for two more minutes. Serve and enjoy!
Tips & Tricks
- The pork chops that I used for this recipe were pork loin chops. Another pork chop that would taste really good would be a pork shoulder chop/steak. Plus, they often cut those thinner, and they are usually more tender because they are dark meat.
- Trimming the fat off the sides of the chops is up to you. If it’s an especially thick chop, you may want to trim it. The thinner stuff should be just fine as it will crisp up nicely in the frying pan.
- Make sure to cook the onions down until they are broken down and browned. I should have cooked my onions longer, but I was really hungry.
- If the gravy needs to be thicker, sprinkle a little flour over the top while whisking. Same goes for salt and pepper levels.
Seasoning Salt Recipe
- ½ tsp paprika
- ¼ tsp garlic powder
- ¼ tsp onion powder
- ¼ tsp celery salt
- ¼ tsp turmeric
- ¼ tsp cumin
- ¼ tsp marjoram
- 2 tsp salt
