Momma's Pork Chops

What comes to mind when you think about home cooked meals?  Do you think green bean casserole? Red beans and rice?  Sunday roast?  I think about my mom's pork chops.  Since I come from a large family, finding a dinner that we all liked was difficult.  We had several favorites: roast beef with rice, turkey and gravy (which for some reason we called "Munchkin Meat"), and these pork chops.  My Mom always worked so hard to make meals that we liked and wanted dinner time to be family time.  I didn't realize until I was older how rare sit down dinners were to other families.  I will always appreciate my Mom taking the time to make dinner every night, so thank you, Mommie!  It brought us all together and created so many memories.  These pork chops are super easy and made with non-intimidating ingredients.  It is a perfect meal  for someone who is new to cooking and wants to blow their spouse away!  These are my Momma's Pork Chops:

Momma's Pork Chops

Delicious smells fill my kitchen.  I begin to reminisce over old memories of family dinners, saying Grace, stumping Dad with things we learned at school, chewing with our mouth open, drinking our milk, and thanking Mom for making dinner.  

Eww... mom, not Brussels sprouts!!  Actually, my mom never made us eat Brussels sprouts, but I wanted to give it a try.  Matt has always disliked anything "cabbage-y."  That sounds like a challenge to me!

I removed the outer leaves that had yellowed slightly.  The large sprouts, I cut in half and the small ones, I left whole.

I preheated the oven to 400 degrees then tossed the sprouts with salt, pepper, and olive oil. 

I placed the sprouts cut side down initially to brown the bottoms.

After about twenty minutes, I flipped the Brussel sprouts.  Look at the beautiful brown color that has developed!

I let the sprouts roast for another 10-15 minutes.  This allowed the sprouts to develop a fantastically rich taste for such a disliked veggie.  You really should give it a try.  If you don't like Brussel sprouts this way then you just plain don't like them.  Btw... if you are wondering, Matt did like them!

While the Brussels sprouts are roasting, measure out 1 cup of rice.  I chose brown rice, so I used a little over 2 cups of water to cook it in.

Now that everything else is cooking, it is time to get to Momma's pork chops!  Take about 1/2 a cup of flour, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp of garlic powder, and 1/4 tsp of black pepper.  

Mix everything together on a plate.  This will be enough to coat four pork chops.

I used bone-in pork chops because that is what Momma used.  The bone adds flavor to the meat and keeps it juicy.  Pork has a tendency to dry out if it cooks too long.  I have found that the bone-in kind stay juicier, but for my dear friends that don't eat meat off the bone, feel free to use boneless pork chops.

Place each pork chop in the flour mixture

And coat it lightly on each side of the chop.

Heat 1 TBSP of olive oil in a large skillet to medium high heat.  

Cook the pork chops on each side for about four minutes until they are cooked through.  

Remove the chops from the pan and let them rest on a plate.  See all those yummies at the bottom of the pan?  That, my friends, is called flavor!

Yay!  Rice is done!  Dinner is almost ready.

Take your rice and add it to the pan you cooked the pork chops in.  Stir the rice and scrape up all of those brown bits off the bottom of the pan.

Serve up your delicious Mom and kid approved meal.  This meal brings back so many memories to me, and I hope it inspires you to create a few of your own.

Ingredients

Brussels sprouts:

1/2 lb of brussels sprouts

1 tsp of salt

1/2 tsp of pepper

1 TBSP olive oil

Rice:

1 cup brown rice

2 1/4 cup of water

1/2 TBSP of butter

Pork Chops:

4 bone-in pork chops, trimmed of fat

1/2 cup of flour

1/2 tsp of salt

1/2 tsp of garlic powder

1/4 tsp of pepper

1-2 TBSP of olive oil

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Wash and trim your Brussels sprouts of any yellow leaves.  Cut the large sprouts in half and leave the small ones whole. Place them on a cookie sheet and toss with olive oil, salt and pepper.  Put your sprouts cut side down and place the cookie sheet in the oven.

Boil the 2 1/4 cups of water and add the rice and butter.  Cook until tender.

While the sprouts and rice are cooking, start working on your pork chops.  Bring your olive oil to medium high heat in a large skillet.  On a plate mix the flour, salt, pepper, and garlic powder.  Coat each pork chop in the flour mixture and add the chops to the hot oil.  Cook the chops for about 4 minutes on each side or until they are just cooked through.  Remove the chops from the pan and allow them to rest.  Take your rice and add it to the pan you cooked the chops in.  Stir the rice and scrape the brown bits from the bottom of the pan.  Enjoy!!