Baked Stuffed Pork Chops

                                                                    

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Best Ever Stuffed Pork Chops

Sometimes the meals that I just throw together in a hurry end up being some of the tastiest.

Tonights dinner was one of those times.

I often take meat out of the freezer in the morning with no idea what kind of main dish they are going to end up as for dinner. This afternoon I decided that stuffed pork chops would be a nice change.

Tonight's quandary - how do I make stuffing when I don't have a slice of bread in the house?

I was just too lazy to stop at the grocery store, so I figured, something else would inspire me

when I got home and checked out what I had on hand in the pantry.

I opened the door and what to my wondering eyes should appear, but an open bag of

seasoned salad croutons. I could make that work for sure! So I threw some celery and onions in a saucepan with some butter to saute them, and then added some beef broth and threw in the croutons.
In my search for the "bread" item, I came across a bag of dried cranberries too. I tossed them in as well  thinking that the tartness would be a nice flavor addition to the stuffing.

I had great forethought when I froze the chops, and they were already prepped with the pocket cut in them. I seasoned them with a "house" seasoning blend of kosher salt, fresh ground black pepper and garlic powder and browned them  on both sides in an oven safe frying pan lightly coated with olive oil.

I then removed the chops from the pan and drained the excess liquid, stuffed the chops with my newly created stuffing and returned them to the pan. The pan was then placed in a 350 degree oven for roughly 30 minutes.

Served with a side of  PW's Cream Mashed Potatoes (They were leftover from Christmas and frozen. For the record they are just as tasty reheated) and some green beans.

The end result was simply amazing.. quite possibly "The Best Ever Stuffed Pork Chops".

Ingredients:

4 Thick sliced Pork Chops (approx 1") with pocket cut in center

1/4 cup diced onion

1/4 cup diced celery

2Tbs butter

1 to 1 1/4 cup beef broth (can sub 1 beef bullion cube with 1 cup water)

2 + cups Seasoned Salad Croutons or bread cubes

1 small handful dried cranberries

2 tsp poultry seasoning

2 tsp salt

2 tsp ground pepper

1 tsp garlic powder

I Tbs olive oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

In small saucepan, melt butter and saute onion and celery until soft. Add beef  broth and bring to boil. Remove from heat and add croutons or bread cubes. Mix well. Mixture should be moist, but not mushy. If too dry add more broth, if too wet, add more bread.

In medium oven safe frying pan* add olive oil and preheat on med high. Season chops with salt,pepper & garlic powder. Brown in pan approx 3 minutes per side until golden. Remove from pan and carefully stuff with bread mixture. Be careful, chops will be hot on outside. Return to pan and place in oven for approx 30 minutes until pork is cooked through.

Enjoy!