Hearty Homestyle Pork Chops

Why This Hearty Homestyle Pork Chops Works

At the start, the flour coating gives the pork chops a light crust in the hot oil. That crust holds in some of the juices while the outside browns. Browning in the pan also leaves tasty bits stuck to the bottom, which later mix into the sauce. The chops are only browned, not cooked all the way, so they stay ready to slowly soften in the slow cooker instead of drying out in the pan.

After the pork comes out, the onions and garlic go into the same skillet. As they cook, they soften and pick up the browned bits from the bottom. Once the broth, cream, Worcestershire, thyme, and bay leaf go in, the liquid turns cloudy and slightly thick. The flour left in the pan and on the chops starts to swell and thicken the sauce as it heats.

During the long, low cooking in the slow cooker, the pork slowly relaxes and becomes tender. The creamy sauce seeps into the meat instead of boiling away. By the time it is done, the chops are soft enough to cut easily, and the sauce has thickened into a smooth gravy that clings to the meat.

Mistakes To Avoid

Letting the pork chops go into the slow cooker without a good browning first leaves them pale and a bit rubbery. The flour coating never really sets, so the sauce turns pasty instead of slightly thick and silky around the meat.

Starting with very high heat and burning the outside of the chops in the skillet causes trouble later. The dark, almost burnt crust turns bitter in the sauce, and the meat inside still tightens up in the slow cooker and ends up tough instead of tender.

Pouring cold cream straight into a very hot pan and cranking the heat can make the sauce split. The fat pulls away from the liquid, so instead of a smooth gravy, the slow cooker fills with a thin, oily sauce with little white specks.

Skipping the onion and garlic sauté and just tossing them in raw means they never soften properly. They stay a bit sharp and crunchy, and the sauce in the slow cooker tastes flat and uneven, with stringy onion pieces instead of a mellow, blended gravy.