Luci's Tasty Adventures

This recipe was inspired from Gourmet Magazine.   I often hear the following complaints: week nights are hard to find the time and energy to cook up a fabulous meal, and the most common complaint is recipe X has too many ingredients that I don't have in my pantry.  I think this recipe is good for a causal cook because most of the items are things all cooks should have in the kitchen.  The only thing I may not have on hand all the time is the cream, but more often then not I have a little jug of it in my frig.  I have scaled this recipe down to serve two people; you could easily double this recipe to feed four.  This recipe is also kid friendly in my opinion.  You could easily cook five pork chops, make the sauce for two and serve the kids chops with apple sauce. 

I'm not sure why or when simple whole food got replaced with processed food.  Processed food usually still has to be heated or doctored in some way or another, and always costs more then whole food.  I'm sure you could buy some processed pork chops for more than double the price of what you would pay to make this meal, and save like 15 minutes time.  Just being a little more organized with your menu planning will save you money and the time won't be an issue.  And don't forget the biggest bonus; you will be eating delicious healthy food vs what you get from the deli counter.

Ingredients:

• 2 pork chops
• ¼ tsp kosher salt
• ¼ tsp black pepper
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 shallot, chopped
• ½ cup crimini or button mushrooms, sliced
• 1 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 1/3 reduced-sodium chicken broth
• 2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
• 1 Tbsp heavy cream
• 1 tsp fresh lemon juice

Method:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees, and position rack in the middle.

Heat a stainless steel sauce pan over medium heat until it is hot.  Pat dry pork chops with a paper towel and sprinkle both sides with salt and pepper.  Add oil to skillet; and the pork chops and brown them.  They should cook for about 5 minutes each side.

















Transfer pork chops to a baking dish, save the skillet and bake uncovered until thoroughly cooked about 7-10 minutes depending on chops thickness.  After they are thoroughly cooked loosely cover them with foil and let them stand for 5 minutes.

In the interim, pour off the fat from the skillet.  Cook the shallot and mushrooms over medium heat till they are soft; about 5 minutes.














Add broth to shallot and mushrooms and bring to a boil; make sure you scrape all the browned bits in the pan.














After sauce has boiled for 2 minutes add the mustard and cream, return sauce to a boil add the lemon juice and simmer the sauce till it thickens, about 3 minutes.  Right before serving stir in butter.












Plate pork chops and smother each chop with the mustard sauce.  Remember it does not take godly amounts of time to cook a homemade meal, it just takes some planning.  Enjoy!