Smothered Pork Chops in Country Gravy

Son of a Southern Chef

My family loves fried pork chops just about any way you serve them. Most of the time I don't add gravy, preferring a crispy crust over the saucy gravy, but my husband will take any opportunity to lick his plate clean when we have a good sauce. (At home only, he does have manners!) It was a good day for him when I finally figured out how to make delicious gravy without a recipe. If that's something you still struggle with, this is an easy, flavorful recipe to help you learn. I thought it had a nice cajun flavor, but with no heat. We served it with rice to soak up the extra gravy!

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[00:00]: [Music]
[00:04]: hello and welcome to cooking the books
[00:06]: with heather today
[00:07]: we're going to be making smothered pork
[00:10]: chops
[00:10]: in country gravy from lazarus lynch's
[00:14]: son of a southern chef cookbook have it
[00:16]: all set up right here i have i
[00:18]: think all of my ingredients ready this
[00:21]: is
[00:22]: pretty pretty simple recipe it all comes
[00:24]: together
[00:25]: in one pan on the stove so
[00:29]: we're gonna have this for dinner i
[00:30]: already have some green beans
[00:32]: cooking and some rice to go with it
[00:36]: very standard southern uh thing to serve
[00:39]: with a smothered pork chop is some rice
[00:41]: to
[00:42]: take some of that gravy
[00:45]: i have my cast iron pan
[00:49]: heating on medium high
[00:52]: it's getting pretty hot with a little
[00:54]: bit of he says canola oil i'm using
[00:57]: grape seed oil because that's
[00:58]: generally what i use for a neutral
[01:01]: vegetable oil
[01:02]: and we're going to make the dredge for
[01:04]: the pork chops i've got just
[01:06]: some all-purpose flour right here i'm
[01:09]: going to add
[01:10]: this is time i didn't measure it
[01:14]: but it's fresh thyme uh picked from the
[01:16]: stem
[01:17]: and then roughly chopped
[01:22]: so there's that he also says a couple of
[01:25]: extra sprigs but i didn't see anywhere
[01:27]: in the recipe where he used it so i
[01:28]: didn't bother
[01:30]: but i can always go get some i grow it
[01:32]: um in a pot
[01:33]: on the deck i have some garlic
[01:36]: powder and then we have some
[01:42]: seasoned salt and he does suggest at
[01:45]: such as
[01:45]: lowry's and that just happened to be
[01:47]: what we have so
[01:49]: mine is a little oops
[01:54]: a little bit clumpy so i'm gonna try to
[01:56]: get some of the clumps out
[01:59]: with my fork as i mix this
[02:02]: into my flour so we're mixing this up
[02:07]: just so we can
[02:09]: um drink our pork chops in it
[02:12]: before we fry them and
[02:16]: one second
[02:20]: he says to use a shallow dish and i
[02:23]: had an interesting time finding one that
[02:25]: would
[02:27]: also fit my large pork chops so
[02:31]: uh but before we use this we're going to
[02:34]: separate we're going to take
[02:35]: out some of it about two tablespoons
[02:39]: to use
[02:42]: as a thickener for our gravy
[02:45]: so there we go this is oh this is
[02:48]: starting to um
[02:52]: starting to smoke a bit
[02:55]: so i turn my heat down just a little
[02:57]: i'll probably turn it up when i'm ready
[02:59]: to put stuff in here
[03:00]: so we have four
[03:04]: pork chops bone in with he said
[03:08]: one half to three quarter inch thick so
[03:11]: not
[03:11]: super thin but not super thick either
[03:15]: and i'm going to dredge these
[03:19]: in this flower
[03:22]: your hands are really the best tool for
[03:24]: this
[03:27]: and just make sure they get coated
[03:32]: and yes i make a mess when i do it but
[03:35]: we're making sure it gets all coated
[03:37]: and then shake off as much as you can
[03:40]: and we're going to put this i'm going to
[03:42]: turn this heat back up
[03:44]: we're going to put it in our skillet and
[03:46]: we're gonna fry it he says
[03:48]: for uh
[03:52]: until golden brown on both sides four to
[03:54]: six minutes now
[03:56]: we are not cooking this in the gravy
[03:59]: or just serving the gravy on top of it
[04:01]: so this is the only cooking that these
[04:03]: get
[04:05]: so we are going to make try to make sure
[04:08]: that they are
[04:09]: done although you do not have to cook
[04:11]: pork until
[04:12]: it is you know a super high temperature
[04:16]: and dry
[04:17]: so we'll try not to do that
[04:20]: there we go i'm only gonna be able to do
[04:22]: two at once
[04:24]: but i'm gonna go ahead and get and get
[04:26]: my other ones
[04:28]: dredged while i wait for those
[04:32]: but we're gonna wait about four to six
[04:35]: minutes
[04:37]: before we
[04:41]: turn them so i might turn my heat down
[04:44]: just a tad
[04:47]: i don't want to burn them and burn them
[04:49]: on the outside and undercooked on the
[04:50]: inside is never a good idea
[04:55]: but if i can get these all dredged i can
[04:58]: wash my hands and then
[04:59]: not have to worry about that
[05:04]: so it's been four to five minutes and i
[05:07]: split them in the pan one time just um
[05:11]: 180 degrees because it felt like
[05:15]: this one side wasn't getting as
[05:18]: much heat so we're turning them over
[05:21]: they look
[05:22]: golden brown and delicious
[05:25]: and we're going to do the same thing on
[05:27]: the other side
[05:29]: and we're going to keep going uh when
[05:31]: this is done we're just going to put the
[05:33]: other two in here
[05:35]: uh when they look like this pretty much
[05:38]: on the other side
[05:39]: i've got a plate that i've kind of
[05:42]: heated up a little bit in the microwave
[05:44]: and i usually just
[05:46]: that's my way to keep things kind of
[05:49]: warm
[05:50]: uh while i finish my meal
[05:53]: you can also just put aluminum foil over
[05:56]: top
[05:57]: to tense it kind of keep them warm like
[05:60]: i said we are not
[06:02]: cooking these uh in the gravy at all
[06:04]: we're just going to serve them like this
[06:06]: with gravy on top
[06:07]: so you just want to keep them warm until
[06:09]: you're ready to serve
[06:11]: so we're just going to keep cooking our
[06:14]: pork chops and then i'll be back when
[06:15]: it's time to
[06:16]: make the gravy
[06:22]: my last two pork chops are done and
[06:26]: let me take them out real quick so
[06:35]: turned off my heat just for a second but
[06:37]: i realized i completely forgot pepper
[06:40]: in my dredge but that's okay
[06:43]: we're gonna try to oh we're supposed to
[06:44]: wipe out as much of this as we can but i
[06:46]: maybe don't have enough paper towels
[06:49]: one second so we're just getting most of
[06:52]: the oil out of here
[06:54]: and any burned bits
[06:58]: that's very hot um and
[07:01]: we're going to just turn it on to medium
[07:03]: heat
[07:04]: [Music]
[07:05]: and i've got some unsalted butter
[07:10]: that we're going to melt here and we're
[07:11]: going to add some onion i probably have
[07:14]: a little bit
[07:15]: more vegetables than he calls for but
[07:19]: it'll be okay
[07:21]: um these are just sliced
[07:24]: this is bell pepper i had a red one he
[07:26]: says use whatever color you like
[07:31]: and we're just going to cook these until
[07:33]: the vegetables are tender
[07:35]: and softened um about five minute pieces
[07:40]: we'll see if they get tender and
[07:42]: softened in that time for me
[07:43]: i usually find that i have to cook
[07:46]: vegetables a little bit longer than
[07:48]: recipes
[07:49]: say but we'll see
[07:54]: okay it's been about i don't know seven
[07:56]: minutes at five minutes i felt like it
[07:58]: wasn't quite done but we are going to
[07:59]: cook this some more so
[08:01]: now we add a little bit of salt and
[08:03]: pepper
[08:05]: to this and i'm going to add a little
[08:07]: extra pepper since i completely forgot
[08:09]: to add it to
[08:10]: my flour mixture so i'm going to put a
[08:13]: good hit of pepper on this
[08:21]: there we go and now we also add
[08:26]: we also add the leftover the
[08:30]: reserved flour mixture that we made i'm
[08:33]: just going to sprinkle it over top
[08:38]: and we're supposed to whisk this
[08:42]: until it sort of forms a paste
[08:48]: basically get the flour and the butter
[08:51]: to make friends
[09:04]: there we go the flower is all sort of
[09:07]: covered in butter
[09:08]: so it doesn't look like just pale
[09:12]: dry flour and we're going to
[09:15]: cook this until it is a
[09:18]: deep brown let's see what he says
[09:21]: um deep golden brown
[09:26]: um about five minutes
[09:29]: about five more minutes we'll see what
[09:31]: it looks like okay i think
[09:32]: i think it's been about five minutes
[09:35]: maybe four
[09:36]: but um a pan my cast iron is not 100
[09:40]: nonstick and some of the flour is
[09:41]: sticking and it looks nicely golden
[09:43]: brown and i don't want it to burn
[09:45]: so we're going to move on and next step
[09:48]: is to add some
[09:50]: he says low sodium chicken broth i've
[09:52]: just got
[09:53]: what i usually have and i'm gonna pour
[09:56]: this
[09:57]: in here
[10:01]: and whisk it in
[10:04]: because we don't want you don't want
[10:06]: that flour to lump
[10:07]: up so i'm going to whisk it in and try
[10:11]: to get everything up off of the bottom
[10:13]: of the pan
[10:14]: [Music]
[10:16]: and we're going to cook this for two to
[10:20]: three minutes
[10:20]: until wait two or three minutes
[10:25]: no we're gonna we're just gonna stir
[10:27]: this for a little bit
[10:30]: until we know that we've got the flower
[10:33]: all incorporated
[10:39]: and i don't feel any more
[10:42]: bits sticking to the bottom
[10:49]: there we go and now i'm going to stir in
[10:52]: just a little bit of heavy cream
[11:03]: [Music]
[11:11]: now he says to turn it down to medium
[11:13]: low
[11:14]: [Music]
[11:16]: and let it cook stirring occasionally
[11:20]: until the sauce has thickened
[11:25]: to your liking i assume uh
[11:28]: and he says two to three minutes so
[11:32]: two to three minutes we'll show you what
[11:33]: it looks like all right it's been like a
[11:35]: minute and a half and it's not boiling
[11:37]: not simmering i'm gonna turn it back up
[11:40]: so much back up to medium heat
[11:44]: and then i'm gonna just watch it until
[11:47]: it is done to my liking so
[11:49]: then we'll show you i had to turn mine
[11:51]: up quite a bit
[11:53]: and boil it for a while before
[11:56]: my gravy got to a thickness that i
[11:58]: prefer now
[12:00]: i know that i like my gravy a little bit
[12:03]: on the thick side
[12:05]: but it was going to take forever
[12:08]: to get anywhere near thickened
[12:11]: on my stove at a medium
[12:14]: high heat or medium-low heat so yeah i
[12:17]: turned it up quite a bit so here's where
[12:19]: we are
[12:20]: this is a little still thin for me but i
[12:22]: think it will be fine as
[12:24]: it cools it thickens a bit so you never
[12:26]: want to go super thick while it's hot
[12:28]: but
[12:29]: there we go uh i think it actually took
[12:32]: more like 10 minutes or so
[12:34]: um with everything before the gravy was
[12:37]: where i wanted it so
[12:39]: uh that's the end of our smothered pork
[12:43]: chops
[12:43]: in country gravy and we'll let you know
[12:45]: what it looks like in just a second
[12:55]: of cooking the books with heather you
[12:56]: watched me make smothered pork chops in
[12:59]: country gravy from lazarus lynch's
[13:02]: son of a southern chef cookbook
[13:07]: this is actually a relatively easy main
[13:10]: course
[13:11]: uh dish that you can make sort of in one
[13:13]: pot
[13:16]: and it's a very southern kind of thing
[13:18]: having pork chops with gravy
[13:21]: i don't usually make my pork chops that
[13:23]: way although
[13:24]: i'm sure my husband would very much
[13:26]: appreciate if i did it is something he
[13:28]: likes
[13:30]: the as far as the gravy that
[13:33]: pork chops with gravy that i've had here
[13:35]: um since i don't make them myself that
[13:37]: much
[13:38]: the bell pepper is a little bit
[13:40]: different um
[13:42]: definitely onion in the gravy but i'm
[13:45]: not
[13:46]: as familiar with the bell pepper in the
[13:48]: gravy
[13:50]: and it sort of gave it a little bit of a
[13:53]: new orleans cajun sort of
[13:57]: feel to me i don't think it's
[13:59]: particularly like that but since
[14:01]: you always get the bell pepper with the
[14:04]: the holy trinity or whatever they call
[14:06]: it
[14:08]: in cajun you know with this which is
[14:10]: like onion
[14:11]: and bell pepper is the third one i don't
[14:15]: garlic
[14:16]: maybe i don't remember it's usually
[14:18]: carrot
[14:20]: celery and onion but i know that
[14:23]: it's bell pepper is part of the
[14:26]: cajun trio
[14:29]: so that kind of gave it a little bit of
[14:31]: a cajun feel to me
[14:33]: my uh my pork chops were really very
[14:36]: large for a single serving for us
[14:40]: but they were really delicious and we
[14:42]: all very much enjoyed it uh and even had
[14:45]: a little bit of gravy left over
[14:47]: i would suggest serving this with
[14:49]: something like rice where you can put
[14:50]: the gravy on it because that was
[14:51]: really delicious um but yeah it doesn't
[14:54]: really require
[14:55]: anything special he does request you
[14:57]: know say to
[14:58]: make this in a cast iron skillet but you
[14:59]: could make it in any
[15:01]: um large skillet that you have and it
[15:04]: would be
[15:05]: perfectly fine um so yeah
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