Brown Butter Pork Chops with Apples and Onions

Take pork chops out of the fridge and set them on the counter on a plate. Preheat oven to 425 F.

Prepare onions and apples. Heat a large cast iron skillet over medium heat. Once skillet is warmed up add the olive oil.

Season pork chops liberally with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper, making sure to get some on both sides.

Once oil is nice and hot (shimmering but not smoking), carefully add pork chops. Let the chops brown for 2-3 minutes without moving. After the 2-3 minutes, flip chops. Nestle apples, onions, and the 2 cloves of garlic among the pork chops. Brown for 2-3 minutes and then flip again. Brown for another 2-3 minutes and flip again. You are looking to get a nice brown crust on your chops. Toss apples and onions occasionally. Go for one more round of flipping the chops if you don’t have enough color on them after 2 rounds of flipping.

After a nice brown color is achieved, place skillet in the preheated oven. Now here is where the timing gets tricky. You don’t want to dry out your pork chops but you want to make sure to cook them properly. The time it spends in the oven depends on how many times you flipped your chops on the stove and the thickness of the pork chops. After flipping 3 times on both sides my 1 1/4 inch pork chops spent about 7 minutes in the oven. But the time could vary from 5 to 14 minutes depending on the aforementioned factors. You can use a meat thermometer if you like, and take the chops out once they reach 135 F. It will continue to cook in the brown butter and resting stages.

Remove skillet from oven and place on medium heat on the stove. Add 1 tablespoon of butter to the pan. Add the thyme leaves. Cook until butter is foamy, carefully tip the skillet and swirl the butter around to coat the onions and apples. Toss onions and apples. Flip the pork chop to ensure both sides are coated with butter. Cook for 2-3 minutes until butter is brown and smells nutty. Flip pork chops one more time. Remove pork chops and place on a wire rack over paper towels to rest. Rest chops for 5 minutes.

Discard the smashed garlic. Serve with plenty of apples and onions on top.

Recipe adapted from Bon Appétit.