Slow-cooker pork chops in onion gravy
275 min · 47 g protein · 539 cals / serving
Thick pork chops browned with paprika, garlic and thyme, then slow cooked over potatoes and carrots under a heap of golden onions until they are fork-tender. The onions and juices become a glossy, savoury gravy with a spoon of Dijon and a dash of cider vinegar. Twenty-five minutes of work after lunch, the whole dinner waiting four hours later, and leftovers that reheat in their gravy.
Ingredients
- 1 1/3 lb small yellow potatoes gold potatoes, peeled or scrubbed, quartered into 3 cm (1 1/4-inch) pieces
- 4 medium carrots, in 2.5 cm (1-inch) chunks
- 1 1/4 tsp salt, divided
- 4 boneless loin chops, 2.5 cm (1 inch) thick (about 1 1/2 lb) center-cut pork chop, fat trimmed
- 1 1/2 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 2 tsp canola oil
- 3 large onions, thinly sliced
- 3 cloves garlic, sliced
- 1 1/2 cups chicken broth
- 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 1 bay leaf
- 3 tbsp cornstarch
- 3 tbsp water, cold
- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
To serve
- 2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
Steps
- Put the potatoes and carrots in the slow cooker (5.5 litres / 6 quarts or larger) in an even layer and sprinkle with a pinch of the salt.
- Mix the paprika, garlic powder, thyme, 3/4 teaspoon of the salt and the pepper and rub it over both sides of the chops. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat and brown the chops 2 minutes a side, then lay them on the vegetables.
- Add the onions and the rest of the salt to the skillet and cook 6 minutes, stirring, until soft and golden at the edges; add the garlic for the last 30 seconds. Pour in the stock, stir in the mustard and scrape up the browned bits, then pour it all over the chops so the onions sit on top and the liquid reaches the vegetables underneath. Tuck in the bay leaf.
- Cover and cook on LOW for 3 1/2–4 hours (or HIGH for 2–2 1/2), until the potatoes are tender and the chops are tender but still juicy, well past the safe 145°F; start checking at 3 1/2 hours, as lean loin chops dry out if left much longer.
- Lift the chops and vegetables onto a platter and keep them covered. Pour the onions and juices into a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Stir the cornstarch into the cold water, whisk it in and simmer 2 minutes until thickened into gravy (or whisk it into the cooker on HIGH, covered, for 15 minutes). Stir in the vinegar and taste for salt.
- Spoon the onion gravy over the chops and vegetables and scatter with parsley. It keeps 4 days in the fridge with the chops sitting in their gravy; reheat covered until steaming. Freeze only the chops and gravy (up to 3 months), as the potatoes turn grainy.
Good to know
Can I leave it all day?
Not with lean loin chops: past about 4 hours on LOW they turn dry and stringy. For a 5-hour cook use bone-in shoulder (blade) chops, as Cook's Country does; they are fattier, which is what lets them take the time. Thin chops under 2 cm dry out at any length, so buy them thick.
Can I skip browning the chops and onions?
You can put everything in raw and it will still be tender, but the gravy will be pale and sweet rather than deep and savoury. The browning is the 10 minutes worth spending.
A green vegetable?
Steamed green beans or broccoli on the side, cooked while the gravy thickens, make it a full plate.
Alternative
Per
- Calories
- 84
- Protein
- (36%)
- 7 g
- Fat
- (26%)
- 2 g
- Carbohydrates
- (38%)
- 8 g
- of which sugar
- 2 g
- Fiber
- 1 g
- Sodium
- 188 mg
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Computed from the ingredients with our published formula, not yet kitchen-tested. How
As written, 2158 kcal goes into the pot and 2712 g of ingredients comes out as about 2560 g of food: 84 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water and energy density is the score's biggest lever, so the dish is scored as cooked, not as an average of its parts. Every ingredient links to its food page, with the same data and score. The label's percentages are each macronutrient's share of the calories. The full formula.