The best kinds of meals at our house start with a hearty piece of meat. This is wonderful and healthy because if you don’t build your meal around protein you are bound to forget it altogether. Protein is the building block to every single cell of the body and without it, we won’t feel satiated.
When switching to a healthier diet in an effort to save money and buy organic fruits and vegetables some people skimp on the meat, by either eating only very small amounts of it or buying the cheapest option. This seems to make sense since organic fruits and vegetables can be obtained at a cheaper price than organic meat but if you’re focused on food quality you may want to switch this up.
Meat and animal fat (such as the liquid fat that rendered off of these pork chops that I cooked) supply your body with building blocks, and vital nutrients like vitamin D, and A, and omega 3s IF they come from a properly raised animal. You need these nutrients to make you full and satisfied, create happy hormones, give you healthy hair, skin, and nails, decrease pain and inflammation, and regulate hormones.
If you source your meat from conventional animals-raising operations you aren’t getting any of these nutritious benefits and the meat will be contaminated with hormones and toxins. Because these toxins are so invasive to the body and cause hormone imbalances and inflammation it is more effective to buy properly raised animal products (meat, eggs, milk) and skip the organic vegetables (and buy conventional instead) if your budget dictates that you must choose one or the other.
Now that you know why pasture-raised pork chops are beneficial to your health, enjoy this succulent recipe and picture all those good fats and proteins supplying life-boosting nutrients to all the cells of your body!
Pork Chops and Apple Sauce
2 large pork chops (large would be cut at about 1-inch thickness) or 4 smaller ones (this would be about half-inch thickness). Small pork chops are about the size shown in the picture above.
1 large yellow onion
3 cups chunky applesauce (unsweetened)
Your favorite dry rub seasonings ( I had a pre-made, homemade, mix that consisted of salt, pepper, red pepper, garlic, and onion powder)
Heat a cast-iron skillet with a few tablespoons of cooking fat (bacon grease, lard, ghee, or coconut oil).
2. Slice the onion in 1/4 rings and add to skillet
3. Place pork chops on a plate and rub both sides with a generous amount of seasoning. This could be as simple as salt and pepper. Just something to bring out the flavor.
4. When the onion has cooked until translucent, push them to the side of the pan and add the pork chops.
5. Cook pork chops on medium heat, uncovered, for about half your total cooking time. For small chops, your total time may be only 10 minutes and larger ones may be up to 30 minutes. My chops were cut at 1-1/2 inch thick so they took quite a while to cook. Add more cooking fat if chops are sticking to the pan. Keep onions piled on top of and around the chops, rather than burning to the bottom of the pan.
6. The goal is to cook the chops to about 150 (145 with a 3 minute rest time is the safe range for cooking pork) add 1 1/2 cups of applesauce at halfway cook point (this was about 20 minutes in for me). Smother the applesauce on top of the pork chops.
7. Let cook for 5 minutes and then flip chops. Add the rest of your applesauce.
8. Periodically check the temperature at the thickest section of your chops until they have reached 145-150 degrees.
9. Remove pan from the stovetop and let rest for 3 minutes before serving.
Notes: If you have thick-cut farm-raised pork chops you may have a lovely thick piece of fat lining one side of the chop. If this didn’t completely melt in the cooking process feel free to slice it up and eat it with the meat. Or you can save it for later and melt it in a pan before frying eggs. Either way, it’ll add flavor and nutrition to this meal or your next!
Serve pork chops hot with all of the mushy onion and apples from the pan piled on top!
