Daddy’s Bad to the Bone Pot Chops
This savory dish is quick and easy to prep if you get all your ingredients together at once. This uses my DAN’s Sweet Garlic Meat Rub™ if you’ve got it.
Servings Prep Time
6people 20minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
5hours 4hours
Servings Prep Time
6people 20minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
5hours 4hours
Ingredients
Main Dish
Rub Mixture Substitute
Instructions
  1. Place DAN’s Sweet Garlic Meat Rub™ or rub mixture substitute into a one-gallon zipper bag or combine in the bag salt, pepper, and brown sugar to taste, enough to cover the pork chops like Shake-n-Bake.
  2. Shake the chops, one at a time, in the bag for an even coating…not too heavy. Either cook immediately (see next steps), or place in a shallow baking sheet, cover and refrigerate overnight. The advantage to doing it the night before s you don’t have to remember in the morning and the flavor is richer, deeper. As it sits overnight, the glaze will melt and will give you a great sauce for adding later, so don’t freak out when you see it the next day.
  3. Heat butter (2 tablespoons at least, more if you want!) in a pan over medium-high heat (Resist the temptation to do them on high). Sear both sides of the pork chops to a golden brown, max 3 minutes per side. We’re not trying to cook them all the way through, just lock in the flavor.
  4. Do not put the pan in the sink…you need that yummy pork chop drippings for something coming up. Add the chops to the crock pot. They can overlap, but don’t stack directly on top of each other.
  5. Add 1 tablespoon of butter to the pan in which you seared the meat, and then add the sliced onions. Cook the onions, stirring regularly, until they start to brown.
  6. Add the liquid from the pan the chops were in overnight if you have it. Stir well for about two minutes.
  7. Stir in the thyme.
  8. Stir in the rosemary and cook for another few seconds until the whole mess smells super good – max of about a minute if you’ve been stirring constantly.
  9. Add the chicken broth. Stir to combine.
  10. Stir in apple cider.
  11. Stir in soy sauce.
  12. Add Worcestershire sauce, stirring to ensure all ingredients are well distributed.
  13. Stir everything to combine into a yummy soup you’d scarf down if nobody were looking, taking the time to scrape the meat pieces and char off the bottom of the pan.
  14. Pour all that heavenly nom-nom over the chops in the crock pot.
  15. Cover and cook for 4 hours on low.
  16. Create a slurry out of the corn starch and water.
  17. Remove the chops from the crock pot, but keep them handy because they are going back in. Try grabbing the entire chop with tongs, as they will be tender enough to fall apart.
  18. Whisk the cornstarch and water mixture into the cooking brew that is in the crock pot.
  19. Put the chops back into the crock pot and cook on high until the sauce thickens and the chops are pull-apart-tender, about 30 – 60 minutes – or until you can’t stand it anymore. You can add more of the cornstarch mixture if you don’t think the sauce is thick enough, but it will thicken in the pot and as it cools.
  20. Serve directly from the crock pot – no need to be fancy dirtying up a platter.
  21. Serve with (Instant is fine) mashed potatoes (or if you have time and thought ahead, Daddy’s Twice Roasted Garlic Parmesan Potatoes), rice, veggies, or whatever you like with pork chops. There will be plenty of gravy!
Rub Mixture Substitute
  1. Play around with the salty, pepeery, and sweetness of these ingredients to find your favorite combination. You want a sweet rub, but not overwhelmingly sticky…we’re not pressing the rub on, just powdering the chops. As a hint, start with a 1/4 cup of sugar, then add salt and pepper to taste (proably a tablespoon of each to start), adding some of each ingredient until it is what you like. Once you know the ratios, then you can create as much as you like…which will probably be more than this recipe calls for because you are going to LOVE the simplicity of the ingredients that make such a full-flavored rub. These are the primary ingredients to DAN’s Sweet Garlic Meat Rub™ and we just went from there. Always some on our shelf!
Recipe Notes

I substituted vegetable stock for chicken stock because I was out of chicken stock. It helps to know what ingredients you have on hand!

To be honest, I also added some Kosher salt and pepper to the mixture before adding it to the crock pot over the chops. I hadn’t tasted anything, but my gut told me there was going to be some needed. Turns ut I was right, but that’s just my taste.

Below are pictures from the whole process. We went a little overboard on the images for adding the corn starch slurry…

Enjoy, and let me know your thoughts below.

The gravy was superb on the mashed potatoes. It wouldn’t work well on my Daddy’s Double Roasted Garlic Parmesan Potatoes, though they would be a fine side-dish for this. The peas were also my special Parmesan Peas…which don’t take much to do in the microwave.

This recipe is floating around elsewhere online. It’s just my take on it, trying to make it friendly for the ManHusbandDad.