Recipe: Apple Cranberry Stuffed Pork Chops

Fall seems like the perfect season for pork chops. For some reason, we don't eat much pork.  A&P had a big sale on pork a few weeks ago so we decided to get something porkish and try out a new recipe, Apple Cranberry Stuffed Pork Chops from  All Recipes.  I'll copy the original recipe, which was for 5 people (so 5 pork chops) here just in case the recipe disappears from that website (that doesn't usually happen, but sometimes it does; there's been a few recipes there that I wanted to make again, but could not find):

INGREDIENTS

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/8 yellow onion, minced
• 1 Granny Smith apple - peeled, cored and diced
• 2 stalks celery ribs, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 5 (1 inch thick) boneless pork chops
• 1 cup apple juice
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a Dutch oven, melt 1 tablespoon butter over medium heat. Cook onion in butter until the onions are very soft and begin to brown. Remove from heat. Stir in apple, celery, and dried cranberries. Season with salt.
3. Lay each chop flat on cutting board, and with a sharp knife held parallel to the board, cut a pocket into the pork, leaving three sides intact. Stuff each chop with apple-cranberry mixture.
4. Melt remaining butter in the Dutch oven over medium heat. Pan-fry chops in butter for two minutes on each side. Cover, and bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes.
5. Transfer chops from pan to a plate, and cover with foil. Place the Dutch oven back on the stovetop over medium heat. In a small bowl or measuring cup, stir together apple juice, cornstarch, and brown sugar; pour into Dutch oven. Reduce liquid volume by half, stirring frequently. Season to taste with black pepper. Serve this apple glaze over pork chops.

I used the allrecipes option to calculate the recipe for 4 servings (so we could have it 2 nights).   Visuals!

We have a Dutch oven, but I felt like using the cast iron skillet.  I really feel like I'm cooking something when I use cast iron.  Here's my apple-cranberry reduction.  I thought it a little thin so I added a little corn starch.  I think I added a bit too much - it was a little thick and I think the corn starch dulled the taste of the reduction - so next time I would be a little lighter handed with the corn starch.
 

   

The pork chops apres stuffing:

 

Side view of pork chops:

 

Angle shot of pork chops with reduction and sides:

 

Aerial shot:

 

There's nothing like a yam, I always say.  Always.

We were thinking of making this for the next time we host Third Saturday Dinner, but Carol beat us to it with her delicious version of stuffed pork chops.  Grrrrr.  Ah well, we have a few other things up our sleeves.

We also bought a roast during that sale.  Now we just have to figure out what to do with it.  Suggestions welcome!