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Mustard Pork Chops With Crispy Cabbage

Source of Recipe

Linda Sue's Site (take a look, she has a great picture of this)


Recipe Introduction

This is a level 1 pro/fatIt's an excellent recipe and as always, my notes are at the end as I do have my tweaks. Thank you Linda Sue!

Recipe Link: www.genaw.com/lowcarb/mustard_porkchops_with_cabbage.html

List of Ingredients

1 medium head cabbage, about 27 ounces before trimming
5 tablespoons butter, divided
Salt and pepper
6 thin bone-in pork chops, about 1 1/2 pounds *
1 tablespoon oil
1 cup chicken broth *
1/4 cup heavy cream
2 1/2 tablespoons grainy mustard


Recipe

* Deb's tweaks are at the end *

Melt 4 tablespoons of the butter. Cut the cabbage into 1-inch wedges making sure to keep the core intact on every wedge. See the photo below. You may lose a few of the lose outer leaves that aren't attached to the core. Place the cabbage on a baking sheet and brush with half of the melted butter. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Turn the wedges over and do the same on the other side using the rest of the melted butter. Roast at 450º until the cabbage is browned around the edges, about 20-25 minutes.

Meanwhile, pat the pork chops dry with a paper towel; season with salt and pepper. Heat the oil and remaining tablespoon butter in a large skillet over high heat. When the butter stops foaming, brown half of the pork chops in a single layer, 2 minutes per side. Remove the chops from the pan and keep warm while browning the remaining chops. Remove those chops as well and keep warm.

Discard the fat in the skillet; add the broth, cream and mustard and bring to a boil, scraping up any browned bits. Whisk until smooth and simmer until reduced and slightly thickened. Add the pork chops and any juices that have accumulated and simmer until the sauce is thickened a bit more or to your liking. Pour the sauce over the pork chops and serve with the cabbage. The mustard sauce doesn't reheat well.

Makes 6 servings

* I used boneless loin chops only because I had some on hand. Bone-in chops shouldn't come out as dry as mine did. I suggest using low sodium broth or your sauce will come out very salty.

This is from Cook's Country magazine and it didn't need any tweaking to make it low carb. I changed the cooking method a little. They told you to blend the sauce ingredients while the pork chops were in the skillet. I thought it would be much easier to blend it before adding the chops back to the pan. I don't see how the mustard could have been blended in very well with those chops in the way. This has a nice flavor but my sauce came out too salty because I used Better Than Bouillon instead of homemade chicken broth. I would also have liked it much better if my pork chops hadn't been quite so dry. Click the photo to see a close-up.

I also tweaked the cabbage recipe a little. They only said to butter and season one side of the cabbage and I wanted mine to be seasoned on both sides. I had to add another 2 tablespoons of butter so I'd have enough to brush on the other side. I also thought I'd be able to flip it over halfway through the baking time, but it fell apart when I tried to do so. That didn't hurt it, it just made it look a bit messy. I won't attempt to turn them next time. I like the way the roasted cabbage tastes. However, it doesn't get crispy as the name suggests except for the parts that get really black. So, don't expect it to come out crispy but you do want to get it nicely browned, just not black.
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Deb's notes: I make this pretty much to recipe. I *double* the sauce as we like to have enough to put over the roasted cabbage too. I do use bacon grease to brown the sliced loin pieces, I like the flavor it gives to the dish and the sauce.

I lay out the cabbage (see Linda Sue's picture on her site of cabbage ready to go into the oven) and only butter 1 side - this is just fine. I used French's Bold & Spicy mustard as it's what I have on hand.

I also use half and half (not level 1) as this is what I have on hand. It does thicken, it just takes a little bit ~ about 3-5 minutes. Don't let it get too thick.