Baked Stuffed Pork Chops

Having a savory smell wafting through the house on a non-descript cold winter day in February is a welcome treat.  With the smell of apples and pork you just know that there's going to be something great for dinner. What is it about that combination of flavors? Haven't been able to figure it out, but it's magical good and this recipe is great as is . I wouldn't change a thing except maybe to prepare this stuffing for our next Thanksgiving turkey. It's already passed the test with pork and I honestly think it could go famously with chicken or turkey too. My only suggestion is not to use a heavily pre-seasoned stuffing mix like Stove Top. It's just a little too rich for this dish.

Baked Stuffed Pork Chops

1/2 pound Italian sausage (remove if in casing)

3 cups Pepperidge Farm dry cornbread stuffing

1 can chicken broth

1 Granny Smith apple, peeled and diced

1 small onion, diced

1 rib celery, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoon butter

Pepper

8 thin sliced boneless pork chops

Preheat oven to 350F.

Brown Italian sausage over medium heat until cooked and crumbly. Discard all but 1 tablespoon fat in the pan. Using slotted spoon, mix sausage with dry stuffing and can of chicken broth in large bowl.

Pepper both sides of pork chops and place in heated pan used to cook sausage. Cook on each side approximately 3-4 minutes until brown.

While chops are cooking, melt butter in separate pan and saute apple, onion, celery, and garlic. Combine with sausage, stuffing and broth mixture.

When chops are cooked, place in buttered 9x13 baking dish and use ice cream scoop to place scoops of stuffing mixture on top of chops in baking dish. 

Bake 30-40 minutes or until chops are fully cooked (160 degrees on meat thermometer).