I hope everyone had a wonderful stuffing-filled Thanksgiving, I know I did. I also know that I am really, really sick of turkey. Tonight's dinner called for the other white meat, pork. Pork chops if you want to be specific.
I bring you, Apriorange Pork Chops.
The Check List.
Is it not turkey? Yes.
The beginning
After being home for a glorious week of free food and family, coming back to Philly for two weeks of papers and finals was a hard transition. I found myself on the first night mooching dinner off of The Boyfriend and I realized that this just wasn't going to do. After digging through my freezer, I found some severely freezer-burnt (I guess I forgot about them) pork chops and then found a delicious sounding recipe to save them, from this fantastic blog. Time to bring my taste buds back from the dead!
The characters
4-6 pork chops (I used 4 large ones)
1 12-oz jar of apricot preserves
1 heaping tbs of brown sugar
Salt and pepper to your liking (I like A LOT of pepper)
1/2 heaping tsp of cinnamon
1/2 heaping tsp of ginger (sense a theme? hint...heaping)
1 11-oz can of mandarin oranges
Fun fact: it took me 20 minutes to open up that stupid jar of preserves but I was able to channel my inner strong man and open it. I then made a victory speech.
Fun fact #2: I forgot to thaw these out so they are partly frozen. I put them in hot water to break them apart... I also had to protect these like they were a topic secret artifact from the cat.
The plot
You ready for this extremely intense process? Just kidding. Spray your crock pot with some cooking spray and place in your pork chops. In a small bowl add the apricot preserves, brown sugar and spices. Mix it all up and dump it on top of the pork chops. Add the can of oranges along with the juice on top of the apricot-mixture covered pork chops. Cook on low for 7-8 hours.
Be sure to spray your crock pot before putting in the pork chops. It helps for an easier clean up.
Don't be alarmed at how unappetizing the preserves look
HEAPING tablespoon of brown sugar
Add your spices...in heaping amounts...
... and stir. Again, don't be alarmed at how gross that looks.
Spoon on top of pork chops
And dump the entire can of oranges +juices on top of everything.
"What do you mean it's going to take eight hours?"
Fun fact #3: angels were singing when I took the lid off
The conclusion
I feel like I say this every time.... but wow. The Boyfriend said that it was his all-time favorite, and I have to agree. Although it tasted just fine dousing everything in the juices, I think I might make gravy next time if I'm feeling creative. I served this with rice and a sweet potato (it was on its way out the door). A++
Moral of the story
Pork > Turkey
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