Pork Chops With Onion Gravy

By Sam Sifton

Updated March 3, 2021

Pork Chops With Onion Gravy
Heami Lee for The New York Times. Food stylist: Maggie Ruggiero. Prop stylist: Rebecca Bartoshesky.
Total Time
1 hour
Rating
4(891)
Comments
Read comments

This is a no-recipe recipe, a recipe without an ingredient list or steps. It invites you to improvise in the kitchen.

Start with the pork chops, as many as you need, on the bone if possible. Dredge them in flour that you’ve mixed with chile powder, salt, black pepper, smoked paprika and red-pepper flakes, or with Lawry’s seasoned salt or Old Bay seasoning or any spice you like, really. (Save what’s left of the flour; you’ll use it later.) Then sear the chops, in batches if you have to, in an oil-slicked Dutch oven or heavy cast-iron pan, over fairly high heat. You want a big, flavorful crust on the meat before you braise it with the onions, to enhance the taste of the sauce and provide a little texture. Set the seared chops on a platter. Throw away what oil is left in the pot, and wipe out the pot. Return it to the stove, and set over medium heat. Add some butter, and when it melts and foams, use it to sauté an enormous number of sliced onions, allowing them to wilt and soften and almost start to go brown. Sprinkle a scant handful of the leftover dredging flour over the onions, then keep stirring for a few minutes to dampen the rawness of the flour. Add about half an inch of chicken stock (or water) to the pot, along with a bay leaf, perhaps, then stir to thicken. If the sauce is too thick for your liking, add a little more liquid. Nestle the pork chops into the sauce, remove from heat, cover the pot and put it into a 350-degree oven for 45 minutes to an hour.

While the pork cooks, make the mashed potatoes, with hot milk, melted butter, plenty of salt and enough lemon zest to give them a real brightness. So: pork, gravy, potatoes. I like some hearty sautéed greens moistened with chicken stock. Maybe a drizzle of red-wine vinegar too? You’ll know what to do when you get there. This is not a recipe. It’s your dinner. Make it however you like.

Sam Sifton features a no-recipe recipe every Wednesday in his What to Cook newsletter. Sign up to receive it. You can find more no-recipe recipes here.

  • or to save this recipe.

  • Subscriber benefit: give recipes to anyone
    As a subscriber, you have 10 gift recipes to give each month. Anyone can view them - even nonsubscribers. Learn more.
    Subscribe

  • Print Options

Advertisement

Ratings

4 out of 5
891 user ratings
Your rating

or to rate this recipe.

Have you cooked this?

or to mark this recipe as cooked.

Private Notes

Leave a Private Comment on this recipe and see it here.

Comments

Nancy

I agree with Juliet Jones that we don't all have chicken or beef stock sitting around ready to use in small quantities. Opening a can, using half of it, and throwing the rest of it away 4-5 days later seems like a waste. Bouillon cubes are great. Even better, I think, is the jarred "Better Than Bouillon" (BTB); it has a very long refrigerator life, now comes in many flavors (chicken, beef, ham) including Low Sodium, and can be used to produce any amount of broth, small or large. I swear by it.

NHW

I make a similar dish but add apple slices to the onions near the end (not too soon or they turn to mush) and do the whole thing on the top of the stove in a covered pan rather than in the oven. You can also add a splash of white wine or apple cider just near the end to give it a bit of acid brightness. I finish it off with a few twists of the pepper grinder.

Juliet Jones

Bouillon cubes don't ever seem to get much of a mention here in the Times recipes, but I use them a lot when chicken stock or chicken broth is called for. (After all, who has "half an inch" of chicken stock sitting around waiting to be used?) Just dissolve one of those small cubes in a Pyrex jug of boiling water.

Susigaj

I thought the chops were dry. After 45 minutes in the oven the internal temp was way over 160 degrees. The onion gravy was good though. If I make it again I'll cook for much less time.

arlyn

1/8/25: aka Smothered Pork chops in Sifton’s book. I used 3 TJ boneless pork chops and one large yellow onion, 45 minutes in oven at 350*.

Elizabeth

I added lots of spice to the flour mix, garlic powder, onion powder, pepper, chili powder and japanese chili mix. I also used 2 cloves of garlic after the onions were caramelized. After the pork chops cooked i added about 1/8 of a cup of half and half to the gravy and served with mashed potatoes.

Private comments are only visible to you.

Credits

Adapted from “The New York Times Cooking: No-Recipe Recipes” (Ten Speed Press, March 2021) by Sam Sifton

Recipe Tags

Advertisement

or to save this recipe.