Pretzel Baked Pork Chops

 

I wanted to share another Quarantine Recipe with you today. This one is for Pretzel Baked Pork Chops. I have to say it is simple to make, quick and incredibly delicious! 

My sister brought me over some pork chops and bangers yesterday.  So I decided to freeze one chop and the bangers and cook one chop for my dinner today. My sister and father are so good to me.  I am so blessed.

I had in my cupboard a bag of pretzels. I like pretzels.  Salty and crisp they are a favorite snack of mine. I used to like eating them with Cool Aid (a North American children's drink) but I don't do that anymore.  

I like to think I have grown up. 😊 At least a little bit anyways!

I had Dijon mustard in the refrigerator and some Orange Juice.  I got my thinking gear in action and this is what I came up with.  

I have to say I was really pleased with the results. 

I don't think cooking like this is very hard. This is especially if you have a bit of experience, and if you have a good knowledge of flavours that work well together.

My sister had also brought me some fresh rosemary from her garden.  What to do . . . what to do.  

I recalled this Pork Chop Recipe I had for Oven Baked Breaded Chops. 

Its an old, old recipe from the 1950's that I got from out of one of my mother's old cookery books many years ago. The Martha Logan Meat Cookbook. I thought it would work very well with just a few adaptations.

 

It is a recipe I had copied out by hand from the book many years ago. It was something I made often for my family when they were growing up.  It is delicious. 

I thought it would be very easy to adapt it to what I have here to use in my motel kitchen. I was right! It worked perfectly! 

 

 

One thing I really like about this recipe is the chops always end up moist and tender. Never dried out.  I hate dried out chops.

In the old days, my mother was so afraid of poisoning us that she always overcooked her chops.  Afraid of triconosis disease I think.  In any case, you could have used her chops as boomerangs, the main difference being you would not actually have wanted them to come back!

 

She did her best. I can't fault her. I think everyone over-cooked their pork in those days! It was just the way you did it. For safety purposes. YOU still don't want to cook it so its rare, but a little pink is okay.

These days our pork is much leaner, much cleaner and much healthier. There is no need to overcook it anymore!

 

Pork, red meat, is not something I eat very often.  I mostly eat fish or chicken. When I do eat red meat however, I want it to taste good. 

I thought that the Dijon mustard would make a great barrier between any coating and the chop as well as providing flavour. Because Pretzels can be quite salty, I did not want them to leach any moisture from the chop.

 

I wanted them to stay nice and moist, but I also wanted a crisp coating.  The Dijon did exactly what I wanted it to.

I sprinkled a bit of pepper on top of the Dijon and some of the rosemary my sister had brought to me from her garden. 

You don't need any salt, there is enough in the pretzels.  Pork and mustard go very well together, so does pork and rosemary.

Mustard also goes very well with Pretzels!  I truly was inspired.  At least that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I put the pretzels into a baggie and bashed them with the side of a tin of baked beans.  You  don't want to bash them really fine.  DO leave a bit of texture.

 

I always slash the fatty edges of my chops. This helps to prevent them from curling up.  That way they always cook evenly and lay nice and flat.

I just use a sharp pair of kitchen scissors to snip them.  Thankfully I had brought mine in my suitcase just in case my sister didn't have any.

I need to have my kitchen scissors. I use them for everything. Snipping fat.  Snipping herbs. Spatchcocking birds, etc. They have come in very handy here in my room.

There are no sharp knives, so I have been using them to chop spring onions, cut potatoes, etc. Necessity being the mother of invention and all that.

 

You spread, season, herb, sprinkle the crushed pretzels on one side of the chops, dot with butter and place them into the baking dish. I poured in orange juice just to come halfway up the sides of the chop. 

Then I baked them in a medium high oven.  Just for about fifteen minutes.  After that time you carefully flip them over and repeat the mustard, pepper, rosemary and crushed pretzels.

 

You may need to top up the orange juice. You don't want them going dry. Neither do you want them to be soggy. 

My pork chop went down really well with some leftover potatoes from the other night that I panfried with some Becel, chopped spring onion,  and garlic. I also cooked some frozen beans.  YUM!! Oh how I have missed yellow beans!

Pretzel Baked Pork Chops

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Yield: 1

Author: Marie Rayner

prep time: 5 Mincook time: 40 Mintotal time: 45 Min

Although ingredients and directions are for one chop only, they can easily be multiplied to feed more people. Deliciously simple!

Ingredients

• 1 bone in pork chop per person
• black pepper
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1/2 tsp minced fresh rosemary leaves
• 2 TBS of crushed pretzels per chop
• butter to dot
• orange juice

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 200*C/400*F. Line a large shallow baking tray with foil and lightly grease the foil. Onto the baking sheet place as many chops are you are wanting to serve. Obviously if you are only cooking one or two you will want a smaller baking tray.
2. Slash the fatty edge of each chop, Spread the top with Dijon and dust lightly with black pepper.
3. Place into the baking dish. Sprinkle with 1/2 of the rosemary. Sprinkle a tablespoon of pretzel crumbs evenly over top of each one. Dot with butter.
4. Pour orange  juice into the baking tray evenly around the chops, trying not to disturb the crumbs on top. It should come up about half way.
5. Place the tray into the oven and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, checking to make sure the apple juice does not boil dry in the pan. Once the crumbs have begun to brown on top, remove the pan from the oven.
6. Carefully turn each chop over without disturbing the crumb topping and repeat the process for seasoning and crumbing on the underside. If you need more juice in the pan, once again pour it around the chops.
7. Return the pan to the oven and cook for another 15 to 20 minutes, until nicely browned on top and the juices have thickened into a bit of a sauce.
8. Check every 10 minutes or so to make sure the pan is not going dry and top up with more juice if need be. Serve hot with some of the pan juices spooned over top. Fabulous!

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I can't wait to see what I can come up with next. This is fun!  I just love using my imagination and stretching my abilities! 

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