I don't make pork very often. There's not really a reason why; "the other white meat" just doesn't pop into my head on a daily basis. And to be honest, pork can feel a little bit boring to me. So, when I do make pork, I know I really want to jazz it up. And when I want to jazz meat up, I'm usually pretty sure a couple cheeses stuffed inside does the trick. And this case? The trick was done. Thank you for the inspiration, Giada De Laurentiis.
Boneless pork chops may be my new best friend and this recipe came out so tender and juicy. Do you know what I learned, though? From Wikipedia? Pork is actually NOT a white meat! It's not! Pork is actually a red meat. It makes me wonder if the pork campaigns would be more successful saying "Pork is the healthy red meat" rather than "the other white meat." Things to consider.
Pork Chops Stuffed with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Spinach:
- 2 T olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 6 sun-dried tomatoes, diced
- 1 (10 oz.) bag of frozen spinach, thawed and excess water squeezed out
- ½ t salt
- ½ t freshly ground pepper
- ¼ t dried thyme
- ¼ C (2 oz.) goat cheese
- ⅓ C reduced-fat cream cheese
- 4 (4 oz.) center-cut pork chops
- 1 ½ C chicken broth
- ½ lemon, zested
- 2 T lemon juice
- 2 t dijon mustard
This recipe is totally simple simon too. The most important thing is making sure you take your spinach out of the freezer to thaw and drain as much water as you possibly can from it. There's only a little bit of chopping involved in the recipe... Chop up the sun-dried tomatoes and mince your garlic (if you had a garlic zoom, it would be easier... duh!).
Warm 1 T of the olive oil in a medium saute pan over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant (YUM), about 1 minute. Then add the sun-dried tomatoes, spinach, salt, pepper, and thyme. Cook until combined, about 2 more minutes.
Transfer mixture to a medium bowl. Add the goat cheese and cream cheese and stir to combine.
Now, using a sharp knife, cut a pocket into the thickest portion of the pork chop and stuff them with the spinach mixture. The recipe says to use ¼ of the mixture for each (for 4 pork chops). I only had 3 pork chops, but I stuffed them FULL and still had tons of leftover spinach mixture.
The recipe also says to close the pork around the stuffing. But my pork chops were stuffed so full that I couldn't properly close them. No big deal. The more, the merrier. Season with salt and pepper.
Warm the remaining 1 T olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. When the pan is hot, add the pork chops.
Cook until golden and cooked through-- the recipe said this will take about 4 minutes per side. But mine took about 6 minutes per side. Make sure you have a spatula on hand to help prevent the filling from falling out (especially if you didn't close the pork around the stuffing).
Transfer the pork to a side dish and tent with foil to keep warm.
In the meantime, combine chicken broth, lemon zest, lemon juice, and mustard in a small bowl. When your pork is all cooked and transferred, add the chicken broth mixture to the skillet over medium-high heat. Scrape the brown bits in the pan (YUM) as the chicken broth simmers.
Reduce the broth by half, about 8 minutes.
Spoon over the pork and serve! I served some green beans on the side.
I'm pretty sure it's incredibly difficult not to love this dish. I mean, spinach, goat cheese, and sun-dried tomatoes? Stuffed into a pork chop? Pork is no longer boring.
You know, now that I've had this dish, I've decided I don't care what color meat pork is. Just that it's delicious.
By the way, pork is on Twitter now! I know, right? Who isn't on Twitter these days? I could probably find every one of the ingredients in this recipe on Twitter. Goat cheese? Hello! (OK, I just looked and there is a guy named goat cheese, but he's not the goat cheese). Cream cheese, however, is on Twitter. Alright, Alright, I'm stopping now.
In conclusion, make this. And follow all your favorite foods on Twitter.
How do you prepare pork to make it "the most exciting meat"?
[Sues]
Sarah says
I let the chops marinade in a bit of Dijon mustard, coat in cornmeal & spices, and then bake. I use Tunnel BBQ seasoning, but it's only available in Windsor, ON as far as I can tell.
Erica says
Giada is awesome! Great recipe. I honestly never really make pork (except pulled pork) for Josh. In fact, I don't even know if he likes pork chops...guess I'll have to ask 😉
Simply Life says
oh wow, I'm sure these had an amazing flavor!
Wicked Domestic says
I tend to do pork more in the fall with apple cider and craisins etc., but I love the idea of putting more of a summer twist on it! Great idea!
Sophie @ yumventures says
This looks delicious -- I also hardly ever make pork, its always intimidated me a bit, but I'm glad to know it is easy to cook and can taste amazing!
Rae says
I love doing pork in a dark beer, soy sauce, ginger and garlic marinade and then grilled. Or I take a huge pork butt and slow cook it to make sweet n sour pulled pork with red peppers, sweet onions and pineapples topped with a mango BBQ sauce.
Elle says
Oh my gosh, this looks incredible! Pork is great, but you're right--you've got to dress it up or it can be boring. Had no idea it was actually red meat! But I do know it's tasty, hehe. Love this!
genesis says
im not on twitter 🙂
i like pork, but do you think i could sub the pork with chicken? its what I have in the freezer. Also what can I sub for the cheese? i dont have goat but I do have feta, parmesean, chedday and monterey...
Bianca says
This looks amazing! I have a couple of porkschops waiting for me to cook them and I think I'm going to go with this recipe because it has most of my favortie ingredients EVER (goat cheese, cream cheese, spinach, tomatoes, lemon, and of course pork). Thanks for posting!
5 Star Foodie says
The stuffing of spinach sun dried tomatoes and goat cheese is excellent! Yum!
Julie Q says
Okay, I don't even like pork, and you now have me wanting to try this recipe out!!!! Good job ladies
Lauren says
I'm definitely a pork fan, but it can be difficult to cook it to perfection... I'm still working on that :). I'm partial to pork tenderloin - I like to butterfly it, stuff it, and roast it until just pink in the center.
This recipe looks and sounds delicious - anything with sun dried tomatoes and goat cheese is right up my alley.
It was good to see you girls tonight at Stella!
Kerstin says
These look incredible with all that yummy filling! My hubby usually cooks our pork chops but I need to learn too.
genesis says
hey sues, I made this the other night and loved it! wrote about it here.
http://eatsleeprunwhenever.blogspot.com/2010/05/very-inspired.html
chris @ caribbeanpot.com says
Looks wonderful.If only I could get our daughters to try spinach I'd give this a try. Maybe next time my parents are down I'll give this a shot so I don't eat alone.
happy cooking
chris
Dawn says
Amazing. I only made one change and I used feta instead of goat cheese. I can't wait to make it again!
Rico says
I'm looking forward to making this for dinner tonight for me and my daughters . I will have to omit the cheeses however on one of the chops because my wife is on The Paleo diet . She will be missing out ... oh well !!
Joy says
You got to try this! I did and it was simply amazing! I made mashed potatoes w/ chicken gravy to drizzle and added a side of corn for color!
Joy says
This recipe is amazing! My husband refuses to eat spinach so I had to add a twist! Try making corn bread dressing from left over cornbread, add celery, onions, bell pepper, sage etc. (everything you would put in dressing but leave out the egg and cream of celery soup, just moisten the mixture with a little chicken broth w/ all ingredients here in moderation! Oh, so good! Add corn for color as a side dish.,
Brenda says
Made these last night. They were awesome 🙂