Paprika Pork Chops

Here's another example of what a dork I am. I've always liked pork.. mostly. About the only cut I really am not fond of is your basic pork roast - and that's because I've never had one that wasn't dry. But give me a good chop or tenderloin and I'm pretty happy. Until. Until Hubbs and I hit the local wholesale club back in February, and found they had these giant pork loins on sale. He immediately grabbed one and said it was too good to pass up. After we got home, I cut it up into, Oh.. I dunno.. maybe a gazillion chops? Seriously, this fakkin thing was HUGE! So I've had this mountain of pork in my freezer for many, many months and every time I look at the bags and bags of pork chops, I turn my nose up at them. I have no freakin' idea why. Maybe because there is so much of it?? I dunno.. As I was leaving for work yesterday morning I realized I hadn't taken anything out for dinner. "F*ck!" I'm really starting to hate figuring out what the hell to make for dinner these days. So I ran back into the house and opened up our chest freezer and just grabbed the first thing I saw.. pork chops. I wasn't thrilled, but I was also late for work, so pork chops it hadda be. I never thought about them again all day, until we were sitting on the deck enjoying the beautiful weather after work. I had no idea how to prepare them.. I didn't want to just grill or pan fry them (I really just didn't want them) and I didn't feel like making this awesome pork chop bake recipe I have because that would mean I'd have to grate potatoes and that was just too much work. hehe So I left the deck, came back to the office and checked out my go-to website, All Recipes. After perusing quite a few recipes that didn't really thrill me, I came upon this recipe for Paprika Pork Chops and thought I'd give it a go as I had all the ingredients on hand and what goes better with pork than sauerkraut? A friend of ours, Larry, happened to stop by so I invited him to stay for dinner with the warning that I was making an unknown recipe so he'd be taking his chances on how good it'd be. As if that would deter him.. free dinner? Meat? He was all over it. hehe When I started to prepare the chops, I doubled the kraut mixture because the boys love their kraut, and found this recipe very easy and quick to make. I baked a few Yukon Gold potatoes and made a quick salad of garden fresh tomatoes, onions and cucumbers (that I couldn't have *sob*) to go with the chops. I gotta tell ya kids.. there are many good recipe resources out there, but damn, when ya find a 5 star recipe on All Recipes you can pretty much assure yourself of a tasty dinner. These chops were fanfarkintastic! The ingredients really didn't sound like they'd be good together, but in the description of the recipe, the author said to over look that. I'm glad I did.. because Wow. Seriously. Wow. The kraut, carmelized onions, paprika and sour cream topping was out of this world. Not too heavy with just the right amount of zing to go with the perfectly seasoned chops. The recipe calls for broiling of the chops, but since I had the potatoes baking, I decided to pan fry them and I'm glad I did because of the carmelization of the chops.. so tasty! Hubbs is part Polish and part German and he gave me the biggest compliment I think I've ever heard from him concering my cooking (And seriously? He lays the compliments thick when I cook.. cooking for him is a major component of the pleasure I receive from my time in the kitchen, just knowing that he'll be so appreciative once he tastes.) which was how this dish reminded him of a dish his mother use to make. He's never said that before.. I was really pleased. Thanks DRLMCOBB! =) Paprika Pork Chops Courtesy of DRLMCOBB and All Recipes 4 teaspoons butter 1 onion, thinly sliced (I only had 1/2 onion so I added 3 shallots) 1 1/2 teaspoons paprika 1/3 cup sauerkraut, drained (I doubled this and the sour cream) 1/3 cup sour cream 4 boneless pork chops 1/4 teaspoon black pepper 1 teaspoon garlic salt Melt 2 tsp. of butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Stir in onions, and cook until soft and golden. In a bowl, stir together 1/2 teaspoon paprika, sauerkraut, onions, and sour cream. Season pork chops with pepper, garlic salt, and 1 teaspoon paprika. Once onions are carmelized, add them to the sauerkraut mixture. Pre-heat the broiler. In the same skillet add the other 2 tsp. of butter and the pork chops. Fry for 5-6 minutes on each side until pork is just about done. Transfer the chops to a broiling pan or cookie rack placed inside a jelly-roll pan. *Spread sauerkraut and onion mixture over pork chops, and broil 1 or 2 minutes or until the topping is goldeny brown. *Note: Since I doubled the kraut mixture, there was no "spreading", I heaped a large amount of the stuff on the chops so after the topping browned, I turned off the broiler and let them sit in the hot oven for another minute or two to assure the topping was heated through.