Stuffed bone-in pork chops
Although at first sight stuffed pork chop recipes might seem complicated, they are just as easy as any other pork recipe. All you need to take into account is that the total cooking time will be longer, because you have to prepare the stuffing, then to cut pockets in the chops, then to fill them with the stuffing.
Anyway, to start with, let’s take two beautiful bone-in pork chops, about 1 inch thick:
Thick, bone-in pork chops
Most recipes call for boneless pork chops, but I think bone-in ones are nicer: cooking meat on the bone gives it a special flavor, a sweetness which I really like.
Wash the meat in cold water, then dry it on some kitchen towels. Take the sharpest knife you have and cut a pocket in each pork chop, like this:
Pocket cut in the pork chop
Sorry I couldn’t take a photo of me slicing that chop, but these two are the only hands I’ve got and they were both involved in the cutting process. Anyway, here’s the result:
Pork chops prepared for stuffing
Salt the meat, season it with your favorite herbs (I used a mix of garlic powder, thyme and basil) and put it back in the fridge while you work on the stuffing.
Take one medium sized onion, cut it in half and peel it.
Halved onion
Chop the onion. Coarsely chopping is just fine, you don’t need to try too hard on that, because it’s going to be cooked for quite a long time anyway.
Chopped onions
Take about 10 white mushrooms. I chose medium to small ones, like you can see in the following photo, and they were more than enough for stuffing the two pork chops you’ve seen. Wash them very well.
White mushrooms
Chop the mushrooms and the stems. Don’t worry about making them really small.
Chopped mushrooms
In a non-stick skillet, heat two tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. Add the onions. Cook them over medium high heat for about 3-4 minutes, stirring a couple of times. Add the mushrooms, stir and season with salt, pepper, red chili flakes and any herbs you like.
Mushroom-onion meat stuffing
Cook the mushrooms and the onions over medium heat, for about 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile, take the parsley and the dill, wash them very well and chop them.
Chopped parsley and dill
Add the parsley and the dill to the skillet and keep on cooking and stirring:
Meat stuffing getting cooked on stove top
The stuffing still needs something to hold everything together. I used a slice of feta cheese. Other options are: any type of cheese that melts nicely or eggs. Here’s my cheese, crumbled, just before adding it to the skillet. There’s nothing special about this photo, I just want you to see how much cheese I’ve used.
crumbled feta cheese
Add the cheese to the skillet. Cook for about 5 minutes, over low heat. Stir frequently, otherwise the cheese will stick to the skillet.
Pork chop stuffing
When most of the cheese melted and mixed with the other juices in the pan, turning into a sauce, remove the skillet from heat. Spoon the stuffing into the pork chops.
Stuffed pork chops - work in progress
You’ll notice you’ve got more stuffing than needed. Don’t try to fit it inside the chops, because we are going to use it later on. Just use only as much stuffing as to allow you to secure the meat pockets with toothpicks. As you got here with the work, you may want to pre-heat the oven to 400F.
Stuffed pork chops - more work in progress
In a skillet, heat two tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil and brown the stuffed pork chops for about two minutes on each side:
Stuffed pork chops browned
Transfer the chops from the skillet to the baking dish. Take the remaining stuffing mix, put it in the skillet, add about half cup of water and cook over medium heat, stirring frequently. Your purpose is to mix the flavored brown stuff on the bottom of the skillet with the mushroom-onion mixture. Eventually, you are going to pour it over the pork chops, before baking them.
Stuffed pork chops ready to bake
Cover the baking dish and bake the pork chops for about one hour. You may now relax for 40-45 minutes. Just before the chops are done, you’d better get back to the kitchen and prepare some side dish. I boiled some potatoes, then drained the water and mixed them with butter and salt.
Stuffed pork chops served with potatoes
Serve the stuffed pork chops hot, with freshly ground pepper sprinkled on top. If you can, arrange with somebody else to do the dishes, as you’ll use plenty of them 
Here’s the list of ingredients for two big chops (enough for two not-very-hungry persons):
- 2 bone-in pork chops, 1 inch thick
- 1 medium-sized white onion, chopped
- 10 white mushrooms, medium sized, chopped
- 1 cup fresh parsley, chopped
- 1 cup fresh dill, chopped
- 1 slice feta cheese
- 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- salt, pepper to taste
- herbs of your choice (dried thyme, basil, red hot chili flakes, garlic powder)
- 2 toothpicks
Last but not least, I thought you might want to see how those stuffed pork chops look on the inside.
Stuffed pork chops - interior
Yummy, isn’t it?
