Pork Chops And Hay Season

Tangy Sweet Pork Chops

Do you ever forget about recipes you've made? Even the ones you really liked? That happens around here more than I'd like to admit. This slow cooker recipe is one I've made several times, then it drifted to the bottom of the recipe rotation.

But Wednesday nights mean handbell practice for me. I get home about 7:30, so supper needs to be ready when I walk in the door. That could be leftovers. Sometimes I'll pick up something on the way home. And on days when I plan better, I'll put something in the slow cooker like I did yesterday. And for whatever reason, this recipe popped into my head when I was making a grocery list.

I made the side dishes mid-afternoon, too, just after I put the chops in the crockpot. So we only needed to fix our plates when I got home. It was easiest to put a helping of potatoes and apples on the plate and warm them before serving up a hot pork chop, instead of warming up the entire bowl of the side dishes. The broccoli? I zapped a little fresh broccoli in the microwave while I was pulling out plates and such. It's not my favorite way to cook broccoli but it was the quickest. Understand that we are a household of two, so if you are feeding a large family, you might need a different plan.

This is one of the easiest recipes ever. The sauce is only slightly sweet. It isn't spicy if your family likes it tame. I imagine you could add some heat (red pepper flakes?) if you wanted to jazz it up. But this suits us fine.

TANGY SWEET PORK CHOPS

4-6 pork chops, with or without bone (about 2 to 3 lbs)
14-oz. can jellied or whole berry cranberry sauce (I've used both)
12-oz. bottle chili sauce

Place pork chops in slow cooker.

Empty cranberry sauce into a bowl and microwave for 20 seconds at a time to melt it enough to combine with chili sauce. (It took mine about 60 seconds total.)

Stir cranberry sauce and chili sauce together.

Pour over pork chops. (I lift up each chop to let a little sauce run under.)

Cook on LOW for 7-8 hours or HIGH for 5-6 hours.

This time I used 4 thick, boneless pork chops. Each chop weighed about 8 oz. And 5 hours on HIGH was fine in my slow cooker. They were done and fall-apart tender. 

On a side note....I looked up this recipe when I decided to make it. It's been on this blog before. The first time in 2013 during hay season. Then three years later in 2016, in hay season. And wonder of wonders, here we are three years after that and guess what? Daddy-O has started cutting hay again. (It's four steps—cut, tedder, rake, bale.. And that is a several day process, which is repeated throughout hay season.) It's that time of year again. Total coincidence. But isn't that interesting?