Slow Cooked Pork Chops

You should all be very proud of me. ;) I did something with this meal that I have never done before. I took a recipe and completely changed some ingredients in it. I've made tiny changes in recipes before (in amounts or with something small and safe like the breaded pork chop recipe), but usually I don't mess with the spices because I don't know enough about them to know what is good. This time I did a bit of research online and made adjustments accordingly.

I got the original recipe here (another cooking blog I've come across). I first made it for Paul on Father's Day this year. Paul liked it, but I didn't like the dijon mustard taste. I thought it wouldn't come through, but I could still taste it. So, this time I tried to find substitutions for dijon mustard online with no success. Then, I found a couple recipes for homemade dijon mustard. I took some key spices from those recipes and used them instead of dijon mustard in this recipe. It turned out pretty good! The spices I added gave a good flavor, and it was nice not to have to taste the mustard.


Slow Cooked Pork Chops
Ingredients:
4 thinly sliced pork chops
salt and pepper to taste
1 apple, diced
1 medium onion, diced (the original recipe calls specifically for a yellow onion, but this time I used a white one because I prefer white onions)
1/4 c. apple cider vinegar
1/4 c. brown sugar
3 garlic cloves, minced*
2 bay leaves*

*These are the ingredients I added. The original recipe calls for 1 T. dijon mustard instead.

Directions:
Place diced apple and onion in the bottom of your slow cooker (CrockPot). Season both sides of the pork chops with salt and pepper. Place the pork chops on top of the apples and onions (mine overlapped a little, it depends on how big your slow cooker is). In a separate bowl mix together the vinegar, brown sugar, garlic and bay leaves. Pour over the pork chops in the slow cooker. Cook on low setting for 4 hours. Remove and discard bay leaves before serving.

The main thing I like about this recipe is that the pork chops are so tender. They just fall apart with a fork. Overall, though, it's not my favorite recipe. I'm going to continue to look for slow cooked pork chop recipes, though.