Double Cherry Stuffed Pork Chops

What do you do with nice 1"+ thick bone in pork chops?  

Well, you could pan sear them in a cast iron skillet and finish them off in the oven. Or you could find something interesting to stuff them with, then pan sear them and finish off in the oven. That's what we did. Even though cherry season is over, cherries just sounded good and you can get frozen cherries all year that are perfect to use for this. The key ingredients are chopped cherries, diced granny Smith apple and caramelized onion held together with coarse breadcrumbs and seasoned with rosemary and orange zest. And, we made a cherry sauce to go with the chops. You will like this!

Ingredients for the stuffing - enough to stuff 2 chops

2  1" thick bone in loin pork chops

  1/2  cup pitted Cherries chopped

  1/2 cup coarse fresh bread crumbs

  1/2 Granny Smith apple diced

  1/2 medium sweet onion, diced

  1 tablespoon shredded Parmigian

  1/4 cup Parsley, finely chopped

  1 teaspoon Rosemary, finely chopped

  Zest of 1 Orange 

  2 teaspoon olive oil - divided

  Salt and Freshly Ground Black Pepper  
   
Directions - 

• Preheat oven to 375
• Put all the ingredients except for the onion and salt and pepper in a bowl.
• In a cast iron skillet or heavy metal handled frying pan on medium heat, saute 1/2 of the onion in olive oil until soft and starting to brown, about 15 minutes. Then remove and mix into the rest of the stuffing mixture. Taste to see how much salt and peppers to add. Cooking the onion first sweetens them and adds more depth of flavor to the stuffing.
• Cut a pocket in each pork chop and stuff with the stuffing mixture. Close with a couple toothpicks.
• In the same skillet and without cleaning it, add a tablespoon of olive oil and the stuffed chops. On medium high heat, brown the chops on both sides, then add the the rest of the diced onion. 
• Cover the skillet and put in the oven. Cook for 45 minutes. Check after 30 minutes to if the onions are sticking to the bottom of the skillet, if they are, add a little water.

Remove the chops to a plate and tent with foil to keep warm.

For the cherry sauce - 

3/4 cup pitted cherries, chopped
1/2 cup Chicken Stock
1/4 cup Cider Vinegar
1 tablespoon Fresh Chives,chopped
1 tablespoons Cilantro, chopped
1 tablespoons Butter
1 teaspoon honey

Pour the Chicken Stock, Cider Vinegar and the Cherries into the skillet you cooked the chops in. Cook, stirring, until stock has reduced and the Cherries have broken down a bit, about 10 minutes. Finish with Butter, Chives and Cilantro.

Spoon the sauce over the pork chops.

We had this with roasted potatoes, butter beans and an arugula salad (yah, a lot of starch...) probably would be better with Brussels sprouts or Swiss chard or mustard greens instead of the butter beans.