As my own family settles into our fall schedule I’m a little overwhelmed with how many practices, games, meets, and meetings there are. And we haven’t even started tackling homework yet! If you are in a similar boat, you will love the simplicity of these Crock Pot Pork Chops and Gravy. They require very little hands-on time and in the end, you have perfectly tender pork chops – a delicious low-carb dinner with a rich flavorful gravy. Now when people ask me if they really need to brown meat before adding it to the slow cooker my answer is: No, but I would. The reason for this answer is that skipping the browning will not break a dish. Contrary to popular belief, this step doesn’t “seal in” moisture. It just adds extra flavor to the dish that you can’t get another way. Adding a slurry to a slow cooker recipe is a great way to quickly thicken the sauce. To make a slurry, simply mix together some cornstarch and warm water (not boiling). Mix it together until it is smooth. Stir it into the liquid in the crock pot and allow the sauce to thicken. Because pork tastes so much better when it is a solid 145 degrees Fahrenheit, I highly recommend that you remove pork from the heat when it reaches 135 degrees Fahrenheit. In this recipe, we then tent it with foil and let it rest while we make the slurry in the slow cooker. While it raises, it will reach 145 degrees and be perfectly tender when you eat it. Did you know that a little bit of salt can make or break a recipe? It’s true. In my experience, sometimes adding just a pinch of kosher salt at the end of a recipe can make a ho hum recipe, fantastic. Because different products contain different amounts of salt, like beef stock for example, it can be hard for me to tell you exactly how much salt will take a recipe from ho hum to fantastic. This is why using your own intuition and taste is so important. In general, I will under salt a recipe in the instructions and then rely on you to add more at the end as needed. This is a recipe where this step is really important. This recipe is purposefully under salted. So at the end, taste the gravy, and if it doesn’t knock your socks off, add just a pinch of kosher salt and a little pepper. Taste it again and add a little more if necessary. I would encourage you to add about 1/8 of a teaspoon of salt at a time until you get the taste you are looking for.
Serve this on a bed of Mashed Cauliflower or Mashed Potatoes. The gravy will be perfect with it. Add a side of Roasted Green Beans. Finish off the whole spread with this easy-to-make, but incredibly delicious, Arugula Salad.
If you make these slow cooker pork chops or any of my other recipes, please leave me a comment and let me know what you think.
