My friend Jim recommend this recipe from paleogrubs. I like pork, but I rarely try new pork recipes. Jim, however, is an excellent cook. If he recommends something, it will not suck. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients

• 4 (4-ounce) boneless pork chops
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• ½ tsp salt, divided
• ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
• 1 medium onion, peeled and cut into 8 wedges
• 2 medium apples, peeled, cored and cut into 8 wedges
• 4 ounces sliced bacon, cut into bite size pieces

Method

1. Preheat oven to 425°.
2. Pound the chops lightly with a meat mallet. Sprinkle the chops with half of salt and half of black pepper.
3. In a large cast iron pan heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil over high heat. Add the pork to pan and cook 3 minutes on each side or until browned. Remove the pan from the heat and remove the pork from the pan.
4. In the pan add the remaining olive oil, apple and onion wedges and bacon. Sprinkle with thyme and remaining salt and black pepper and toss to coat. Put in the oven and bake for 25 minutes then arrange the pork chops over apples and onion and bake for 10 minutes more. Remove from the oven, sprinkle with fresh ground black pepper and serve with your favorite salad.

2016-02-07: I wanted to try this recipe, but when I went to the store I found pork chops that were unaccountably thick; three were almost two pounds. What the hell. Let's give it a try. I pounded them in ziploc bags with a small cast-iron frying pan that shedded rusty cast iron with every fifth whack. I browned them. Double checked their done-ness. Seemed okay. I decided to change their baking time in the oven to 15 minutes. Also forgot the thyme. I should mention that the bacon was butcher-cut apple-wood smoked bacon, not that skinny crap they sell in packages. I used Granny Smith apples, though I suspect that pippins would be better.

As the apples/onions/bacon were baking, I nearly swooned from the aroma. This probably will not suck.

Results

This recipe is definitely a repeater. The pork was tender and good. The apples tasty. The onions were okay, but I suspect they would have been better if I had used Vidalia sweets instead of standard yellow onions.

Next time around I might consider shredding the apples and onions instead of just cutting into wedges. That might make them a nicer topping, instead of a side, to the chops.