October Foods: Granny Smith Pork Chops

According to my sources (you gotta love Google) there are something like 18 foods that are celebrated during the month of October. They are:

National Apple Month (September, October, November)
National Applejack Month (I’m guessing they don’t mean the cereal here)
National Caramel Month
National Cookie Month
National Chili Month
National Country Ham Month
National Dessert Month
National Pasta Month
National Pickled Peppers Month
National Pizza Month
National Popcorn Poppin’ Month
National Pretzel Month
National Pork Month
National Sausage Month
National Seafood Month (also celebrated in June)
National Spinach Lovers Month
National Sun Dried Tomato Month
Vegetarian Awareness Month

Throughout October, I’ll be posting at least one recipe from my collection for most of these foods (I’m not sure if I have an applejack recipe, but I’ll look into it.)

For today, let’s combine a couple of the above mentioned foods with the following recipe:

Granny Smith Pork Chops

Ingredients

1 tsp seasoned salt
1 tsp celery salt
1 tsp powdered garlic
2 tsp paprika
2 lbs pork loin chops, in 4 servings
1 Tbsp olive oil, or as needed
2 small Granny Smith apples
2 green bell peppers
2 medium onions
2/3 cup chicken broth
2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1.5 Tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp blackstrap molasses
Cornstarch, as needed

Directions

1. Stir together first 4 ingredients. Place chops on platter or cutting board and sprinkle with salt mixture, using all of mixture. Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat; add chops and sear until golden on both sides (if necessary, brown chops in batches.)

2. Meanwhile, core and slice unpeeled apples and peppers. Slice onions. Mix together broth, Worcestershire sauce, sugar and molasses.

3. Transfer browned chops to platter. To the same skillet, add apples, peppers and onions; sauté 4-5 minutes, stirring frequently. Spread apple mixture evenly in pan after sautéing.

4. Place chops on top of sautéed apple mixture, stacking chops, if necessary. Pour broth mix over all. Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer 40 minutes. Transfer chops to serving platter; pile apple mixture on top. Thicken liquid in skillet with cornstarch; serve over chops and apple mixture. Serves 4.