Skillet Pork Chops with Cabbage, Pear and Walnuts is a simple one pot wonder packed full of Autumnal flavours and textures.
Skillet Pork Chops with Cabbage, Pear, and Walnuts.
These Skillet Pork Chops with Cabbage, Pear and Walnuts recipe just scream autumn in these parts.
Pork chop recipes are not an unusual occurrence here on Krumpli. They are a welcome and ever-present part of what we eat on a day to day basis.
Whether they are dressed up with blingy sides like these pork chops with Jerusalem artichoke puree and blackberries, or simply cooked in the Instant Pot like this pork chop with red cabbage recipe, they are always my food mojo!
Pork has such an affinity with two types of ingredients, fruit, and nuts. Both are on display here in the form of walnuts and pears and they both compliment the juicy skillet pork chops.
The most common fruit associated with Pork is apple as in these sausage rolls, but apples are not the only fruit!
Pear and Walnuts.
Both pears and walnuts are pretty much ubiquitous in my corner of the world at this time of year. Despite not having either a walnut tree or a pear tree in our garden I have not paid a single penny for either of these ingredients since we moved here.
Confessing to a Hungarian that you are fond of an ingredient is a dangerous thing to do. Generosity runs deep in these parts!
Too deep on occasions and it is very easy to be oversupplied with stuff you kinda like… And all because you once mentioned something in a casual conversation.
The pears and walnuts have already started to arrive and I have no idea who the first lot came from.
We went out shopping a couple of days ago and just found a box of them on our doorstep when we got home. This will likely not be the last time this will happen this Autumn!
I am sure many people those two ingredients scream a cake or a dessert of some sort. I saw these ingredients and immediately drooled over a big fat pork chop.
The Best Way To Buy Pork Chops.
Food like this is great. It is a simple matter of just putting together a load of ingredients in a pan and letting the magic just happen.
All the while you just kick back and wait.
However, you do need the right pork chop. Don’t accept some skinny piece of pig from a supermarket shelf for this dish.
It will be dry and overcooked by the time it has any colour or the other ingredients cook.
The first thing to do is go to your butcher and not the supermarket.
Then get a pork chop at least 2.5cm thick, nudging towards 3-3.5cm.
With the bone in that should weigh in at around 300g and should allow you to roast it nicely in the oven and stay lovely and moist. Perfect for these skillet pork chops!
Skillet Pork Chop with Cabbage, Pear and Walnuts
Skillet Pork Chop with Cabbage, Pear and Walnuts is a simple one pot wonder packed full of Autumnal flavours and textures.
Ingredients
- 2 Thick Cut Pork Chops, 2-3cm thick bone in skin off
- 1/2 Head Small Cabbage
- 1 Pear, Pealed and cored and cut in half
- 50 g Shelled Walnuts
- Cooking Oil, Neutral
- Salt & Pepper
- 2 Tbsp Whole Grain Mustard
- 1 Tsp Brown Sugar
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 180°C.
- We only want the heart of the cabbage for this recipe, so remove the outer leaves and then cut the cabbage in half through the stalk. Then cut that half into quarters and set aside.
- Dice half of the pear into 1cm dice, take the other half cut it in half again and then slice into 5mm slices.
- Now heat your skillet over a high heat.
- Rub the pork chops with oil and season with salt and pepper and sear on both sides until you have a nice colour, 1-2 minutes per side, then remove from the pan and set aside.
- Sear the cabbage quarters in the pan as you did with the pork and when seared pour in 250ml boiling water and 1/4 teaspoon of salt and cover with a lid or tin foil whilst you finish preparing the pork.
- Back to the pork, spread 1 tablespoon of whole grain mustard one side of each pork chop and then fan out the pear slices on the top and sprinkle with the brown sugar.
- Now return to the pan with the cabbage which has hopefully been on a rapid boil for a couple of minutes.
- Pour off the water and add the pork chops to the pan and squeeze in the cabbage around the sides, sprinkle over the remaining diced pear and walnuts cover with tin foil, place in the oven and cook for 20 minutes.
- Cooking times will depend on the thickness of your chop mine were a full 3cm thick so after 20 minutes my internal temperature was 60°C this is the perfect time to remove the foil lid and continue cooking for a further 4-5 minutes until the internal temperature reaches 65°C.
- If you like you pork really well done increase the temperatures by 10°C and then allow to rest before serving.
Notes
You can replace the pear with apple if you wish.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 2 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 536 Total Fat: 26g Saturated Fat: 6g Trans Fat: 0g Unsaturated Fat: 16g Cholesterol: 132mg Sodium: 429mg Carbohydrates: 34g Fiber: 9g Sugar: 19g Protein: 45g
What a delish recipe. I love to cook with cabbage and combining it with pear and walnut is genius!
It works so well, hanks Anna.
This looks stunning and I love using pears in warm dishes. I’m definitely pinning this to try later. Thank you for the inspiration.
Thanks Zaarah
What a fantastic combination! I love the sweetness of the pears and the crunch of the walnuts! That is great you have such giving neighbors! I do have issues cooking pork sometimes in the US. They cut it too thin, so it is hard to not over ccok, even if you are super careful!
Yeah I live in a fun place 🙂 Thin cut pork infuriates me, I genuinely don’t get why people want to eat that dry stuff!
What a delish combination! Love the cabbage, pear, and walnuts together! So tasty.
Thanks Julie
This looks like the perfect comfort meal. I love that you cook it in one skillet. The pear and walnut combination sounds incredible.
It is really rather good and so simple!
Every year my roommates order half a pig from a local farmer and the pork chops are my second favorite cut (2nd only to bacon of course) and this looks like the perfect recipe for them!
Your room mates are very wise, always the best way to buy meat, I love pork and would struggle to narrow down to a favourite part but the loin is wonderfully low maintenance and simple to cook with.
Ohhhh I love the flavor combination in this dish…and love that’s it made in the skillet! Easy cleanup! Recipe perfection!
Definitely light on the washing up and super tasty too 😀
This sounds utterly delicious, I love all the flavours of this dish!
Thanks Emily, it’s a real simple dish too 🙂
This meal looks so succulent and delicious! Such a comforting dish!
It certainly is a good ‘un really simple too 🙂
Oh my gosh this is mouthwateringly gorgeous! I love how the big feature images moves as soon as the page loads too – just makes me want to dive in and start eating!
Thanks Elizabeth, glad you like it 🙂
Ooo all you can eat pears and walnuts for free? Yet another reason to move to Hungary Brian lol! I’ve not mastered cooking pork chops so avoid doing it, they are always too tough for my liking – I’ll have to give your method a try 😀
I think people struggle with pork as a roasted meat because they cook it too long, you can eat it a little pink with no issues… However if you are gonna roast a pork chop make it a bigun’ them pathetic skinny ones from the supermarket are a waste of space. Get to your butcher and get him to cut one at least 2.5cm thick but push towards 3.5 and you should be laughing.