Bean and Pork Chop Bake

New Year's 2030. Black-eyed peas for the eighteenth year. Dustin made them — seventh consecutive year. They were excellent. I have accepted that Dustin's black-eyed peas are now better than mine, and the acceptance is graceful and only slightly competitive. He earned it. Seven years of annual cooking, each year better than the last. The peas are his. I keep the biscuits. The division of labor is final.

Resolutions: Dustin — hire a second employee. The business has grown to fifty-five regular customers and he's turning down jobs because there aren't enough hours. A second tech means more revenue, more coverage, and Dustin not working sixteen-hour days in July when every A/C in Owasso decides to die. Me — slow down. Not stop. Slow down. I've been running at full speed for fifteen years — from Sonic to the factory to the market to the food bank — and the speed is catching up. I'm tired. Not the bone-deep exhaustion of three kids under four in a one-bedroom apartment. A different tired. The tired of a woman who has been responsible for other people since she was fourteen and has never once put herself down.

Mama said something at Wednesday dinner that stuck: "When was the last time you sat down for longer than a meal?" I said, "I sit at my desk." She said, "That's work. When was the last time you sat for yourself?" I couldn't answer. Because the answer is: never. I don't sit for myself. I sit to eat, to write, to plan. I sit at the desk, at the table, at the kids' bedside. But I never sit to just sit. The concept is foreign. The concept is a luxury I've never afforded. But Mama is sixty-one and retired and she sits in her garden and watches the birds and does nothing, and the nothing is necessary, and maybe I need to learn what nothing looks like before the nothing becomes mandatory.

Dustin has the black-eyed peas — that’s settled — but the spirit of New Year’s cooking has always been about beans and slow heat and something that asks nothing of you once it’s in the oven. This bean and pork chop bake is that kind of recipe: the kind where you put it together, set it in, and then — maybe for the first time — you sit. Not at a desk, not beside a kid’s bed. Just sit. Mama would approve.

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 1 hour | Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes | Servings: 4

Ingredients

4 bone-in pork chops (about 3/4 inch thick)
2 cans (15 oz each) navy beans or great northern beans, drained and rinsed
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
1/2 cup chopped yellow onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil

Instructions

Preheat oven. Heat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9x13-inch baking dish and set aside.
Sear the chops. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Season pork chops on both sides with salt, pepper, and smoked paprika. Sear 2–3 minutes per side until golden, then transfer to the prepared baking dish.
Build the bean mixture. In the same skillet over medium heat, cook onion until softened, about 3 minutes. Add garlic and cook 1 minute more. Stir in beans, diced tomatoes, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, and thyme. Simmer 3–4 minutes, stirring to combine.
Assemble and bake. Pour the bean mixture over and around the pork chops in the baking dish. Cover tightly with foil and bake for 45 minutes.
Finish uncovered. Remove foil and bake an additional 15 minutes until pork chops are cooked through (internal temperature of 145°F) and the top has a slight caramelized color.
Rest and serve. Let rest 5 minutes before serving. Spoon beans generously over each chop.

Nutrition (per serving)

Bean and Pork Chop Bake — The Meal That Earns Its Place on the Table