Orange Pork Chops

Week 474. Spring 2025. I am 42 years old and standing in my kitchen — the Bench house kitchen, the one that held cancer and divorce and cinnamon rolls — and the stove is on and something is cooking and the house smells like fresh herbs and possibility and this is my life. This is the life I built.

Brett came Wednesday. We sat on the porch and talked about nothing, and the nothing was perfect, the way nothing between siblings is always perfect — full of history, empty of agenda, the purest form of company.

Mason is 14 and navigating middle school with the quiet competence that has always been his way — focused, kind, certain of who he is in a way that took me thirty years to achieve.

Lily is 12 and riding horses with the fearlessness of someone who has never considered the possibility of falling.

I made asparagus soup this week. The food continues. The food always continues. It is the thread that connects every week to every other week, every year to every other year, every version of me to every other version — the woman on the kitchen floor, the woman at the chemo recliner, the woman at the grill, the woman at the outdoor table under the string lights. All of them, connected by the food they made with their hands. All of them, me.

The asparagus soup was earlier in the week — the quiet, herb-scented kind you make without a recipe — but by Thursday I wanted something a little more grounded, something with weight to it, something that felt like a proper dinner at the table I have worked so hard to keep. Orange pork chops are exactly that: unpretentious, bright, the kind of thing that smells like a home that is functioning and fed. I have made them on ordinary evenings and on evenings that only looked ordinary from the outside, and either way the citrus hits the pan and the whole kitchen lifts. That is enough. That has always been enough.

Prep Time: 10 min | Cook Time: 20 min | Total Time: 30 min | Servings: 4

Ingredients

4 bone-in pork chops (about 3/4 inch thick)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon olive oil
3/4 cup fresh orange juice (from about 2 large oranges)
1 tablespoon orange zest
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
Fresh parsley, chopped, for garnish (optional)

Instructions

Season the chops. Pat pork chops dry with paper towels. Season both sides evenly with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
Sear. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add pork chops and sear 3–4 minutes per side until golden brown. Transfer to a plate and set aside.
Build the sauce. Reduce heat to medium. In the same skillet, whisk together orange juice, orange zest, honey, soy sauce, Dijon mustard, and dried thyme. Scrape up any browned bits from the pan.
Simmer. Bring the sauce to a gentle simmer and cook 3–4 minutes, stirring occasionally, until it begins to reduce slightly.
Finish the chops. Return the pork chops to the skillet. Spoon sauce over them and cook an additional 5–6 minutes, flipping once, until cooked through and internal temperature reaches 145°F.
Finish with butter. Remove from heat and stir in butter until the sauce turns glossy. Let chops rest 3 minutes before serving.
Serve. Plate the chops and spoon extra sauce over the top. Garnish with chopped parsley if desired. Pairs well with roasted vegetables or steamed rice.

Nutrition (per serving)

Orange Pork Chops — The Food That Keeps Connecting Every Version of Me