Pork Chop Soup — The Pot I Made Because I Couldn’t Be There

Dad has COVID. Mom called Monday night. Her voice was the voice she used when Babcia was dying — controlled, too steady, holding everything in place by force of will. "Jake, Dad has a fever. He got tested today. It's positive." The world stopped. Not metaphorically. Actually stopped. The sound went out, the air went out, everything went out except the cold, breathless terror of imagining life without my father. Dad caught it at the hardware store. Or the gas station. Or somewhere — you can't trace these things, you can only trace the fear backward from the phone call. He had a fever of 102 on Monday. By Wednesday, it was 103. He was coughing, fatigued, breathing harder than normal. Mom was quarantining him in the bedroom, wearing a mask in her own house, leaving food outside the door like he was a prisoner. I wanted to go to the Cape Cod. I wanted to walk in and sit next to him and hold his hand and tell him he was going to be fine. But I couldn't. Mom wouldn't let me. "Stay home, Jake," she said. "If you get it, who feeds everyone?" She was right. She was pragmatic. She was also terrified. I cooked. Of course I cooked. I made everything that could possibly help: Babcia's rosó┼é — the healing soup, the cure-all, the Polish penicillin. I made it with a whole chicken, extra garlic, extra ginger (not Polish, but medicinal), and enough dill to green the entire pot. I made bread. I made pierogi. I made go┼é─àbki. I drove to the Cape Cod on Tuesday and left it all on the porch and stood on the lawn and Mom opened the door and she looked small and scared and she said, "The soup. Give me the soup first." Dad refused to go to the hospital. "I'm fine, I'm fine." He's NOT fine. His fever is 103 and his oxygen is hovering at 93 and he's fifty-two years old and he thinks he's invincible because he's a Kowalski man and Kowalski men don't go to hospitals. I called him. He answered, coughing. "Hey, kid." His voice was thin, raspy, not his voice. I said, "Dad, please go to the hospital if it gets worse." He said, "It's not going to get worse." I said, "Dad." He said, "I'm fine." The conversation was forty-five seconds. I sat in my apartment afterward and stared at the wall for twenty minutes. This is the fear that has been lurking since March. The abstract fear made specific. The statistics made personal. My father. My dad. The man who taught me to grill brats and fix brakes and carry things silently. I cannot lose him. I cannot.

Rosół was already on the stove — that was never a question. But I made this pork chop soup too, because one pot felt insufficient for the size of the fear, and because Dad has always said pork is the backbone of a real Polish meal. I couldn’t sit beside him, couldn’t hold his hand, couldn’t do anything but cook and drive and leave food on a porch and stand on a lawn feeling useless. This soup — thick, savory, loaded with carrots and potatoes and herbs — was my way of saying everything I couldn’t say in forty-five seconds on the phone. If you’re making it for someone sick, add extra garlic. Add all the garlic.

Pork Chop Soup

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 50 min | Total Time: 1 hr 5 min | Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 4 bone-in pork chops (about 1 1/2 lbs total)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 medium carrots, peeled and sliced into rounds
• 3 stalks celery, sliced
• 3 medium Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 3/4-inch cubes
• 6 cups low-sodium chicken or pork broth
• 1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon dried parsley
• 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• Fresh parsley, chopped, for serving (optional)

Instructions

1. Sear the pork. Pat pork chops dry and season both sides with salt and pepper. Heat olive oil in a large Dutch oven or heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high heat. Sear pork chops 3—4 minutes per side until browned. Transfer to a plate and set aside; do not discard the drippings.
2. Sauté the aromatics. Reduce heat to medium. Add onion and celery to the pot and cook in the drippings, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 4 minutes. Add garlic and cook 1 minute more until fragrant.
3. Build the broth. Add carrots, potatoes, diced tomatoes, broth, thyme, parsley, paprika, bay leaf, salt, and pepper. Stir to combine, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pot.
4. Return the pork and simmer. Nestle the seared pork chops back into the pot, submerging them as much as possible. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 30—35 minutes until pork is cooked through and potatoes are tender.
5. Shred and finish. Remove pork chops from the pot and transfer to a cutting board. Discard the bay leaf. Remove bones and any large pieces of fat, then shred or chop the meat into bite-sized pieces. Return pork to the pot and stir to combine. Taste and adjust seasoning with additional salt and pepper as needed.
6. Serve. Ladle into bowls and garnish with fresh chopped parsley if desired. Serve with crusty bread.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 290 | Protein: 26g | Fat: 9g | Carbs: 24g | Fiber: 3g | Sodium: 710mg