Seasoned Skillet Meat with Caramelized Onions

The blog is growing in ways I did not expect. My post about truck cooking basics has been shared on three different trucker forums, and I have gotten messages from women all over the country who drive truck and who thought they were the only ones cooking in their cabs. One woman in Oregon said she cried reading my blog because she thought she was crazy for bringing a slow cooker into her Kenworth. I told her she is not crazy. She is smart. She is fed. Those are the same thing when you are a thousand miles from home.

I wrote a new post this week about my five essential truck cooking tools: the 12-volt slow cooker, the portable butane burner, the mini fridge, a good sharp knife, and a cutting board. That is it. That is all you need to eat real food on the road. I listed the brands I use and where to buy them and how much they cost, because practical information is what people need, not inspiration. Inspiration does not feed you at a rest stop outside Des Moines at eleven p.m. A slow cooker does.

At home, the garden is growing faster than I expected. The tomato plants are a foot tall and reaching for the sun. The peppers have flowers. The basil smells incredible when you brush against it. And the lettuce, Josie lettuce, is ready to pick. We harvested our first salad this week, and Josie carried the bowl of lettuce inside like she was carrying a trophy, and we ate it at dinner with cherry tomatoes from the store because ours are not ready yet and homemade ranch dressing because everything deserves ranch, and the lettuce tasted like pride. That is what homegrown food tastes like: pride with a side of dirt.

I made Gayle recipe for pork chops this week. Simple: bone-in pork chops, seasoned with salt, pepper, and garlic powder, seared in a cast-iron skillet until golden, then braised with onions and a little chicken broth, covered, low heat, thirty minutes until the chops are tender and the onions are caramelized. Served with rice and the garden salad. It is the meal I grew up on. It is the meal that made me who I am. And the lettuce was ours. The lettuce came from our dirt, from Josie seeds, from the bed Dave built, from the soil Tyler dug. That is a meal. That is a life.

Gayle’s recipe has been floating around my head for weeks, and the night we sat down with that bowl of Josie’s lettuce, I knew that was the meal it belonged to. There’s nothing complicated about it — seasoned meat, a hot skillet, onions that go sweet and golden when you give them time — but that simplicity is exactly the point. This is the food that raised me, and now it’s the food I’m raising my family on, with lettuce we grew ourselves and pride that does not need a recipe.

Prep Time: 10 min | Cook Time: 40 min | Total Time: 50 min | Servings: 4

Ingredients

4 bone-in pork chops (about 3/4 inch thick)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon olive oil or neutral cooking oil
1 large yellow onion, thinly sliced
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
Fresh parsley, chopped, for garnish (optional)

Instructions

Season the chops. Pat the pork chops dry with paper towels. Season both sides evenly with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Let them sit at room temperature for about 10 minutes while you prep the onion.
Sear until golden. Heat a cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat and add the oil. Once the oil shimmers, add the pork chops in a single layer. Sear without moving them for 3–4 minutes per side until a deep golden crust forms. Transfer to a plate and set aside.
Start the onions. Reduce heat to medium. Add the butter to the same skillet. Add the sliced onion and stir to coat. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 10–12 minutes until the onions are soft, translucent, and beginning to turn golden.
Braise together. Nestle the seared pork chops back into the skillet on top of the onions. Pour the chicken broth around the chops. Cover with a lid or foil, reduce heat to low, and braise for 25–30 minutes until the chops are tender and cooked through (internal temperature 145°F) and the onions are deeply caramelized.
Rest and serve. Remove from heat and let rest 5 minutes before serving. Spoon the caramelized onions and pan juices over the chops. Serve with rice and a fresh garden salad.

Nutrition (per serving)

Seasoned Skillet Meat with Caramelized Onions — The Meal That Made Me Who I Am