Skillet Pork Chops with Apples & Onion -- The Apple That Holds the Season

November is approaching and with it Thanksgiving and with Thanksgiving the beginning of the end — the holiday season, the last holidays with Marvin at home, the final stretch before the move in March. The timeline is set: Marvin goes to Cedarhurst after Purim, before Passover. The timing is not accidental — I want him home for Hanukkah, for the candles, for the latkes, for the light. I want him home for the last menorah. Then he goes. Then the house becomes a house for one. Then the chain continues, but the link that has been beside me for forty years is in a different building, and the building is not home, and the not-home is the right decision, and the right decision is the worst one I have ever made.

I made Thanksgiving plans — sixteen people again, the full gathering, the turkey and the brisket and the pies and the noise. Sixteen people who will sit at this table for the last Thanksgiving with Marvin, though most of them don't know this is the last, because I haven't told everyone yet, because telling makes it real and real is not what I need right now. Real is coming. Real will arrive in March with a moving truck and his recliner and his pajamas and a container of brisket. Real can wait. For now, there is Thanksgiving, and the table, and the sixteen, and the turkey.

I made an apple cake — the same one I make every fall, with the first tart apples of the season, layered with cinnamon and brown sugar. The cake is a constant. The cake is the thing that does not change while everything else changes. I eat the cake and I taste every fall I have ever lived in this house and the tasting is the remembering and the remembering is mine.

The apple cake holds one kind of remembering — the sweet, still kind you eat alone in the kitchen. But the apples I had left over, the tart ones, the ones that smell like October, they asked for something savory, something that could feed sixteen if I needed it to, something with a little heat and a little give. Skillet pork chops with apples and onion is that dish for me: fast enough for a weeknight, substantial enough for a table full of people who don’t yet know what this particular season means. The cinnamon is in there too, just a whisper of it, enough to remind me that the fruit and I are working through the same fall together.

Skillet Pork Chops with Apples & Onion

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 25 minutes | Total Time: 35 minutes | 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
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 1 large yellow onion, thinly sliced
• 2 medium tart apples (such as Granny Smith or Honeycrisp), cored and sliced into 1/4-inch wedges
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• Fresh thyme leaves, for garnish (optional)

Instructions

1. Season the chops. Pat pork chops dry with paper towels. Season both sides evenly with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
2. Sear the pork. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add pork chops and sear without moving, 3–4 minutes per side, until deeply golden. Transfer to a plate and tent loosely with foil.
3. Soften the onion. Reduce heat to medium. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil to the skillet. Add onion slices and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and beginning to caramelize, about 6–8 minutes.
4. Add the apples. Push onions to the edges of the pan. Add apple wedges to the center and sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon. Cook, turning once, until apples are just tender and lightly golden, about 3–4 minutes.
5. Deglaze and simmer. Pour chicken broth and apple cider vinegar into the skillet, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom. Stir to combine apples and onions into the liquid. Bring to a gentle simmer.
6. Finish the pork. Nestle the pork chops back into the skillet, tucking them into the apple and onion mixture. Cook over medium-low heat, spooning the pan juices over the chops occasionally, until the pork is cooked through and reaches an internal temperature of 145°F, about 5–6 minutes.
7. Rest and serve. Remove from heat and stir in the butter until melted and glossy. Let rest 3 minutes before serving. Garnish with fresh thyme if desired and spoon the apples and onions generously over each chop.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 390 | Protein: 33g | Fat: 19g | Carbs: 20g | Fiber: 3g | Sodium: 430mg