Smothered Pork Chops

Valentine's Day. Calvin brought me flowers — carnations, pink, from the Walmart on Bessemer Road, and I know they were from Walmart because the sticker was still on the cellophane and Calvin does not believe in removing stickers because he believes the price is part of the gift. "I spent twelve dollars on you, Loretta," the sticker says, and I accept the twelve dollars and the carnations and the man who bought them with the same love I accept everything in my marriage — imperfectly, completely, with a sigh that is also a smile.

I made Calvin's favorite dinner: smothered pork chops. This is not a complicated dish but it is a sincere one. You season the chops — salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, a whisper of paprika — and you dredge them in flour and brown them in the cast iron until they are golden and then you add onions, sliced thin, and chicken broth, and you cover the pan and let the whole thing simmer until the onions are silk and the gravy is thick and the pork chops are so tender they apologize when you cut them. Rice on the side. Steamed broccoli because my doctor says I need more green vegetables and I am trying, Lord, I am trying.

We ate by candlelight, which means I lit the candle on the table that usually only gets lit when the power goes out, and Calvin said, "Well, this is fancy," and I said, "Don't get used to it," and we ate in the candlelight like two people who have been married twenty-six years and do not need fancy but appreciate the effort of pretending, because pretending is its own kind of love — the decision to make ordinary extraordinary, even if the extraordinary is just a candle and pork chops and a man who still reaches for your hand across a table that has held decades of meals and arguments and prayers.

Marcus was not home — he was at a school basketball game with friends. Destiny was not home — she was studying at UAB. It was just Calvin and me and the pork chops and the candle and the twenty-six years, and the quiet was the kind I love, the kind where you don't need to talk because the talking has been done, years of it, enough words to fill a cathedral, and now you can just eat and hold hands and listen to the pork chops sizzle in the pan and know that this — this silence, this meal, this man, this candlelight — is the sermon. The marriage is the sermon. And the pork chops are the amen.

So if you want to make your own Valentine’s Day sermon — or just a really good Tuesday night dinner — here’s the recipe Calvin has been requesting for twenty-six years running. It’s not fancy. It doesn’t need to be. You just need a cast iron skillet, some patience, and somebody worth lighting a candle for.

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 50 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes | Servings: 4

Ingredients

4 bone-in pork chops, about 3/4 inch thick
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 large yellow onions, sliced thin
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 and 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Cooked white rice, for serving

Instructions

Season the chops. Pat pork chops dry with paper towels. Mix salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and paprika in a small bowl. Season both sides of each chop generously.
Dredge in flour. Place the flour in a shallow dish. Dredge each seasoned pork chop in the flour, shaking off the excess. Reserve 2 tablespoons of the leftover flour for the gravy.
Brown the pork chops. Heat the vegetable oil in a large cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. Brown the pork chops for about 3 to 4 minutes per side until golden. Work in batches if needed to avoid crowding the pan. Transfer chops to a plate.
Cook the onions. Reduce heat to medium. Add the sliced onions to the same skillet and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 to 7 minutes until softened and beginning to caramelize. Add the minced garlic and cook for 30 seconds more.
Build the gravy. Sprinkle the reserved 2 tablespoons of flour over the onions and stir for about 1 minute. Slowly pour in the chicken broth and Worcestershire sauce, stirring and scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the skillet. Bring the mixture to a simmer.
Smother and simmer. Nestle the pork chops back into the skillet, spooning onions and gravy over the top. Cover with a tight-fitting lid, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 30 to 35 minutes until the pork chops are fork-tender and the gravy has thickened.
Serve. Spoon the pork chops, onions, and gravy over cooked white rice. Taste the gravy and adjust salt and pepper as needed.

Nutrition (per serving)

Smothered Pork Chops — The Sermon on the Plate