Wednesday: Thin Cut Pork Chops with Creamy Mushroom Sauce over Wild Rice

Last week I had a recipe for Maple Glazed Pork Chops.  Went to the store and picked up the chops.  Didn't really give them a good look.  Opened up the package to get dinner started and saw that they were cut really thin...too thin for what the recipe called for.  Giving into my perfectionist self...I packed up the girls in the car and ran to the store to get some thick chops. 


Of course, that meant I had 2lbs of pork left over.  Sigh.  Started surfing to find out a good way to prepare these thin little things.  Ran into a response to a question on Chow.com and decided it sounded too good to pass up.  I even emailed the poster to get clarifications on a few things.  Looking forward to getting these out of my freezer...and lesson learned...check my chops before leaving the butcher block.

Thin Cut Pork Chops with Creamy Mushroom Sauce


Ingredients:
4 thin cut pork chops (edges scored)
Seasoned flour (flour with rosemary, salt and pepper mixed in)
2 eggs
Sauce:
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 shallots sliced
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
Fresh thyme (to your taste)
1 Tbsp Cognac (can be omitted) 
1/2 cup white wine
8 oz sliced cremini mushrooms
Flour
Heavy cream (or whole milk)


Wild rice (prepare as package states, then throw in some sliced scallions and a touch of red pepper flakes for flavor)




Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Dip chops into egg wash and dredge lightly in flour (shake off any excess)


Heat a large oven proof pan over high heat.  Add butter/oil mixture.  As soon as the butter starts to foam, add the chops and sear on one side. (2-3 min tops)  Flip chops (3-4 min more) (this also depends on how thin your chops are) and insert pan into preheated oven for 5 min.  Remove from oven, place chops on a waiting plate and cover with foil.


Sauce:
Heat olive oil in same pan that you used for the chops.  Add the shallots, garlic, thyme, and mushrooms.  Saute for 4 minutes.  Add a tablespoon of flour to start the roux.  Add the wine and scrap up any browned bits.  Next, add about a cup of cream.  You'll want it to come to a medium boil in order to get nice and thick.  You'll prob end up adding about 1 and a half cups of the cream.  Depends on how much sauce you want and how thick.  It's one of those things where you just have to add as you need, so start low and go from there.


On your waiting plates, add 1 cup of rice, lay the pork chop on top and pour some of the creamy sauce over it all.  Happy eating!  :)