Baked Breaded Pork Chops

My usual go-to method for cooking pork chops is cooking them with a can of cream of mushroom soup. Well, not only do I not have any of the stuff, but we are trying to get away from using any of the “cream of …” soups.  Have you read the ingredients on them?! 

Since I didn’t have any of the soup, and I really didn’t feel like trying to make some from scratch, I let my hubby decide between grilling them, or baking them. Since anytime we use the grill he is usually the one doing it, he went with baked chops. Fine with me!  It’s one of those fix it and forget it kind of things–at least until the stove timer beeps annoyingly at you.

I decided to do a baked breaded pork chop instead of just baking them plain.  How hard could it be right?

I adapted this recipe from one I use a lot with chicken.  The difference was that I didn’t have any eggs or greek yogurt to dip the chops in prior to breading.  You need the moisture to make sure the meat picks up your breading. 

What to do, what to do? 

I decided to try marinating them in Worcestershire sauce!  I love this stuff!  It keeps your meat nice and juicy, while tenderizing it.  So I soaked those beautiful chops in the stuff and went to work making my breading.

I like to use both Panko crumbs and Italian seasoned bread crumbs.  You could use just plain bread crumbs, but the Panko gives them a nice “crunch”.

I mixed together the Panko, bread crumbs, some Parmesan cheese, pepper, a TINY bit of salt, garlic powder, paprika and I also threw in some cayenne pepper for some heat. 

With a husband that throws hot sauce on EVERYTHING, I’ve learned to cook things a little more on the spicy side. If I don’t he just drowns it in hot sauce and doesn’t appreciate the effort I put into the flavor.

Here is what my breading mix looks like.

Once you have that ready coat your baking dish with some sort of buttery, oily, type substance.  I used a non stick olive oil spray. I like it because the flavor doesn’t over power your cooking.  You know how some non stick sprays have a chemical taste?  Is it just me?  Kind of like how tap water and spring water taste different?  See Mom, I’m not weird…

 Alright, now it’s time to coat your chops.  Make sure to get both sides and edges completely coated in your breading.  The more, the better in my book.  I even sprinkle a little more breading on top of them once they are coated.

And, of course, no dish is complete without a little help from my chocolate dog.  She’s always near by when I’m cooking, like she thinks I’m going to make a mess and drop something.  I wonder where she got THAT idea…

So now that your chops are breaded they are ready to go in the oven.  Bake them on 375 for 30-40 minutes, making sure halfway through you turn them so the bottoms don’t get totally mushy.  They are cooked through when they are no longer pink..duh..or the juices run clear.  After they are cooked, I turn the broiler on for about 5 minutes just to make them a little more crispy.

Mmmmm!  Time to enjoy with a nice glass of wine!

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