Apple Baked Pork Chops

This is an example of my kind of cooking - take simple ingredients that I like and put them together and then see if there are any spices that can be added in a small amount to enhance the quality of the dish. This dish -- pork chops, sauerkraut, apples, carrots are all things that go together, so trying to find ways to make them work together is not hard, but finding a way to make them great is my challenge. The recipe below comes out pretty good - but is one I will definitely continue to work on over the next few months to make it even better.

Ingredients

4 Pork Chops

28 ounces of washed, strained sauerkraut

2 Apples, cored, peeled, sliced

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 cup chicken broth

1/2 carrot, grated

1 teaspoon fennel seed (grind)

1/2 teaspoon coriander seed (grind)

6 bacon strips, crumbled

Cooking Directions

Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease an aluminum foil lined baking pan.

Drain, rinse and strain the sauerkraut. Place in the baking pan. Lightly salt and pepper each side of the pork chops (to taste) and place on the bed of sauerkraut. Add chicken broth. Grate the carrot over the chops.

Peel, core and slice the apples. Place them over the chops. Cover apple with sugar, fennel and coriander.

Tightly cover the dish with foil. Bake for 1 hour.

Cook the bacon. Crumble.

Remove from oven and remove foil. Add bacon on top. Return to oven for 5 more minutes.

Cooking Notes

The first time I cooked this, it wasn't salty enough (read: bland). Adding the chicken stock helped. In the future, I am going to look at slicing the apples thinner (or using less apples), because this dish has the ability to be baked apples, with a touch of pork chop, which isn't what I am looking for. Also, next time I cook this, I am going to quickly sear the chops in a skillet first (and will probably cut down the baking time). I might also look at the addition of a few other spices (Juniper berries, caraway seeds).

So there is room to make this dish better.