Perfectly cooked Lemon Pepper Pork Chops in a cast iron skillet make for quite the savory, simple meal. Make an optional gluten free lemon cream sauce for extra flavor.
Raise yo’ hand if your Labor Day was fabulous!!!
You can’t see me, but my hand if definitely raised…well, in spirit at least. I need my hand for typing, therefore I am ignoring my own call for raised hands across the nation. It’s okay, though. I’m used to ignoring myself. I don’t even take offense to it anymore.
The best part about yesterday’s festivities is that I don’t even have a single picture to document all the fun I had. “What?!,” you say??? “How can that be a good thing?!,” you ask??? I’ll tell you: It means that I was having far too much fun to stop for a single moment, grab my phone, and take a picture. Yes indeed, the day was way too fabulous.
It started off with a routine morning run, which seems to always start the day off right, as hard as it is to get out of bed most mornings. Then I rushed home to begin making cookies for our Labor Day beach potluck. In the middle of baking, I darted off to our women’s workout at the church building where I was surprised to find half of the husbands had joined their wives for the morning grind. That was quite entertaining watching grown men try to keep up with us bodacious babes.
After workout I came back home to finish baking, rounded up beach gear, and headed out the door with Ben and the girls to attend our church’s annual Labor Day potluck. Wait, I lied. I most definitely did NOT gather up beach gear. By “I” I really meant “Ben”. I just figured you would get that I have an amazing husband that keeps me on track. He would kill me if I didn’t give him credit for that.
Once we grubbed for a few minutes, and I actually did grub a little (Potlucks kind of freak me out. Just saying.), we headed down to the water where I set up my beach chair, put my toes in the sand, busted out a book, and watched Ben and the girls play.
NOT!!!
You want to know what I really did??? I grabbed a boogie board, paddled out to the awesome waves that were twice my size, and I rode those babies for almost an hour. Ben joined me for the first 15 minutes or so, then I basically boogie boarded with all of the other hubbies for the next half an hour, and finally some of my equally adventurous friends made their way out to the water to defy death with me.
It. Was. AMAZING!!!
And now I am tired. I am feeling the aftermath of yesterday’s shenanigans and it is brutal. But it was worth every current ache and pain.
So you can bet I am planning on an easy, mess free dinner that involves minimal amounts of labor. I already have leftover mashed potatoes in the fridge that I am planning on heating up, and I bought a bag of brussel sprouts that I can throw in my toaster oven with a bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper.
And for the finishing touch, how about these Lemon Pepper Pork Chops with an optional gluten free lemon pepper cream sauce??? And by “optional” I mean “crazy good but I have no extra energy to make it tonight…BUT, I probably will anyway because I’m a little OCD in the kitchen”.
No really, these pork chops are stress free. All you do is take some pre-cut boneless, skinless pork chops and season them with a few spices before throwing them into the cast iron skillet to cook to perfection. Are you getting my vibe on this??? EASY.
Once the pork chops are cooked, and you’re letting them rest, you toss in some onions and mushrooms to saute in the pan with all the pork drippings. This is Ben’s and Emry’s favorite part. They love sauteed mushrooms and onions. I eat them with my meat, but they eat them plain by the spoonful because they taste so good.
And if you are an overachiever and want to make the lemon pepper cream sauce, you just heat that in the same pan once you remove the veggies. All you have to do is stir the sauce at a low boil until it slightly thickens. Otherwise, just pour the juices from the plate where the pork is resting on top of your pork chop and veggies. Either way is deliciously full of flavor.
It’s almost deceitful how heavenly this meal is once you find out the simplicity that goes into preparing it. I feel like I’m fooling all of you.
It’s almost as deceitful as a 97 pound, 33 year old mama of two riding some killer waves with the jellyfish. Not exactly what you would expect, huh?
What festivities did you have on Labor Day?
- For the pork chops:
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 4 thick, boneless center cut pork chops (about 1" thick)
- ¾ teaspoon salt, plus more for seasoning
- ¾ teaspoon lemon pepper
- black pepper for seasoning
- ½ onion, cut into thin strips
- 6 medium white button mushrooms, sliced
- For the sauce:
- 1 cup half and half
- ¼ cup white cooking wine
- juice of 1 lemon
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon lemon pepper
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¾ teaspoon crushed dried rosemary
- 1 teaspoon white rice flour
- Season both sides of pork chops with ¾ teaspoon salt and ¾ teaspoon lemon pepper. Rub into both sides. Let pork sit for 10 mins. Heat 3 tablespoons olive oil in a cast iron skillet over medium heat.
- Once pan is hot enough that drop of water sizzles, arrange pork chops in pan at least 1" apart and reduce heat just below medium. Cook for 6 mins on each side, pushing around pan every 3 minutes to avoid burning. Remove from heat and let sit for 10 mins before cutting to let juices distribute.
- While pork chops are cooking, slice onion and mushrooms. Once you remove pork chops from the pan, add onions and mushrooms. Lightly season with salt and pepper (there should be almost enough seasoning left over in the pan), and stir, scraping bottom of the pan to get browned bits from pork chops, for 5-6 minutes until crisp tender. Remove from pan.
- While onions are cooking, mix all ingredients for sauce in a mixing bowl. Whisk to combine. After you remove veggies from pan, slowly pour in sauce while stirring with a wooden spoon. Bring mixture to a low boil, scraping bottom of pan to get all flavors, and continue to stir until slightly thickened. Season to taste with additional salt and pepper. Remove from heat and serve with pork chops and sauteed veggies.
