Pork chops with creamy mushroom sauce

🌡️ Overcooking is the one mistake that ruins this

An overcooked pork chop is rubber. It stops tasting like anything and no sauce on earth is going to fix it. Pull the chops at 145°F (63°C) in the center, actually a couple of degrees under, because they keep cooking on the plate while you finish the sauce.

Stop guessing. A thermometer costs about as much as one dinner out and it saves every roast you cook for the next ten years. I put together a meat and fish cooking temperature guide with every cut in Celsius and Fahrenheit, keep it open on your phone the first time.

🥩 Bone-in, an inch thick

I like them bone-in. More flavour, and the bone shields the meat from the heat so the chop stays juicy longer. You do pay for that bone, no argument there. I think it’s worth it. About an inch thick, no thinner: a thin chop goes from raw to dry in thirty seconds and there’s no saving it.

🍄 Why I take the mushrooms out of the pan

Three or four minutes, then out they come. Almost nobody does this and it’s exactly where the sauce is won. Mushrooms throw off a lot of water. Leave them in while the pork sears and that water keeps the meat from browning: you end up steaming your chop instead of searing it, and there’s nothing left on the bottom of the pan to build a sauce with. Take them out, sear the meat in a dry pan, then bring them back in with the white wine.

🍋 Zest and juice, both

Half a lemon, zest and juice. The zest carries the perfume, the juice cuts the cream and wakes everything else up. That’s what separates this sauce from every beige cream sauce out there.

🥛 15% cream, on purpose

I use 15% country-style cream because it’s nearly as thick as 35% and a lot less fatty. Fat is good, I’ll be the first to say it, but you have to pick your battles.

🍷 White wine: cook what you’d drink

If you wouldn’t pour it in a glass, don’t pour it in the pan.

🍳 My cast iron skillet

I use my cast iron skillet. The heat is even and it doesn’t drop when four cold chops hit the surface, and that’s what gives you the crust. Any skillet will work, but cast iron is a buy-it-once thing.

🔥 It works in the oven too

My recipe is 100% stovetop, start to finish. That said, if your chops are extra thick you can absolutely sear them in the pan and finish them in a 400°F (200°C) oven. It’s an option, not the method. Thermometer either way.

📅 Get ahead of it

Slice the mushrooms and chop the onion, garlic and all three herbs the day before. Measure out your cream, broth, wine and lemon juice into small bowls while you’re at it. Come dinner time you pull everything out of the fridge and it’s all sitting there in front of you. The sauce itself I always build at the last minute, in the drippings from the meat.

❄️ Storing, reheating and freezing

Chops and sauce keep 2 to 3 days in the fridge. Reheat gently in a skillet over medium heat, never high: harsh heat is what breaks a cream sauce.

If it splits anyway, a little hot broth whisked in slowly brings it back. And yes, it freezes, sauce included. The texture can come out slightly different after thawing, but that shouldn’t stop you. Leftovers freeze fine too.

✅ What to serve with my pork chops?

Egg noodles on the side and everyone loses their mind, that’s my number one and it isn’t changing. My Boursin garlic and herb mashed potatoes never miss either, and if you really want to show off, my aligot with this sauce is borderline indecent. Basmati rice or fresh pasta both work. And if you want pork chops in a completely different direction, go see my pork chops with honey, soy sauce and mead or my Vietnamese pork chops.