Hiya friends! Did you enjoy that extra hour from daylight savings over the weekend? We kept the kids up a little late on Saturday night, watching a movie and eating popcorn, hoping that would help them sleep in. It worked, a little. They were up before their normal time but not by much. And funny, they weren’t so concerned about playing or the time, but said their tummies hurt because they were SO hungry. Haha, totally my kids 😉 Speaking of food…
Apparently I’ve been on a bit of pork kick lately. We’ve had pork chops with apple butter and balsamic pork tenderloin with thyme recently, and I’ve got a really good Italian slow cooker pork recipe coming up soon. (You can sign up for my free e-newsletter to get weekly updates about new posts. You’ll also get my free e-cookbook with 10 healthy weeknight dinners as a thank you!) Now let’s discuss these cranberry balsamic pork chops. You will be amazed at how a few simple ingredients can bring SO much flavor to these pork chops. It’s got depth, it’s got richness, it’s got a bit of earthiness from the rosemary and a sweet-tart combo of the cranberry sauce and balsamic vinegar.
I literally lick the sauce from the spoon. I call it the cook’s perk. 😉 (And I love the sauce so much, I tweaked this recipe and made cranberry balsamic chicken too - also so yummy!) You just gotta trust me that this combination of flavors is pretty outstanding! And this is a great way to use up some leftover cranberry sauce after Thanksgiving to make an entirely different meal that everyone will want to dig into!
I use thick-cut pork chops that are about 1 ½ inches thick. If yours are thinner, the cooking time will be less. I’ve used both red wine (when we had some open) and chicken broth and it’s great both ways. Use what ya got. I use my 15-minute easy cranberry sauce, which helps make this extra delicious. You can substitute your own version of homemade cranberry sauce and I guess you can try it with the canned stuff, if that’s what you like. (I don’t. Sorry.) I don’t recommend, however, substituting dried rosemary for the fresh rosemary here. If you want to add a little decadence, stir in a tablespoon of butter when you finish the sauce.
I served these cranberry balsamic pork chops with baked sweet potatoes and my sautéed green beans and tomatoes, as you can see. They’d also go great with my 10-minute microwave baked potatoes or some steamed brown rice and my citrus kale salad, which has dried cranberries to tie it in. So here’s to cranberry sauce being put center stage, with the main meal, instead of just sitting in a sad little china bowl off to the side of a Thanksgiving spread, hoping to be noticed. Enjoy! ~ Kathryn
I use thick-cut pork chops that are about 1 ½ inches thick. If yours are thinner, the cooking time will be less. If you want to add a little decadence, stir in a tablespoon of butter when you finish the sauce.
