Tonight's Dinner: Breaded Stuffed Pork Chops

This was tonight's entree. I originally was going to just bread and fry the chops and serve them with some leftovers reworked but once the chops were defrosted I realized that they were the ones I put slits in for stuffing so I had to come up with a stuffing quickly.

I combined some leftover cooked sausage with some more crumbs and a bit of olive oil, parmesan, salt and pepper. I sealed the chops with toothpicks and then I breaded them and fried them. Once I removed them from the pan, I removed the toothpicks for easy, and safe, eating.

I served them with some leftover hash brown casserole (which i reworked and re-seasoned a bit) and some broccoli.

                     *  Exported from  MasterCook  *

                        Breaded Stuffed Pork Chops

Recipe By     : adapted from Penzeys One, Vol 3 Issue 5
Serving Size  : 4    Preparation Time :0:00
Categories    : Main Dishes                      Meat

  Amount  Measure       Ingredient -- Preparation Method
--------  ------------  --------------------------------
   4      thick         pork chops
   1      tb            lemon pepper
     3/4  cup           whole wheat panko crumbs
   1      tb            freshly grated parmesan cheese
   1      ts            dried thyme
   3      tb            olive oil
   1                    egg
   1      tb            half and half
                        Stuffing:
   1                    cooked sausage -- to 2
   2      tb            whole wheat panko crumbs
                        olive oil
                        salt and pepper

Wash and trim the pork chops. Dry them off well.  With a sharp knife, make a big slit in the center of each chop (on the side) and make a deep pocket, but do not cut through all the way. Rub with lemon pepper and set aside. In a shallow bowl, combine egg and half-and-half. In another shallow plate or bowl, combine panko, cheees and thyme. Mix well.

In a small bowl, combine some cooked sausage, some panko crumbs, a bit of olive oll, salt and pepper. Stuff the chops with this mixture and close the chops with a toothpick.

Preheat a large skillet over MED-HIGH heat. Add the oil. Let it heat up a bit. Meanwhile, dredge chops in egg and then into the panko crumb mixture. Fry in the oil until browned on both sides. When the chops are on their first side, preheat oven to 375 degrees. When the chops are browned on both sides, place in the oven for 10-15 minutes until cooked through.

Serve with hash brown casserole and cooked broccoli sprinkled with fresh parmesan cheese.

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NOTES : Risa's notes:

Original recipe called for regular unseasoned store bought bread crumbs and the original recipe did not ask to make a pocket or stuff the chops.

RisaG