Peasant Pork Chops and Applebees Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Last night for dinner I tried two new recipes and I was impressed on both accounts.  I had some sour cream in my refrigerator that needed to be used before we leave for Christmas so I tried this pork chop recipe.  It was darn good!  The meat was so tender we hardly needed a knife.  I have never had Applebees mashed potatoes before but a friend of mine is in love with them.  They have oven roasted garlic in them and I have always wanted to try roasting garlic.  They were so good.  The roasted garlic might seem like a time consuming step but trust me, it's not.  It only takes a minute to get it ready to throw into the oven and then you can forget about it until the timer goes off. 

6-8 pork chops (I used boneless sirloin chops)
2 T. Butter
1 Onion, chopped coarsely
2 Cloves Garlic, pressed
Seasoning Salt
3/4 C. Chicken Broth
1 bay leaf
1 C. Sour Cream

Melt butter in a frying pan and saute onion and garlic for a few minutes.  Add pork chops and sprinkle in some seasoning salt (don't go way overboard on this step or your gravy will be too salty just sprinkle a little bit on each pork chop).  Brown each piece of meat on each side.  Add the chicken broth and the bay leaf then cover and turn heat down to low.  Cook on low for 1 hour.  Remove pork chops to a serving plate and cover with tin foil to keep the meat warm while you make the gravy.  Turn the heat up to hi and boil juices until they reduce to half, it will only take 3-4 minutes at a hard boil for this to happen.  Take the pan off the burner and add the sour cream, whisking it in to create a gravy without lumps.  Pour gravy over pork chops.  If you feel like you have too much to pour it all over the meat you can pour the rest in a bowl to use as a gravy for the potatoes.

Applebees Mashed Potatoes
3-4 lbs. Red Potatoes
3 T. Butter
1/4 C. Heavy Whipping Cream or Half and Half
1/2-3/4 C. Milk
1 head roasted garlic
Salt and Pepper to taste

To roast garlic, heat your oven to 400.  Cut the top off the head of garlic and put it on a piece of tin foil.  Drizzle some olive oil on top of garlic head and wrap in up tightly in tin foil.  Put the garlic on a cookie sheet in the oven for 30 minutes.  After it is done cooking unwrap the tin foil and let the garlic cool for at least 15 minutes before handling. This is what your finished product will look like. 

Wash potatoes then peel them just removing the eyes and undesirable parts of potatoes, leaving about 1/2 the skin on the potatoes.  Cut into cubes.  Boil in a large pot until tender, about 20-25 minutes.  Drain, then add the butter, heavy cream, 1/2 C. milk and salt and pepper.  Mash with a potato masher or a mixer until creamy.  Add more milk if necessary.  Remove garlic cloves from skins with a small fork or just by pushing on the skins to make the cloves slide out.  You'll want to do this into a separate bowl so you don't inadvertently get a piece of the skin in your potatoes.  Add garlic to potatoes and mash until combined.  Enjoy with your delicious pork chops!