OK – hands up. Who doesn’t love pork chops with mushroom soup? Did you grow up on it? For me it’s a childhood memory. It’s what I crave when I’m home sick. When I want to just curl up and whimper. These pork chops with mushroom cream sauce follow pretty much the same recipe – just upscales it. This is the dinner party version of the Campbell soup classic. It’s rich, delicious comfort food. And it isn’t much harder to make than the 1950s classic.
Pork chops with mushroom cream sauce are weeknight food
There’s not much to making these. The extra step is whipping up a quick “cream of mushroom soup”. Fry some mushrooms, add some liquid. Puree. Once you do that it’s the same recipe your mom taught you. Choice of pork chops is key here. Thin supermarket chops aren’t going to cut it. You need time in the oven for the Maillard flavours to develop. For the meat to brown and throw a fond. Deep flavours take time. And with pork chops time isn’t something you have a lot of. I’d say 1 inch in the minimum you can get away with here. Oven temperature is also critical. You want the juices to form a fond. Those wonderful brown bits make this dish. The flavour you get from the pan is what’s going to take this from average to delicious. You want your oven hot. 350F is not hot enough. 400F is about right. You can play with the recipe a bit too. As written it’s good. If you want it creamier, add more cream. If you want to add a bit of spice, piment d’esplette is really nice. If you want to go crazy truffle salt or oil takes it to a whole new level. That’s serious dinner party fare. Pork chops with mushroom cream sauce. Not your parent’s pork chops with mushroom soup. But not so different either. Like you remember. Only better.
