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Flavorful pork chops start with apples, onions

Recipe: Pork chops with caramelized apples and onions

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Debbie Arrington PUBLISHED OCT 12, 2025

Caramelized apples and onions enhance roasted pork chops, making a warming fall meal. Debbie Arrington

Fall is apple season. This hearty main dish with a French twist uses apples teamed with sweet onions (think Vidalia or Spanish yellow). The caramelized apples and onions create a delicious sauce that tastes as good as it smells.

Choose an apple that’s not too tart (I used Galas) or add a little more brown sugar.

Serve with rice or mashed potatoes along with some crusty bread to mop up that juicy sauce.

Pork chop and rice on a plate — Rice is an excellent accompaniment to
the sauced pork chops. Mashed potatoes would be
great with this as well.

Pork chops with caramelized apples and onions

Makes 3 servings

Ingredients:

3 boneless pork chops, about 1-inch thick

Seasoning salt and black pepper

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

4 tablespoons butter, divided

1 large sweet onion, thinly sliced

2 apples, cored and sliced 1/2-inch thick

½ cup white wine, apple cider or apple juice

½ cup chicken or vegetable broth

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 tablespoon white wine vinegar

½ teaspoon thyme

Chopped parsley, optional

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Pat dry pork chops and generously season both sides with seasoning salt and pepper. Set aside.

In an ovenproof skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat on the stovetop. Stir fry garlic until golden, about 2 to 3 minutes. With a slotted spoon, remove garlic and set aside.

Add 1 tablespoon butter to oil in pan. Add pork chops and brown on both sides, about 3 minutes per side. Baste chops with melted butter in pan while browning. Once browned, remove from pan and set aside. (Chops are not cooked through.)

Add another 1 tablespoon of butter to pan. Add sliced onion and sauté until soft and translucent, about 4 to 5 minutes. Add sliced apples to onions and brown apple slices, about 3 to 4 minutes. Sprinkle brown sugar over apples and onions, then add ¼ cup of white wine, apple cider or apple juice; stir and keep sautéing as the apples and onions caramelize. Cook for another 2 minutes as mixture begins to bubble.

Stir in remaining wine, cider or juice plus all the broth. Add white wine vinegar and thyme. Stir in cooked garlic.

Return pork chops to pan, snuggling them in the middle of the apples and onions. Place pan in the center of the 325-degree oven. Roast for 20 minutes or until the chops are just done.

Remove pan from oven. Remove chops from pan and keep warm.

Back on the stovetop over medium heat, add remaining 2 tablespoons butter to the apple-onion sauce. Bring to simmer, stirring often, until juices make a thin sauce, about 2 minutes.

Serve immediately with rice or mashed potatoes, topping the chops with the apple-onion sauce. Sprinkle chopped parsley over top, if desired.

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RECIPE

A recipe for preparing delicious meals from the bounty of the garden.

Keywords:

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Garden checklist for week of May 10

Take it easy during that high heat – then get to work! Your garden is calling.

* Remember to irrigate your tender transplants. Seedlings need consistent moisture. Deep watering will help build strong roots and healthy plants. Water early in the morning for best results.

* Plant, plant, plant! It’s prime planting season in the Sacramento area. Time to set out those tomato transplants along with peppers and eggplants. Pinch off any flowers on new transplants to make them concentrate on establishing roots instead of setting premature fruit.

* Direct-seed melons, cucumbers, summer squash, corn, radishes, pumpkins and annual herbs such as basil.

* Harvest cabbage, lettuce, peas and green onions.

* In the flower garden, direct-seed sunflowers, cosmos, salvia, zinnias, marigolds, celosia and asters. (You also can transplant seedlings for many of the same flowers.)

* Plant dahlia tubers. Other perennials to set out include verbena, coreopsis, coneflower and astilbe.

* Transplant petunias, marigolds and perennial flowers such as astilbe, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, dahlias, rudbeckia and verbena.

* Keep an eye out for slugs, snails, earwigs and aphids that want to dine on tender new growth.

* Feed summer bloomers with a balanced fertilizer.

* For continued bloom, cut off spent flowers on roses as well as other flowering plants.

* Put your veggie garden on a regular diet. Set up a monthly feeding program, and keep track on your calendar. Make sure to water your garden before applying any fertilizer to prevent “burning” your plants.

* As spring-flowering shrubs finish blooming, give them a little pruning to shape them, removing old and dead wood. Lightly trim azaleas, fuchsias and marguerites for bushier plants.

* Don’t forget to weed! Those invaders are growing fast.

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