Skillet Balsamic Pork Chops with Peach and Gorgonzola Salad

Ingredients

Pork Chops:
4 cups water
4 tablespoons Kosher salt
2 bone-in pork chops
2 tablespoons olive oil

Salad:
2 peaches, sliced
3 ounces of gorgonzola dolce or crumbled blue cheese
3-4 handfuls of arugula

Vinaigrette:
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
¼ cup honey
1-2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme leaves or rosemary
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 

Directions
To brine the pork chops, dissolve salt into water and pour mixture over pork chops in a shallow dish. Cover and refrigerate 30 minutes up to 4 hours. Preheat oven broiler to high with the oven rack in the middle position. Rinse the pork chops and dry well with paper towels. Season lightly with salt and pepper. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil to a heavy oven-proof skillet and heat on medium-high until the oil is shimmering. Carefully, add pork chops to skillet and cook undisturbed for about 5 minutes, or until very brown. Meanwhile, combine the first 5 ingredients of the vinaigrette into small bowl or jar. After searing pork chops, flip and pour all but 1½ tablespoons of vinaigrette mixture to the pork skillet. Immediately place the skillet in the preheated oven and broil until the pork’s internal temperature is 145 degrees and charred, 2-4 minutes. Add a splash of water if the sauce is too thick when removed from oven. If you’d like the sauce thicker, remove the chops after they are cooked through and simmer sauce until reduced. Add remaining olive oil to vinaigrette mixture and whisk. Toss the peaches, gorgonzola and arugula with the vinaigrette. Place the pork chops on a platter and arrange the peach salad around the pork. Serve with the sauce from the pork pan. ■

Recipe by: Lauren Lane

After 25 years in creative design and management with Hallmark Cards, Lauren Lane retired to pursue her lifelong passion for food and entertaining. The ensuing years have been an amazing educational journey as she pursues her dream of helping people appreciate food more fully, and enjoying how it brings people together. Lauren continues to experiment with how to make food more delicious, more approachable and share the experience more fully with her audience.

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