Smothered Pork Chops

This is a recipe that I've used a couple times--it's called smothered pork chops, and it's from an Emeril cookbook (yeah, yeah...it was a gift). It's nothing fancy, all the ingredients used are common, it's fairly simple to make, and it's somewhat cheap (except for the pork, maybe), which makes this a good choice for college students! Especially since you can use those thin cut pork chops at the supermarket.

The full recipe can be viewed online here.

Ingredients

• 8 thinly cut (about 1/2 inch thick) pork chops (I had pork chops and pork loin sitting in the freezer, so I used both)
• 2 teaspoons Emeril's Original Essence (I just used montreal steak seasoning, I would say any kind of strong seasoning blend for meats will work)
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 4 cups thinly sliced onions
• salt and pepper
• 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
• 4 bay leaves
• Two 14.5-ounce cans low-sodium chicken broth, or 3.5 cups Chicken Stock
• 1.5 cans water (measured in the chicken broth cans), or about 2.75 cups of water if you don't want to measure from the cans
• 1 pound smoked sausage or andouille, cut crosswise into 1-inch slices (I just had cheap smoked sausage)
• 1 pound russet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
• Steamed white rice or rice pilaf, for serving

Preparation

Make sure your index finger isn't fully extended, like mine is here (whoops).

The recipe says thinly slice, but I don't like long strands of onion. Also, chop the garlic...

...the potatoes, and the sausage. You won't use the potatoes and sausage for 45 minutes, so you may want to prep them later. Either that, or put them in the fridge to slow down browning in the potato.

Season the pork with salt, pepper, and whatever seasoning you're using (which may already contain salt and pepper, so be aware of that).

If you only have one cutting board, you probably want to do this part last, unless you like raw pork juice in your onion. Either that, or wash the cutting board/flip it to the other side.

Add the olive oil to a pot under high heat, wait for the oil to get hot, and brown the pork. Do batches if you have to, to prevent crowding in the pot.

Take the pork out of the pot, and put it aside.

So now our pot has olive oil, pork juices, and bits of pork/seasoning in it. Reduce the heat to medium, add the flour to the pot, and stir constantly until your roux is the color of peanut butter (no pictures of this, sorry!)

Add the onions to your roux and stir until they're slightly soft, about 5 minutes.

Add the garlic, bay leaves (I didn't have any), chicken broth, and water and bring to a boil.

Then, put the pork chops in the pot, reduce the heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer for 45 minutes.

Now would be a good time to clean up and/or prep the potato/sausage.

45 minutes later, add the potato and sausage, bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low and cook uncovered, stirring occasionally for 30 minutes.

30 minutes later, this is what my pot looked like.

Remove the bay leaves if you added them, serve over rice, and there's your meal!