Cooking with Beer: Beer Smothered Pork Chops

 Welcome to Cooking With Beer, where food and beer come together to make culinary coitus. If you think cooking with gas is cool, wait to you try cooking with beer.

This dish was prepared with Union Craft Brewing's Balt Alt, an absolutely delicious altbier made locally in Baltimore. I decided on Balt Alt because I was looking for a malty beer that would add a little sweetness to the gravy and I wanted a beer with caramel looking appearance to help add good color to the gravy. If you've never cooked with beer before, give this a try. It'll make a great plate to warm up with during these last few cold days of winter. 

Ingredients:

•  4 Bone-in Pork Chops (as thick as you can find up to an inch)
• Salt & Pepper
• 2 TBS Oil
• 2 TBS Butter
• 1 Medium sized onion (white or yellow)
• 1/2 of a Green Pepper
• 2 Stalks of Celery
• 2 Cloves of Garlic
• 3 TBS Flour
• 1 and 1/2 cups of Chicken broth
• 8 ounces of Beer
• 1/4 cup Heavy Cream
• 1 cup of sliced button mushrooms
• Hot Sauce (as much or as little as you'd like)
• You may or may not need a corn starch slurry

Instructions:

• Salt & Pepper Pork Chops. Add oil to cast iron pot or dutch oven. Brown on each side roughly 3 minutes. Place chops on a plate
• Melt butter and add onion, green pepper, celery and garlic. Cover and cook 10 minutes or until vegetables are soft
• Throw flour over the vegetables and stir around to cook the rawness out of the flour.
• Add Chicken broth and beer, bring to a simmer. When simmering add pork chops back in, simmer 20 minutes with lid on. When chops are done, remove them from the pot.
• Add cream, mushrooms and hot sauce. Simmer until it desired gravy consistency is achieved. Sometimes a little corn starch slurry is necessary to thicken it up enough but it's up to you.
• Plate your pork chops and smother them in the gravy. Serve with noodles, rice, or roasted potatoes.