Smothered Pork Chops in the Slow Cooker or Crock Pot

Recipe: Smothered Pork Chops in the Slow Cooker Recipe »

This smothered pork chop recipe is a saucy delight. Tender pork chops are smothered or covered in a deliciously rich gravy that helps seal in the moisture. We cook them low and slow in the slow cooker until they're just falling apart. These are also suitable for the oven or stovetop too! Serve these delectable pork chops with buttery mashed potato.

About These Smothered Pork Chops

Smothered pork chops are a Southern American recipe where pork chops are pan fried and then cooked in a rich roux based gravy made of chicken or beef stock. This super simple recipe has very few ingredients and is still super delicious and comforting. I honestly did not expect this to I first saw these smothered pork chops on one of my favourite TikTok accounts, Lovina Zook who shares Amish recipes. She combines simple recipes with unending eye contact videos. When she took the pork chops out of the oven my mouth started watering. And I'll show you how to make these in the slow cooker or in the oven.

A little warning though: this will really smell delicious when you're cooking them so if you're like me, you'll probably get hungry waiting for these to cook!

Ingredients For Smothered Pork Chops

• Oil - I use olive oil but you can use whichever oil you like.

• Pork chops - You can use any type of pork chops for this recipe eg rib chop, porterhouse chop, loin chop or sirloin pork chop. Try and get thick cut pork chops or ones that are at least 2cm or 0.8inch thick but honestly any pork chops or pork loin chops will do. You can use bone in or boneless pork chops.
• Butter - I use good old salted butter to make the roux.
• Flour - plain all purpose flour is used here along with the butter to make a roux that will result in a creamy sauce.
• Beef or chicken bone broth - I used beef bone broth that I bought at the market but you can also use chicken or you can use chicken or beef liquid stock too. Bone broth is considered a bit more nutritious because of the higher collagen, protein and minerals because it is simmered for longer and is often a bit more jellied in texture. But it is also more expensive so it depends on what you want.
• Salt and black pepper - jus the regular salt and freshly cracked black pepper
• Garlic powder - I always keep garlic powder handy as it makes awesome garlic butter and doesn't burn. Tip: I store my garlic powder in the freezer so that it doesn't clump! This also works for onion powder.

Tips For Making Smothered Pork Chops in the Slow Cooker

1 - This is really such a simple recipe that you don't need many tips at all. All I can say is that you can double or triple this recipe easily.

2 - You can make these in the instant pot where you can pan fry the chops and then switch to the slow cooker setting.

3 - Make sure to not add the broth in all at once. Add it in slowly say in five or six batches.

4 - The salt needed depends on how salty your bone broth is as some are saltier than others. Start with the smallest amount and then add to taste.

5 - I like to do makes these smothered pork chops in the slow cooker if I am doing more than 4 because the shape of the slow cooker is ideal for ensuring that the pork chops are covered with the sauce aka smothered. Otherwise you can make 4 in a casserole dish in the oven as long as they fit on the bottom of the casserole and are covered in the sauce.

6 - After I skim the fat from the top of the gravy, I sometimes sieve the gravy before serving it. Other times if I don't have the time I serve it as it is!

7 - Sides that go well with this are mashed potato (try these blue cheese mashed potatoes), steamed rice or anything that absorbs sauces well as this is very saucy!

8 - If you love pork chops, try my Cuban pork chop recipe here or try a quick version of Char Siu using forequarter pork chops! And one of my favourite recipes is this Japanese Kakuni pork belly done in the slow cooker or pressure cooker!

Smothered Pork Chops in the Slow Cooker Recipe

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Recipe Overview

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 4 hours in slow cooker or 2 hours in oven

Makes 6 pork chops

Ingredients Needed

• 3 teaspoons oil
• 6 pork chops, 2cm or 0.8inch thick, bone in or boneless, around 1.2kgs/2.6lbs total
• 140g/5ozs butter
• 140g/5ozs flour
• 1 litre/2.1pint beef or chicken bone broth
• 1.5-3 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 200ml/7flozs water

Step-By-Step Instructions

Step 1 - If you're baking these in the oven preheat oven to 150C/300F. Otherwise if you're cooking them in a slow cooker, you don't have to preheat it. Place a frying pan on medium heat. Add oil and fry pork chops on both sides (around 2-3 minutes per side). Do this in two lots so that the pan isn't over crowded. Place in a baking dish or slow cooker.

Step 2 - Add butter to the pan but don't brown it, just melt it and add flour and stir together on medium low heat for 1 minute. Add the bone broth in slowly, in five or six batches stirring it well to incorporate it until it starts to thicken. Add salt, black pepper and garlic powder and stir to combine. Add the water and stir well. Pour over pork chops making sure that all of the pork is covered. Cover baking dish with a lid or foil or add to slow cooker and place the lid on.

Step 3 - If baking in a 150C/300F oven cook for 2 hours with the lid on. If cooking in the slow cooker set to high for 3-4 hours or low for 5-6 hours. When the time is up skim the extra fat on top with a spoon or I place a paper towel on top that sucks up the fat and discard it (there's plenty of gravy so we can spare a bit if it goes on the paper towel). Serve with mashed potatoes or rice.

Personal Note

Speaking of TikTok, I also love this series on TikTok called Subway Takes. In it the host Kareem Rahma asks subway riding New Yorkers for their strong take on a subject. It can be about anything and sometimes he agrees with them, sometimes he doesn't.

And although I know there's very little chance I'll ever be featured on Subway Takes because I haven't been to New York in decades I have my hot take ready. Do you ever do that? Like have an answer prepared for what you'd say if you were ever interviewed on a topic?

My hot take is that we need only focus on the "feels like" temperature and we can get rid of the "actual temperature" because the "feels like" temperature is basically the real temperature on the human body. It is basically what people care about as we want to know what the weather will be like to us when we step outside and the actual temperature is misleading. I also have another hot take about animal cruelty too but the feels like one is currently very pertinent as it is cold and wet!

So tell me Dear Reader, do you have any hot takes aka strong opinions?