Stuffed Pork Chop's

I tried this recipe last night. Boneless pork chops were on sale locally for $1.77 a pound. The pork chops tasted great and was pleasant to look at on the plate. The recipe is from 1968, Recipes: American Cooking, Foods of the World, Time Life Books p 32.
I would say this recipe is pretty easy although I had to read and re-read the recipe several times during the process.

Stuffed Pork Chops
To serve 6

Stuffing
1 1/2 cups fine, dry bread crumbs
1/4 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1/4 teaspoon finely chopped garlic
1/2 pound well seasoned sausage meat
1/8 teaspoon thyme
3 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper

To make stuffing, combine the bread crumbs and cream in a small mixing bowl, and stir together to saturate the crumbs thoroughly. Over moderqte heat, melt the 2 tablespoons butter in an 8 inch skillet. When the foam subsides, add onions, garlic and crumbled sausage meat. Stirring constantly, cook until the sausage has rendered most of its fat and has lightly browned. Scrape the contents of the pan into a sieve and let the excess fat drain through. Then combine the sausage meat mixture with the bread crumbs in the mixing bowl. Add thyme and chopped parsley and mix together gently. Taste for seasoning. Add as much salt as you think it needs, and a little freshly ground pepper.

6 well-trimmed, center-cut pork chops, 1 inch thick, each slit on side to create a pocket about 3 inches deep
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 cup finely chopped, scraped carrot
1/4 teaspoon thyme
1 tablespoon flour
1 cup chicken stock, fresh or canned

Preheat oven to 325 dgrees. With a small spoon, pack as much of the stuffing as you can into the pork chop pockets and seal the openings with small skewers. Sprinkle the chops generously on both sides with salt and a few grindings of black pepper. Heat 4 tablespoons of oil over high heat in a 10 or 12 inch heavy skillet until a light haze forms over it. Add the chops and cook them on each side about 3 minutes, regulating the heat so that they brown easily and quickly without burning. Remove them to a platter. Pour off all but a thin film of fat from the skillet and add the 1/2 cup of chopped onion, carrot and thyme. Cook over moderte heat for 5 to 8 minutes until the vegetables color lightly. Then mix in the tablespoon of flour, add the stock and bring it to a boil. Stirring constantly, cook until the stock thickens lightly. Place the browned chops, and any liquid which has accumulated around them, in this mixture.
Cover tightly, and bake in the middle of the oven, basting occassionally with the pan juices, for 30 to 40 minutes, or until tender.
To serve, arrange the chops on a heated platter and pour the sauce, strained or not, as you prefer, over them.

For the heavy ccream, I used whipping cream.
When I added the cream to the bread crumbs, it didn't seem to "saturate thoroughly" but I just stirred it up real good and it worked out ok.
I used Jimmy Dean regular recipe sausage.
I don't have a "sieve" so I used my plastic colander.
I didn't seal the openings of the pork chops with skewers. I packed in the stuffing and just left them open. I had some leftover stuffing. I put it in a seperate cooking dish, mixed a 1/4 cup water in it and baked with the chops for the last 15 minutes. I served it next to the chops with the gravy on it.
After cooking the chops, I placed them in a corning ware dish with a lid that would hold all the chops. There wasn't much juice left in the skillet so I didn't bother pouring anything from the skillet. I just added the onions, carrots, and thyme.
When the 'gravy' was done, I poured it into the corning ware bowl over and around the chops.
I cooked for 35 minutes. Instead of transferring to a heated platter, I went straight to the surving plates. Once I put the chops on a couple plates, I could stir up the gravy and then spooned it over them.
It looked really good.
We served it with canned corn, because we had plenty left from the night before. It probably would have looked a lot better with some green.
I had enough left over that we had them again for lunch today. I microwaved them and they came out great. The gravy was thicker but I think it was even better that way.

I hope you enjoy it. When you try it, leave me a comment. Tell me if you did anything different that you liked or didn't like better.