Pan to Oven Baked Pork Chops

Directions

1. 1
   Preheat your oven to 425°F. Lightly salt and pepper your chops on both sides and set aside.Pop all of the little cloves out of your head of garlic. Don’t peel them – leaving the peel on will protect them from burning and will roast them to a perfect consistency while the chops cook. Instead, crush them gently with the side of a heavy knife.In a Dutch oven or other stove-to-oven-proof skillet that won’t react to alcohol (sorry – your cast iron is out, unless it’s enameled), heat a few tablespoons of olive oil over medium-high heat and toss in the whole, crushed garlic cloves. Fry for three minutes, then remove with a slotted spoon and set aside in a bowl.
2. 2
   Place chops in the pan and brown for one minute per side, then pull them out with a pair of tongs and set aside on a plate.Reduce heat to medium and add wine to pan. Use a spatula to deglaze and get up all the savory little bits on the bottom. Simmer until the wine reduces by half.
3. 3
   Add the chops back into the pan, allowing the boney ends to stick up and out of the wine so that they get nice and crispy. Ideally the ends will stick out of the pan, but if you’re using a tall Dutch oven, just make sure they’re a few inches above the liquid.
4. 4
   Sprinkle cooked garlic (still in the paper peel) and chopped rosemary over the top of the chops and put the pan in the oven. Cook until the chops reach an internal temperature of 145°F, about 15-20 minutes, basting with pan juices halfway through. Cooking time depends on how thick your chops are. If you’re using a digital meat thermometer, insert the probe and set the beeper-thingie* to 150°F 145F.*Once the meat has reached the proper temperature, remove from the oven and cover the main meaty parts with foil, leaving the [hopefully] crispy ends poking out where they won’t get soggy. Allow to rest for ten minutes.
5. 5
   Serve each chop topped with a few whole cloves of garlic, some colcannon mashed potatoes and a salad.
6. 6
   Drizzle absolutely everything with the juices from the pan – this stuff is liquid love!*The USDA recently lowered their advisory for safe pork cooking temperatures to 145°F, so that means more tender pork for all of us!