Pork, Onions and Beer in a Creamy Caraway Sauce

Submitted by SarasotaCook

"This is very simple dish to make. Pork lightly sauteed and then braised in beer and onions until tender. The sauce is thickened with sour cream and caraway seeds to make a easy quick meal. Now you can use any cut of pork you like, but personally I like pork loin medallions or loin chops. I usually buy a whole pork loin and cut my own slices to get the exact thickness I want, and it also more cost effective. Besides, I freeze the other slices for another day. Serve this with German spaetzle which is available at most grocery stores, Whole Foods and certainly local ethnic markets. The last time I made this dish I did a quick saute of cabbage, butter, salt and pepper which was perfect with this."

 

• Ready In: 50mins
• Ingredients: 12
• Yields: 4 Chops
• Serves: 4

ingredients

• 4 pork loin chops (1 1/4 - 1/2-inch thick)
• 1⁄2 cup flour
• 1⁄2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1⁄2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1⁄4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

• Sauce

• 2 cups dark beer (you don't want to do a heavy stout or ale which can be a bit bitter, I prefer Michelob Dark or Amber)
• 2⁄3 cup sour cream (no low fat)
• 1 large onion (cut in half and thin sliced)
• 3⁄4 teaspoon caraway seed (You can use a bit more or less according to your taste)
• 1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped

directions

1. Pork -- In a large baggie or you can use a small bowl or pie plate and add the flour, salt, pepper and thyme and dredge the pork in it to get a light coating of flour. Then in a large heavy saute pan, I like my cast iron, but any heavy pan will work fine. I DO NOT like to use Non Stick for this. Heat up the oil and butter to medium high to high heat and saute the pork on each side until golden brown. Don't forget they are going to continue cooking in the beer so it is not necessary to cook them all the way through.
2. Sauce -- Remove the chops just for a minute while you lightly saute the onions. They only need to be cooked for just a couple of minutes. Then add the beer scraping up the bits from the bottom of the pan. Return the pork chops back to the pan and cover and reduce the heat to simmer and cook approximately 30 minutes. The last 5 minutes remove the cover so the beer can reduce a bit.
3. Finishing -- Add the sour cream, salt, pepper, caraway seeds and parsley and cook another couple of minutes until everything is heated through.
4. Serve -- As I mentioned, I like to serve this over spaetzle, but butter noodles, potato pancakes, even rice or mashed potatoes. Drizzle the sauce and onions over the chops.