Baked Pork Chops with Cranberries and Rice

Like the recipe for Italian Pasta Bake posted last week, this is nothing new to my cooking repertoire.   It's a recipe that my mom has been making for years, and one I learned how to make the first time I moved out (to NC a few years ago).

I just realized, it's been awhile since I've posted a truly new dinner recipe.  Don't worry, that will be rectified later this week.   I have something on the menu that I've been wanting to try for awhile!

But back on track to today's post.  I don't know the original source for this recipe, but I do know that I love it for it's flavor, it's simplicity, it's versatility, and it's memories of my mom's kitchen.  I usually choose to make it with pork chops, but it can also be made with chicken breasts.

Recipe:
Two boxes of rice (I use my all time favorite - Near East pilaf)
4 boneless pork chops or chicken breasts (The pork chops I bought most recently were ridiculously huge, so I used three and cut them in half.)
1 can cranberry sauce with whole berries
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon lemon juice (I always use a fresh lemon!)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 cups water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Pour two boxes of rice into bottom of 13 x 9 baking pan.

Mix spice packets into water; pour over rice.

Place pork chops on top of rice mixture.

In a small saucepan over low heat, melt butter.  Add soy sauce, lemon juice, and cranberries.  Mix until well blended.  Pour cranberries over pork chops.  Cover with foil; place in oven; bake for one hour (although I took mine out at 50 minutes, which was perfect).

Verdict:
This entire recipe takes less than 10 minutes of actual prep time.  I love those kind of recipes.  Then I have the entire baking time to clean up, make salad, set the table, various other tasks around the house, and still have a few minutes to sit on the couch with a glass of wine and a book.  Love when that works out!  Plus the after-dinner clean-up doesn't seem so ominous....

Cranberries really are a wonderful flavor, but until this recipe, I pretty much only thought of them as holiday (and holiday-leftover) fare.  I especially like that it calls for cranberry sauce with the berries in it.  The sweetness is the perfect complement to the pork chops.  All of the flavors really blend well together.

It may not make the most attractive presentation I've ever seen, but since all I want is for it to get in my tummy, that doesn't really matter anyway!


I've got leftovers on the menu for the next two nights...  The obvious pro is how easy and thoughtless dinner will be for a few days (plus I like to think of leftovers as 'free' dinner nights!), but the con is I'll have nothing much to blog about for those nights either.  I'll make up for it this weekend as I have some exciting treats on the menu this Friday!

 Until then...