Smothered pork chops made easy in the slow cooker. The gravy is awesome!
Fall Is The Time For Pork
Fall isn’t only great for leaf peeping, it’s also the time you get great deals on pork.
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You’ll find great prices on all cuts of pork. Recently, my stores had great deals on boneless pork loins.
What I do is buy the whole loin then cut some of it into chops and leave the rest whole for roasting.
Taking advantage of these sales allows me to stock my freezer so I always have chops and roasts when I need them.
Smothered Pork Chops–Oh That Gravy
In a word, this gravy is awesome!
It takes advantage of convenience ingredients and one ingredient I always make from scratch.
I no longer buy ranch dressing/seasoning pre-made. This is one ingredient that I insist on making myself.
Lately, I have found the pre-made seasoning to be overly salty and when you combine this with other convenience ingredients, such as soups and gravy mixes, the meal becomes a sodium-loaded nightmare. Therefore, I insist on making my own. That way, I can control the salt and/or leave it out entirely. Lately, it’s been the latter. The recipe for my favorite mix is in the recipe ingredient list.
As far as canned cream soups, I now buy only the lower-sodium variety. I keep in mind what my mom always told me, “You can always add it but you can’t take it out.”
Perfect With Mashed Potatoes
What more can be said?
What I did with this meal is literally serve it over a pillow of mashed potatoes, not with the potatoes on the side. This way the meal is truly “smothered.” Plus the presentation looks nice as well.
Simple steamed green beans accompanied the smothered pork chops and the potatoes.
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The Recipe
- 2 lbs boneless loin pork chops
- 2 tbs olive oil
- 8 oz button mushrooms (optional)
- 1 can (10.75 oz) cream of mushroom soup—low-sodium preferred
- 1 envelope country gravy mix (see NOTES)
- ¼ cup ranch seasoning mix (homemade variety) -OR- 1 pkg commercial (see NOTES)
- ¼ cup water
- Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add oil. Brown pork chops well on both sides. Place in a 5-7 quart slow cooker (I used my casserole crock)
- In a small bowl, mix the soup, gravy mix and the ranch seasoning mix. Spread on top of the pork chops.
- In the same skillet, brown mushrooms, if using.
- Deglaze pan with the ¼ cup water. Add the mushrooms and liquid to the slow cooker. Even if you don’t use the mushrooms, deglaze the pan and add the liquid to the slow cooker.
- Cook on low 6-8 hours (mine was done in 6), high 3-5 hours.
- Always check for doneness at the MINIMUM time. All crock pots cook differently and my results could be different from yours.
I STRONGLY recommend making your own ranch mix without salt. The commercial variety may be substituted--1 envelope--but that could make this dish way too salty. Use caution. Also, since I make my ranch mix salt free, I use ¼ cup for more flavor.
Yum
What do you mean by 1 envelope of country gravy mix — I am not familiar with that name. Made by who?
Thanks
It’s the type of gravy mix sold where the spices are. You don’t say where you are from–unfortunately, these mixes are not available outside the US & Canada. But if you are in the States, just look for it where I said you’d find it. McCormick makes it so it’d be around their brown, pork, chicken, etc. gravies are. I was able to get it in my store’s brand. It’s just a high-class chicken gravy with a bit of buttermilk or milk powder added, so if you can’t find it, the chicken variety would be a good substitute. I’ll make a note in the recipe to clarify this.
Do you really mean a 1/4 cup of Ranch mix? That’s a lot of dressing mix. Wouldn’t one envelope be OK?
One envelope of commercial will be fine. The 1/4 cup is for the homemade, made without salt. I highly recommend making your own because it tastes so much better!
Your homemade ranch seasoning mix contains 2 tbsp of salt. That’s a lot of salt .
I leave the salt out.
Do you have to actually mix or make the country gravy or mix it w the cream of mushroom as a powder along with the ranch packet
Hi Michelle–you mix it into the soup dry along with the dry ranch seasoning mix. I also advise making your own ranch seasoning–most of all it tastes better and you can make it without the salt so stuff won’t be overly salty. The recipe (it’s a link in the ingredient list) calls for buttermilk powder, but according to Missy (whose recipe it is) you can also use non-fat dry milk.
How do you make homemade ranch? What ingredients.
The link to the recipe is in the ingredient list, Marie. And I always leave out the salt.
How do you make your own ranch?
The recipe is linked in the ingredient list Yvette.
There are various sizes of country gravy mix sold in stores near me. Which size did you use?
Mine was 1.15 oz (32g) size.
Thanks for the quick reply! ❤️
You’re welcome! BTW one of my stores was discontinuing this and had them at a ridiculously low price (guess who stocked up???)