Slow Cooker Pork Chops with Sauerkraut and Apples - An Amish New Year's Dish!

This recipe is adapted from David Venable’s new cookbook, Back Around the Table

Get ready for a deliciously easy take on Slow Cooker Pork Chops with Sauerkraut, a traditional Amish New Year’s meal! This version features apples for a sweet and sour taste you’ll love.

Remember when I shared Skinny Fried Chicken from David Venable’s new book recently? Judging by your response, I’m not the only fan of David and QVC! I got permission to share one other recipe I tried from his book that I think you will really love. It’s a slow cooker dish with pork chops, apples, and sauerkraut. While it may not be the fanciest looking dinner, it tastes amazing!

The history of this pork chops with apples and sauerkraut recipe

David explains in the intro for this recipe that it’s his spin on a traditional Amish New Year’s dinner. Not only I was excited to try it just based on the ingredients, it also seemed like the perfect time to share it with you since the end of the year is fast approaching! This recipe ties back to its German roots and many of the Germans that immigrated to the USA became part of the Pensylvannia Dutch community and the Amish. Pork was considered good luck on New Years as they symbolize progress and moving forward because the pig “roots forward” when it eats and hunts for food. The cabbage and subsequent sauerkraut are seen to represent money and prosperity so eating cabbage or sauerkraut on new years is similar to eating black eyed peas in the south. If you want to try another Amish recipe check out this Amish Apple Pie filling from My Kitchen Escapades.

Why I love this pork chops with apple recipe

While you are celebrating the new year and reflecting on time past, why not eat some pork chops? These chops are tender and smothered in pickled cabbage, apples, and onions with just the right balance of sweet and sour. There are potatoes in the mix too, so you don’t even need to make mashed potatoes or rice. Serve this hearty meal with your favorite green vegetable, and you’ll be starting the new year off right!

This is recipe is also a fall classic

As I was describing earlier this recipe was adapted from an Amish New Years tradition but it is also just a great fall recipe. The combination of pork, apples, and potatoes is pure fall in my mind. With the pork and potatoes being slow cooked in apple juice along with apple cider vinegar and apple slices the sweet apple flavor permeates every bite in this dish. If you want to go all in on apples I recommend serving this yummy apple cake for dessert!

Pork chops and apples are the perfect pairing

Pork chops and applesauce are a classic food pairing. I was trying to find out why this pairing came to be and what it is about it that works so well. I think the pairing of apples and pork works so well because both have relatively mild flavors so they do not overpower each other. They also are great with similar spices. Pork and apples can be seasoned with cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, allspice, brown sugar and vinegar. When I was doing research for this, one article told me that pork pairs great with foods that pigs naturally eat in the wild, such as apples, chestnuts, carrots, truffles, and mushrooms. I thought this makes sense but is a little weird to think about, I am also pretty sure pigs will eat anything… so maybe pork just works with everything, including apples and applesauce?

Slow Cooker Pork Chops with Sauerkraut, Apples, and Potatoes

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This is David’s spin on a traditional Amish New Year’s meal. Find this and more comfort food recipes in his book: Back Around the Table: An “In the Kitchen with David” Cookbook from QVC’s Resident Foodie

• Total Time: 6 hours 20 minutes
• Yield: 4-6 1x

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 6–8 red potatoes cut into 2-inch chunks
• 2 c. apple juice or apple cider
• 32 oz. jar of sauerkraut drained
• 3 tbsp. packed dark brown sugar
• 3 tbsp. whole grain Dijon mustard
• 2 Granny Smith apples peeled, cored, and cut into 1-inch slices
• 2 Gala apples peeled, cored, and cut into 1-inch slices
• 4–6 3/4-inch thick pork chops on the bone
• 4 tsp. kosher salt
• 2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tbsp. canola oil
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 large onion sliced

 

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Instructions

1. Put the potatoes and apple juice in the slow cooker. Mix together the sauerkraut, brown sugar, mustard, and apples in a large bowl, and toss well. Place half of this mixture on top of the potatoes and apple juice.
2. To prevent the edges of the pork chops from curling, cut two 1-inch slits at each end. Season the chops with 2 tsp. of the salt and 1 tsp. of the pepper. Heat the oil in a skillet over high heat. Once the oil is smoking, sear the chops, 30 to 40 seconds on each side. Put the chops on top of the apple-sauerkraut mixture in the slow cooker. Tuck the bay leaves around the chops.
3. Add the onions to the skillet. Season with remaining 2 tsp. salt and 1 tsp. pepper. Saute the onions until they start to brown, 6 to 8 minutes. Put the onions on top fo the pork chops. Top with the remaining apple-sauerkraut mixture.
4. Cover and cook on high for 5 to 6 hours. Remove and discard the bay leaves before serving.

 

Notes

You can skip the skillet step and put the pork chops and onions directly into the crockpot uncooked if you are short on time. (That’s what I did.)

You can also cook this on low for 8-10 hours.

 

• Author: Andi
• Prep Time: 20
• Cook Time: 360
• Category: Main
• Cuisine: Amish

I can’t even believe we’re heading into 2015 so soon. Parenthood really changes the way you look at time. In some ways, days or phases your kids go through can seem to last forever. If your toddler is in a screaming phase or your 7-year-old is in a talking back phase, it can feel like time is standing still while you wait for them to grow out of it. At the same time, you look at these little people and wonder how they got so big so fast. It seems like a lifetime ago that I wasn’t a mother, but it seems like yesterday that my now 8-year-old was making macaroni art at preschool.

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