Crock Pot Pork Chops and Potatoes from Get Crocking

Recently, Barry and I were contacted by Benjamin from Get Crocking, which is was an app that you can get for your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch to easily look up crock pot recipes and ideas. {I’m sad to see that this app is no longer available. I know Benjamin put a lot of time into it.} Benjamin let us test it out on Barry’s phone and we really liked it. It’s easy to use and has a lot of good recipe options. Today Benjamin is sharing a recipe for pork chops. (Note from Stacy – some of the recipes in the app are not whole foods recipes. They include things like mixes and cream of yadda-yaddda soup. However, just like any other recipe, you can easily substitute your homemade version for the convenience version.)

Who doesn’t love a good “fix it and forget it” meal? I know I’ve nearly gotten addicted to my slow cookers here recently. I’ve always enjoyed cooking since I was young and slow cooking was frequently a part of that. Here in the South we like to keep things simple, and you can’t get much simpler than slow cooking.

I can remember family reunions and holiday gatherings having several slow cookers going with various goodies like fondue, cocktail weenies, spinach dip, buffalo wings and sometimes even a roast. However, it wasn’t until recently that I discovered just how versatile a slow cooker is.

Last year my brother and I set out to build an iPhone app, and given my love for cooking, we decided to make a slow cooker recipe app. After 6 months of development and testing we released GetCrocking! on January 6^thof this year. We have over 200 recipes in the app with a lot of bells and whistles.

For today’s Fix and Forget Friday I am going to show you one of my favorite pork recipes from the app, which also happens to be a very simple recipe. Call me lazy, but when I make a slow cooker meal I don’t want to spend 30-45 minutes on preparation; that’s too much “Fix” and not enough “Forget”. Here is picture of everything that you will need for the recipe (except salt and pepper).

To get started, wash your potatoes and slice them thickly; maybe 6-8 pieces per potato. Go ahead and slice your onion into thick pieces as well. I cheated a little on this step. I used some frozen onion rings I had in the freezer instead of using a fresh onion, so feel free to improvise if need be.

Now that you have your veggies prepared place them in a large mixing bowl and sprinkle generously with salt and pepper to taste. Mix it all together to make sure everything is coated nicely. Now place the onions and potatoes in the bottom of your slow cooker. Note: I used a 6 qt. slow cooker and had just enough room for the pork chops on top. So, if you are using a 4.5 qt. or similar sized slow cooker you will likely need to reduce the number of potatoes to make sure it will all fit.

Alright, we have crammed the veggies in the slow cooker, now move on to the pork. The recipe calls for boneless pork chops, but I decided to use bone-in chops instead. Again, whatever suits you is just fine, I would just suggest that you make sure to use thick-cut chops; the thinner ones might dry out before the potatoes cook fully. Take four fully-thawed pork chops and cover them generously with the Italian dressing mix** then place them in you slow cooker right on top of the potatoes and onions. Plug in the slow cooker, set it to low, and let it cook for 7-9 hours. That’s it!

**Note from Stacy – Since we like to use homemade mixes to avoid MSG, check out this recipe for homemade Italian Dressing Mix from Heavenly Homemakers.**

Here’s what you have to look forward to!

Recipe Notes:

* If you are using a slow cooker smaller than 6 qt. reduce the number of potatoes to 3-4
* You do not need to add any liquid to this recipe. The potatoes and chops have enough juice to keep everything moist.
* I used thawed pork chops. I have not tried this with frozen chops, but it should be fine; just add another hour or two to the cook time.
* All slow cookers do cook at different paces, so know your slow cooker and check the meat around 5 hours to make sure you don’t overcook the meat and dry out the dish.

For daily meal inspiration, follow @stacymakescents on Instagram.