Pork Chops with Mashed Potatoes (and Potato Pancakes from the Leftovers)

I love pigs. I know I am getting repetitive, but I cannot escape my love of pigs. Fortunately, Darren loves them, too. If only I could get him to say "y'all" and "fixin' to", I might convert him to a Southerner. I know I've got a hold on his taste buds...

Pork chops are one of my favorite pig parts. I love them fried, grilled, baked, cooked in mushroom sauce, and on biscuits. Darren likes pork chops, too, and he especially likes them fried, so I decided to make him some. They were delicious!

I began the meal by cutting up a bunch of new potatoes into pieces and putting a big pot of salted water on to boil.

I start the pork chops by making my flour mixture. I mix some flour with salt, pepper, cayenne, and paprika. I mix them in a plastic bag for easy cleanup. I also add pepper and cayenne to my milk wash.

Then I mixed the spices into the flour by shaking the bag and gave the milk wash a whisk. This time I used boneless pork chops this time, but bone-in will work, too.

Dredge the chops in the flour, then coat with milk, and then back into the flour. Set them aside on a plate.

Darren found these cute plates in the dollar bin at Michael's.

Heat up about 1" of oil in a heavy skillet. I have a "chicken fryer" packed in a box somewhere, so I'm just using a regular skillet for this one. Apparently I got distracted and forgot to take pictures of the cooking steps.

I cooked the chops over medium heat for about 6 minutes per side. The day I cooked these, I heard on the news that the USDA now recommends cooking pork to an internal temperature of 145 degrees Fahrenheit, due to improved handling, transport, storage, etc. That means a little pink in your pork is okay! I didn't actually use my meat thermometer on these, but I did cook them for about 6 minutes per side until they were golden brown, and I drained them on paper towels.

While I was finishing up the pork, Darren was working on the mashed potatoes. We boiled them until they were fork tender. I think it was about 10 minutes... Then drained them well and put them in a bowl to mash.

To the potatoes, we added about 3 or 4 tablespoons of butter and 1 cup of sour cream. This is a lot of potatoes, because I made extras to try out potato pancakes another night. I'll get to those next. Serve the pork chops with the mashed potatoes (and a green vegetable if you are being healthy).

Thanks to Darren for this last picture.

Then a night or two later, I decided to try my hand at potato pancakes. I had never made them before, although I think my mom used to make them when I was a kid. I looked up some recipes online and then combined the things I liked with what I actually had on hand in the kitchen.

First, I beat two eggs in a mixing bowl.

Then I added the left over mashed potatoes and mixed them with the eggs.

Then I added 1 cup of grated cheese and some extra pepper and cayenne. And mixed all of that together. It seemed a little thin to me, so I also added about 1/4 cup of flour. Then I formed potato patties that were about 4-5 inches across.

Then I fried them over medium heat in a skillet with the bottom just covered with oil and added more oil as needed between batches.

Cook until golden brown on both sides. These were served with a salad, as they were just an experiment. I might plan on making extra mashed potatoes in the future to make these again.

Let us know if you try any of these recipes.

I'm having some problems with the printables, but I'll get those up later today, I hope.

UPDATE: Links to printable recipes for pork chops and potato pancakes are now working. Enjoy!