I love making simple recipes for my family. I also love recipes that I can easily take away elements of a dish to cater to my picky eaters without making separate meals because I definitely don’t have the time or desire to make several meals. I require my kids to try everything, even if it’s a few small bites.
My kids loved these pecan crusted pork chops. I will disclose to you that one ate it with ketchup and they all had the salad on the side. My husband and I had the salad on top of the pork chops and all of the ingredients just go so well together. The pecans add heartiness and healthy fats and the strawberry and arugula bring the freshness and sweetness. I didn’t want to create a dressing for this because you could do one of three things: 1) use no dressing, 2) use a little bacon grease (oh my!) or use your own favorite dressing.
Now, I am not gluten-free nor is anyone in my family, but after doing a little research I believe this whole dinner is considered gluten-free depending on what bacon and cheese you purchase. Any crumbly cheese will taste good in this dish: feta, goat or blue.
Baking time will depend on how thick of pork chops you buy. If you buy the super thin ones they won’t take much time at all, but I recommend buying a meat thermometer if you don’t have one already. It takes the guesswork out of everything.
This is a great meal for entertaining as well because there’s only a few ingredients and prep is minimal. From now on I’m going to encrust everything in pecans, it’s so much yummier!
- 1 cup pecans
- 1 egg, beaten
- (6) ½ inch - 1 inch boneless pork chops
- 2 cups arugula
- 1½ cups strawberries, sliced
- 6 slices bacon, cooked
- ½ cup goat cheese
- Preheat oven to 350 and line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.
- Grind the pecans in a food processor or blender.
- Place the egg in a shallow dish and the pecans in a separate shallow dish.
- Dip each pork chop in the egg and then cover with the pecans.
- Bake for about 15-20 minutes. (This depends on how thick your pork chops are. Internal temperature should be 140-145 degrees).
- Meanwhile, mix the arugula, strawberries, bacon and goat cheese in a bowl.
- Top the baked pork chops with the salad
These look delicious. I love that you crusted the pork chops with pecans! The arugula strawberry goat cheese salad is also probably the perfect counterpoint. Definitely putting these on my meal plan for next week!
These sound amazing! What a good idea to make pork chops more exciting. I like them but my SO thinks they taste boring…not anymore! With the berries, bacon and cheese how could you go wrong. Saving this for next time I get pork chops! :)
Sounds yummy!
Oh my gosh, this look SO GOOD!
Love the colors and presentation, the tart goat cheese I think would be cut beautifully by the pork chops and strawberry.