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These Easy Oven-Braised French Onion Pork Chops are an easy weeknight dinner with minimal ingredients and hardly any prep required. They are definitely a dish your family will be begging for because it’s one of the easiest pork chop recipes ever!
I’m always on the hunt for easy dinner recipes, and especially pork chop recipes that yield tender, juicy results. These 3-ingredient French Onion Pork Chops are the perfect chop to serve with some sauteed broccoli and make ahead mashed potatoes or rice.
While I dealt with some health issues a while back, my mom was helping out quite a bit with my kids. She would make dinner, some times even recipes off of this site, but there was one dish that she made that had us gobbling up the meal like it was going out of style, which was these Oven-Braised Pork Chops.
How to Braise Pork Chops
You don’t see a lot of pork chop recipes on the site because I have never had good luck with them. Pork Tenderloin? CHECK. Pork Loin? CHECK. Pork Roast? CHECK CHECK. But pork chop recipes? Nope. They always seemed to come out dry. I mean dry to the point where you’re wondering if you have a knife sharp enough to cut them. So why did my pork chops never turn out? I wasn’t using the right method, or the right sauce…I mean gravy…because everything’s better with gravy, right?
I absolutely expected these pork chops to be difficult to make, until she wrote out the recipe for me. Pork chops, onion soup mix, water. You were expecting more too, right? But that’s it, just 3 ingredients. Of course there are optional add ins, like more fresh onions or mushrooms, but that’s totally up to you.
How to Make French Onion Pork Chops
My mom’s pork chop recipe is super easy, and requires just a few ingredients.
- You will need a heavy bottomed, oven safe skillet, like a cast iron or this one.
- The pork chops start on the stove to get a nice sear, then are covered with the onion soup mix and water and cooked in the oven for 20-30 minutes. The longer you can leave them in there, the more tender they will become.
- You can serve them just right out of the oven if you like, or you can make a yummy gravy with mushrooms, like we do.
We’ve had these pork chops (the mother of all pork chop recipes) once a month at least for the past 6 months, that’s how good they are. Kid tested. Mother approved.
What Temperature Should Porks Be Cooked To?
The FDA recently recommended that pork chops can be cooked to a minimum of 145 degrees, or medium rare, and up to 165 degrees for well done. Braising like with this pork chop recipe will typically yield more on the well done side but will still be nice and tender.
More Pork Recipes
- One Pot Smothered Pork Chops
- Easy Crock Pot Pork Roast
- Easy Baked Pork Chops with Brown Sugar
- Lemon Herb Pork Tenderloin
More Easy Dinners
- Baked Chicken Breasts
- One Pan Parmesan Meatballs
- Barbecue Ranch Cheddar Chicken
- One Pot Beef Stroganoff
Easy Oven Braised French Onion Pork Chops
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 pound bone-in pork chops
- 1 package dry onion soup mix
- 1 cup water
- 1/2 cup sliced mushrooms optional
- Chopped parsley for garnish – optional
- Chicken broth (if needed to thin out gravy)
- 1/4 cup All-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup Butter
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Heat oil in a large, oven safe, heavy-bottomed skillet over medium-high heat. Season pork chops with pepper, if desired, and brown on all sides, 2 to 3 minutes per side.
- Sprinkle onion soup mix over the pork chops. Pour in water.
- Transfer to 350 degree oven for 20-30 minutes, until fork-tender. Remove pork chops to a plate reserving the drippings in the pan.
- Meanwhile, in a separate small skillet, melt ¼ cup butter over medium-low heat. Stir in ¼ cup flour to make a roux. Cook for a few minutes, until mixture is a light golden color. Pour into the skillet with the pork chop drippings and whisk briskly as the mixture thickens. Add the pork chops back in and serve with gravy.
- Optional: Add sliced mushrooms to the skillet as you brown the pork chops and cook until soft and starting to caramelize.
- Sprinkle with chopped parsley for garnish, and serve immediately.
Excellent! I used 1 c. mushrooms, unsalted chicken boullion, water and vegetable oil in the roux/gravy. Needed generous pepper and a bit of salt. This recipe will become a staple.
Nice! Thanks for your feedback Mary.
K.
My husband and I made this recipe tonight, and it was so delicious. This will definitely go on my favorites list!
Nice! Thanks for stopping by Amanda.
Why did my gravy come out thick, not gravy like to use on my mashed potatoes
Hi Kenny, I’m not sure of the answer to your question because the gravy is thick, but not so thick it won’t pour.
Hi after I added the roux my gravy was very thick and not thin like the picture showed. It didn’t look like gravy more like mush.
Hi Kenny, my guess if your chops didn’t give you enough drippings. You can always thin out a gravy with chicken broth or milk.
Delicious. Very easy to make. My chops were on the large side so I had to turn them midway. Juices(gravy) so tasty over rice. Try it. You’ll like it
Great feedback! Thanks for stopping by.
Should the pork chops be covered when they go in the oven?
No they do not need to be covered.
I loved the gravy but my chops did not come out tender. They probably were a bit over cooked but you did say that the longer they were in the oven the more tender they would become. I left them in the full 30 minutes. What can I do next time to make them come out tender? Because my husband really liked the flavor and I will definitely be making these again.
It really depends on the thickness of the chops themselves. Pork should be 145-160 degrees F, so I would watch them closely next time and measure the temperature.