Question about cooking stuffed pork chops

[hvn_nbr_2]

On a whim, I picked up a couple stuffed pork chops today at Trader Joe's, for dinner tonight. The instructions say to brown them first in a pan and then bake them. Question: Should I bake them covered or uncovered? Will baking in a convection oven dry them out too much and would the regular oven be better? I was thinking of maybe wrapping them in aluminum foil to keep the moisture in but still allow them to be more in direct contact with the heat than in a covered roasting pan. Any thoughts or experience?

[NMDemDist2]

1. all my recipes call for uncovered in broth and basting occasionally

to keep it moist

if you sear it well that helps too! since I doubt TJ's came with broth you can use broth, bouillon and water, wine, or even watered down tomato sauce (or any combo of the above) to 1/4 inch depth in the roasting pan. then gravy is an option too!

sounds delish!

[Tab]

2. I use a convection for everything

But if you're worried about drying them out, cover them in applesauce (with cinnamon).

That's how I always do pork chops. Sometimes I mix in breadcrumbs, but ALWAYS applesauce.

Yum.

[wryter2000]

3. Probably too late for these chops

But I generally brine loin chops. They've bred all the nice marbeling out of pork.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

5. Cooked in wine, covered,

they're pretty good.

Of course, it helps to start with a really good cut of meat.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

4. I always brown them in a combination of olive oil and butter,

and then bake them covered, in just enough white wine - about halfway up the chops. Eliminates the needs to baste them, and they come out just beautifully.

These are double-cut loin chops, right?

Now I'm thinking of double-cut loin chops ...................

[catnhatnh]

6. My take is that pork in particular...

tends towards and is ruined by drying out,and that the sole drawback of convection ovens is they tend to dry foods because of the increased airflow. I say cover and cook in your conventional oven with just enough liquid to cover the bottom of the roaster (apple juice or cider is good) and increase cooking time by 5 minutes to allow pan and juices to reach heat...My two cents....

[hvn_nbr_2]

7. Thanks for all the suggestions.

I ended up using the suggestion of wine. After the initial browning on the stove top, I put them in a wide low covered Corning casserole with some wine. I put the chops on a little trivet-like insert to keep them above the wine, because I thought that whatever stuffing fell out would soak up the liquid and defeat the purpose of it being there and make the stuffing soggy too. (If they weren't stuffed, I'd have just set the chops in the wine.) They came out great! The chops were tender and stayed moist, the wine turned into a nice au jus that complemented the apple-almond stuffing very nicely. The leftover juice that was more than we wanted to put on the chops on the plates--we just drank it. And it turned out that the added wine and sitting on top of the trivet in the Corning wear didn't require any extra cooking time. At the time the instructions on the package said, they were done, both according to the meat thermometer and according to taste and texture too.

The idea of covering them with applesauce sounds good and I think I'll try that sometime too, but I didn't have any applesauce and I thought it sounded like it would be better for plain chops than for stuffed chops anyway. Brining sounds like a good idea too, but I have to be careful with salt because of blood pressure, so will have to be careful about that.

Thanks, everybody.

The friend that I had them with (whom I also introduced to DU) said, "DU has a cooking group!?!? I thought it was just a political site."