Simple Broiled Pork Chops

You just can’t beat simplicity when it comes to food.  Well, unless that simple food also happens to be ridiculously delicious.  Which this dish is!  These pork chops take minutes to prepare and about 15 minutes to cook, which makes them a perfect mid-week meal.  The combination of fennel seed and pork is absolutely divine, especially when served beside a sweeter flavor like spiced sweet potatoes or the classic applesauce.

It’s nice to keep a couple of extra spice shakers around.  You can make a bigger batch of this seasoning mix and keep it in a shaker for whenever you cook pork (it’s also really tasty on pork roasts and good on chicken too).  If you don’t have a shaker to put the spice mix in, a sieve will help you dust the pork chops more evenly than sprinkling with your fingers.

Serves 4.

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs pork chops (about 4 chops)
• 2 tsp fennel seed
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ tsp cracked pepper

1. Turn broiler on in oven (on “hi”) and let preheat for about 10 minutes.
2. Grind fennel seed in a spice grinder or something like a Magic Bullet until it’s a fine powder.  Combine with salt and cracked black pepper (you could also grind whole pepper corns with the fennel seed).  Sprinkle liberally over both sides of the pork chops.
3. Place pork on a roasting pan (to make clean-up easier at the end, you can line the bottom of the pan with tin foil).
4. Broil on the first side for 6-8 minutes, depending on the thickness of your pork chops (mine were on the thin side so 6 minutes was perfect).  Flip and broil on the second side for another 6-8 minutes.
5. Let the pork chops rest 5 minutes before eating.  Enjoy!