Dinner Tonight: Thick-Cut Pork Chops with Apples and Onion Recipe

"[Photograph: Blake Royer] I'm in love with thick-cut pork chops, which, if you cook them well, have the meaty satisfaction of a good steak. You can sear the heck out of them to get a great crust, while they remain juicy inside. They also happen to be a heck of a lot cheaper, but unlike a good steak, they need a little more dolling up than plain-old salt and pepper. This recipe, adapted from the stupendous cookbook Mad Hungry, pairs the pork with the classic flavors of apple and onion in a quick-to-prepare pan sauce that becomes a braising liquid to finish cooking the pork. Beer, wine, cider, or chicken broth are all options to base the sauce around, so I went with half beer and half chicken stock. The beer added a touch of bitterness against the sweet onion and apple. The resulting sauce is remarkably rich, making full use of the porky pan bits left after searing. This is really top-notch comfort food, enough to erase a thousand memories of the dry, thin pork chops of my childhood. Thick-Cut Pork Chops with Apples and Onion..."