Day 3 - Pork Chops with Lemon-Garlic Sauce

Delicious!!!! A very healthy recipe - you can use either bone-in chops or cutlets. We used the bone-in for a bit more flavor and they are less expensive. You could substitute chicken, veal, or turkey cutlets instead as well.

Pork Chops with Lemon-Garlic Sauce

Sauce:
1 head garlic
2/3 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup fresh-squeezed lemon juice
1 tsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp kosher salt

Pork:
4 pork chops (we used 4-6 oz bone-in)
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1 tbsp dijon mustard
1 lemon, very thinly sliced in full circles

Preheat oven to 375. Wrap garlic in foil and let it roast until tender. Garlic head will feel slightly soft when ready (approximately 45 min). When cool enough to handle, cut off top of bulb, squeeze out garlic pulp into small bowl and mash until smooth.

Preheat oven to broil (high). Sprinkle pork with 1/4 tsp kosher salt and brush with mustard. Top each piece with 3 lemon slices. Broil pork approximately 4 inches from heat until cooked through. It was about 10-15 min for bone-in - probably 5-10 for cutlets.

While meat is broiling, heat a small saucepan and whisk chicken broth and lemon juice into cornstarch. Whisk in 1/4 tsp salt and roasted garlic mash. Bring to a boil over medium heat and boil until sauce is lightly thickened, about 1 minute. Spoon sauce over meat when ready.

This is a great recipe - I would give it a rating of "dish I could eat once every two weeks".

Health benefits include:
Garlic - known for having a sulfur compound that protects blood vessels against the accumulation of fatty plaque
Low Calorie - approximately 160 calories per serving
Only 1 gram of saturated fat per serving and no grams of transfat

People tend to have an incorrect view of pork. Pork cutlets have changed so much since our parents ate them and now the basic nutritional view on pork is that it has the same health benefits as chicken....I like to think of it as "the other white meat" even though its technically not. Pork can be a great addition to your diet and routine, especially if you are dieting and think that you can only have chicken and turkey....here's another option!

The only carbohydrate this dish contains that is not great for your blood sugar levels is the cornstarch and you can omit it fully if you like. It's only added to thicken the sauce - if you aren't watching carbs, the original recipe calls for 2 tsps. I cut it down to 1 and you don't need anymore than that.

If carbs are not an issue for you, another great idea is to roast garlic as described in this recipe and spread the garlic mash over whole-wheat or whole-grain bread as a flavorful substitute for butter.

Enjoy!