Slow Cooker Apple Pork Chops With Sauerkraut

Nothing beats a one-pot meal that requires very little preparation or cleaning. Our tasty apple and sauerkraut pork chops check all those boxes, plus they're filling and delicious. The scant time you need to invest in this dish is 20 minutes, while the rest of the work is done by your slow cooker. Juicy and protein-rich pork chops sit on a base of apples, onions, sweet potatoes, and seasonings. Topped with a generous amount of tangy sauerkraut, the chops cook for seven hours until done. The flavor profile is rounded out by cinnamon, brown sugar, and salt and pepper. Serve with your choice of sides, but we recommend rice or mashed potatoes to soak up all the porky goodness.

The secret to this easy recipe is good quality sauerkraut, a delicious product made out of fermented cabbage. Low in calories but packed with nutrition, sauerkraut is said to improve your gut microbiome and help with proper immune system function. Its characteristic flavor comes from a base of cabbage and salt, and is often extended by a variety of added ingredients, from caraway seeds to turmeric to onions. For our recipe choose plain sauerkraut, easily found in the cheese and eggs section of most supermarkets.

Use bone-in or boneless loin chops for this recipe, trimming off any excess fat from the chops, as too much fat on the meat will change the cooking time and the rendered fat will make the dish too greasy. Boneless chops are slightly more expensive than bone-in because they require more work, but either way, and unknown to many, pork is generally by far the most inexpensive meat there is. Rearing pigs is fairly inexpensive compared to cows or chickens and most of the animal is good for consumption (muscle, organs, and even skin). Pork is also a lean source of protein. A boneless pork chop of approximately 6.5 ounces in weight has 235 calories and 41 grams of protein, but just 6.3 grams of fat. Considering that the RDI (Recommended Daily Intake) of fat in an adult diet should range from 20 to 35 percent of a 2,000 calorie menu, that's 44 to 77 grams of fat per day, so 6.3 grams in a chop seems trivial.