Pork Chops & Boulangère Potatoes

📝 Ingredients

• 4 pork chops (about 180 g each)
• 1 kg waxy potatoes
• 3 brown onions (about 100 g each)
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 chicken stock cube + 400 ml hot water
• 15 g unsalted butter (5 g for the dish, 10 g for the top)
• 1 tbsp sunflower oil
• 1 tsp dried thyme + 2 bay leaves
• Salt, black pepper

🍴 Utensils

• Large ovenproof dish (about 30 × 20 cm)
• Frying pan
• Peeler
• Chopping board
• Very sharp knife
• Kitchen tongs

📖 Steps

1. Preheat the oven to 200 °C. Take the pork chops out of the fridge so they're no longer ice-cold when you cook them. Dissolve the stock cube in 400 ml hot water.
2. Peel the potatoes and cut them into thin, even 3 mm slices. Don't rinse them: their starch helps thicken the juices. Peel and finely slice the onions; peel and chop the garlic.
3. Grease the dish with 5 g butter. Arrange a third of the potatoes in it, then half the onions and garlic; season with salt and pepper and sprinkle with half the thyme. Repeat once, then finish with a neatly arranged layer of potatoes.
4. Tuck the bay leaves between the slices and pour in the stock: it should come just below the top layer. Dot the top with the remaining 10 g butter in small pieces, season with pepper and bake for 40 minutes.
5. Ten minutes before the end of this cooking time, pat the chops dry with kitchen paper, then season with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in the frying pan over a high heat and sear them for 2 minutes on each side, just to brown them: they'll finish cooking in the oven.
6. Check the potatoes: the tip of a knife should slide in with no resistance and the top should be starting to brown. Lay the chops on the potatoes with the tongs and pour the pan juices over them.
7. Return to the oven for 12 to 15 minutes, until the meat is cooked through: when pierced, the juices should run clear, with no trace of pink. The potatoes should have absorbed almost all the stock.
8. Leave to rest for 5 minutes out of the oven so the meat stays juicy. Remove the bay leaves and serve each chop with a generous portion of the meltingly tender boulangère potatoes and their juices.