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Process:First I started with frozen pork chops which I bought in a family pack while the prices were still low (just over $1/pound) and then split up, bagged, and froze for later use .... if I had my Food Saver vacuum sealer up & running, they would last up to 2 yrs in the freezer!
Anyhow - I only had to let them sit out long enough to be able to separate the chops from each other to make them fit into the crock a bit better. for a family of 6 I had 5 chops (at the time I bagged things up, my oldest was away from home) so one had to be 'sawed' in half for the two youngest who wouldn't eat a full chop anyhow.
I then added 1/2 cup water just to keep things from drying out ... I also added my basic spices too (Garlic Garni/salt/pepper) ... and put it on low ... this was about 10am
I also got my potatoes going as well .... I used two boxes of just the store brand variety (hey, every penny counts these days)
following the basic stove top measurements (yes I used the box), I put just the potatoes and water in the second crock for 1 hr on high .... after 1 hr I lowered the temp to low and then added the milk & butter as per direction, making sure the butter was cut into thin-ish slabs so it would melt evenly & quickly - once melted, then I added in the sauce mix being careful that there weren't going to be lumps later. Add one thoroughly drained can of whole kernal corn
I then left everything alone for 5 hrs (about 3pm) when I stirred the potatoes - leave the chops be. then every hour there after I stirred the potatoes ... by 5pm they were ready to eat, but the sauce was a bit thin I thought.
We didn't actually get around to eating until 6pm when I got tired of waiting for hubby to get back from the dr's office ... dr was running behind ...
Okay so how did it turn out???
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NUMMIES: UCKIES: =====================Pork was fork tender, flavor had cooked all the way thru the meat - it didn't need any sort of catsup or sauce to give it good flavor. The potato slices held their shape well.
My daughter liked it so much she wanted to take the potatoes to school in her lunch and she loved being able to get every bit of meat off the bone unlike when they are stove or oven cooked - she just poked the meat and the bone fell right off!
The Pork wound up drowning in moisture by the time we ate - this made it tough to get the meat out of the pot in a single piece. No matter what I did, tongs/fork/spatula, the meat would fall apart as soon as it was touched (but it still tasted good) .... the sauce of the potatoes was thinner than if cooked on the stove - nor did it have the nummy crunchy edges that you get if cooked in the oven.Suggestions for next time:
use less water in both the pork chops & potatoes ...
for the pork: instead wrap them individually in foil and then cook them up -- if they are wrapped tight enough, I would think one could fill the empty space inside the crock with water and cook them that way. One would have to be careful opening the packets though because of the juices which would be trapped inside.
for the potatoes: I have heard you can saute onions in butter in the crock over night, these would taste very good in the potatoes and would eliminate the need to cut up the butter later. One onion for the same amount of butter as called for in the recipe should suffice. I would also add a bit of spice to it - they were sorely lacking in it.
this is definitely a meal I'd do again with just a few changes.
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