I love cooking easy recipes for my family.
To save my sanity, time and money, I do weekly meal planning to get dinner on the table for our family. Let’s face it, our kids do not want a gourmet meal, they just want time together around the table.
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This crockpot recipe is a for sure crowd pleaser. I love recipes using apple butter so this seemed like the perfect dinner for my family.
This recipe defines the smell of fall comfort food. My house smelled amazing while this was cooking in the crockpot last week.
Recently we went on a field trip with our twins’ Mothers Day Out group. The trip took us to a local apple orchard here in the metroplex. We picked apples, learned about honey and bees and purchased some apple butter.
Other than eating it on warm biscuits, I had no idea how I was going to utilize this delicious jar of goodness. So I reached out to my Facebook readers for some ideas and they shared plenty.
And that my friend, is where the idea for this recipe came from. And of course, I wanted to crockpot-it! It just makes life easier, ya know.
5 Easy Dinner Recipes for a Family of 7
Here is what we cooked in a week at our house. Lots of quick and easy dinner ideas that are perfect for when you’re on a budget. Any of these are great for a school night or weeknight.
Ingredients:
- 6 pork chops (I used thick center cut)
- 1/2 a large onion chopped
- minced garlic (I used 2 large spoonfuls of minced garlic from a jar)
- 3/4 cup apple butter
- couple cracks of pepper
Arrange your pork chops in the crockpot.
Top the pork chops with the onions and garlic.
Spoon the apple butter on top of the onions.
(If you want more amplified apple flavor in your pork chops, you can reverse the order of the onions/garlic/apple butter and spoon the apple butter directly on the pork chops and then top the apple butter with the garlic and onions.)
Crack some pepper over top and put the crockpot lid on.
Let it cook for 4-6 hours on high or 8-10 hours on low.
When it is done, give the pork chops a stir and they will literally fall apart into chunks on their own.
I served them over steamed rice with a dinner salad and steamed broccoli.
Delicious.
More Recipes:
Apple Butter Pork Chops
This crockpot recipe is a for sure crowd pleaser. I love recipes using apple butter so this seemed like the perfect dinner for my family.
Ingredients
- 6 pork chops (I used thick center cut)
- 1/2 a large onion chopped
- minced garlic (I used 2 large spoonfuls of minced garlic from a jar)
- 3/4 cup apple butter
- couple cracks of pepper
Instructions
- Arrange your pork chops in the crockpot.
- Top the pork chops with the onions and garlic.
- Spoon the apple butter on top of the onions.
- Crack some pepper over top and put the crockpot lid on.
- Let it cook for 4-6 hours on high or 8-10 hours on low.
- When it is done, give the pork chops a stir and they will literally fall apart into chunks on their own.
- I served them over steamed rice with a dinner salad and steamed broccoli.
Notes
If you want more amplified apple flavor in your pork chops, you can reverse the order of the onions/garlic/apple butter and spoon the apple butter directly on the pork chops and then top the apple butter with the garlic and onions.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 6 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 396Total Fat: 18gSaturated Fat: 6gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 9gCholesterol: 132mgSodium: 92mgCarbohydrates: 17gFiber: 1gSugar: 13gProtein: 41g
This sounds really good (and easy to make!). We’ve made up a lot of pumpkin butter this fall and this would be a perfect recipe to use some of it in!!
Thanks for sharing!
Willa
It was easy and very yummy!
Pumpkin Butter? I bet that would taste amazing. Let me know how it turns out if you try it over the pork chops.
Thanks for reading.
Hi Crystal,
This will be a great recipe to have in the Crock Pot for the Cowboys game tomorrow night. It really looks delicious! Thank you so much for sharing with Full Plate Thursday. Hope you are having a great week end and come back soon!
Miz Helen
Perfect football game meal, or any Sunday meal for that matter. 🙂
Thanks Miz Helen!
I have a nice supply of homemade apple butter. I will definitely have to try this recipe. I looks very good. Thanks for sharing.
I dont have apple butter but have apples will try this recipe using lamb will let you know how it comes out.
Would luv for my readers to discover your blog, will you please join our weekly party at
http://www.passionatelyartistic.com/2011/11/thanksgiving-showcase-tutorial-with.html
have a great crafting week!
Maggie
http://passionatelyartistic.com
I am always looking for new crock pot recipes and this one looks like a winner! I shared your post on my blog this week…
http://therickettchronicles.blogspot.com/2011/11/must-try-tuesday-november-15-2011.html
Thanks!
Wende
The Rickett Chronicles
what a yummy recipe come see what I shared at http://shopannies.blogspot.com/2012/01/sloppy-joe-squares.html
We loved these pork chops! Simple, relatively healthy, and a good choice for both my kids and my husband. We’re having them again tonight, and I was reminded that I hadn’t posted a review yet. 🙂 We added a bit of salt along with the pepper. Just a pinch.
Awesome, Aileen. so good to hear that they are a hit at your house!
Enjoy round two!
Hi Crystal. I made this recipe a few weeks ago. I cooked it on low for about 8 hours in a 6 qt crockpot. It completely burned, yes, burned in the crockpot! Did you use a smaller crockpot than the 6 qt I used? I’m trying to figure out why this happened. I don’t know if I didn’t have enough in the crockpot and that’s why it burned or if my crockpot has issues. It’s only a few months old and it seems to burn or dry out everything I cook in it. Any advice?
Brandy-
I used a 6 qt, but my porkchops were thick butterfly porkchops, so they took up a lot of room. You want to fill your crockpot 1/2 to 2/3 of the way full for best cooking results and/or cut the cook time down.
What kind of chops did you use and how full was your crockpot?
I used the thicker pork chops, but I only used 3 or 4 of them. I guess maybe the problem is that my crockpot isn’t full enough. I didn’t realize that it needed to be 1/2 to 2/3 of the way full. Maybe I should invest in a 4 qt also. It would be less expensive than the food I’ve already dried out/burned. LOL! Thanks for the advice! 🙂
Okay….I have this in the crockpot for tonight! So excited!!!
Yay! I think you’ll really enjoy it.
I am eager to hear how your family likes it.
I featured this super yummy sounding recipe! http://3boysandadog.com/2013/09/10-yummy-apple-inspired-recipes/
Can this be baked in te oven instead of using the crockpot?
Absolutely. Anything that can be cooked in the crockpot can generally be cooked in the oven by adjusting the liquid levels. While I have not prepared this in the oven, if I were I would add a cup chicken broth to prevent drying out.
Let me know how it goes.
I have always loved applesauce with my smoked pork chops and my mom is a huge fan of apple butter, and this will be so easy to prepare and make. I suffer with extreme back pain and cooking is pretty much out of the question ’cause I can’t stand more than a couple of minutes but should be able to put this together! Now if the slow cooker would just clean itself! (Liners haven’t worked well for me)
Can you use frozen pork chops for this recipe or do they need to be thawed?
Yes, it will just take longer to cook.
I made this using cheap store brand apple butter, added 1 cup chicken broth. OMG good 1 As my daughter said . the flavors just ‘call you back’ Thank you , thank you.
I would love to try this! I haven’t been able to find any apple butter in my Kroger nor Walmart. What is a recipe that I can use?