POM recipe contest-Pork Chops with Pomegranate Stuffing

This is recipe number two created for the POM Wonderful Fresh Pomegranate recipe contest and Foodie BlogRoll contest. It is inspired by our recent Thanksgiving holiday mainstay, stuffing. I've only hosted Thanksgiving once, but that one time Hubby and I improvised and added dried cranberries to the stuffing. We loved it! Here I’ll sub pomegranate seeds for the cranberries, and we'll use Pork Chops instead of turkey. I made my own bread cubes using my collection of bread heels in the freezer. Come back later to see that recipe.

Pork Chops with Pomegranate Stuffing

Ingredients: Stuffing

• 6 cups dried bread cubes (I made my own, you can use store-bought)
• 3 stalks of celery-sliced
• 2 cups of chicken stock/broth (I used Pacific Natural Foods Organic free range chicken broth)
• ½ tsp salt (omit this if you use seasoned bread cubes, my homemade ones are unseasoned).
• Fresh ground black pepper (to taste)
• 3 TBS melted butter (if you’re not serving the stuffing with gravy you might want more butter or oil)
• Garnets from one pomegranate. (click here for instructions on cutting and de-seeding pomegranate)
• ½ onion diced
• Fresh parsley-chopped (large handful)
• Fresh Oregano-chopped (small handful)
• Fresh Thyme (small handful)

Heat a skillet and cook onions, and celery for 5 minutes (or until translucent) over medium heat with a little oil. Mix the croutons, fresh herbs, cooked onion and celery mixture and pomegranate seeds, together in a large bowl. Add the chicken stock and melted butter and toss to coat croutons.

Pork Chops

Preheat oven to 350°. Salt and pepper both sides of the meat. Slice the chop open to create a pouch. Stuff a handful of the crouton mixture in the meat. Secure chops with a toothpick to prevent the stuffing from escaping. Place the chops in a baking dish and bake for 20 minutes or until they reach 145-155° F internally. The time will depend on the thickness of the chop. Let chops rest five minutes before serving. Letting meat rest allows the juices to stay inside. If you cut meat before it rests, all the juices flow out of the meat and it loses its tenderness.Put the rest of the stuffing in a baking dish and bake in the oven while the chops bake. The chops had plenty of stuffing in them, but it's always nice to have such a flavorful dish for leftovers. Tomorrow I'll use the rest of the box of broth to make some gravy and serve the stuffing on the side with gravy. Can't wait for left over night.

Note: This stuffing would also be good with boneless skinless chicken breasts, or stuffed in a chicken or turkey.

Kid Appeal Tip. Can’t get your kids to eat food that is all mixed up? Kids are often adverse to eating food that isn’t familiar to them, even if they’ve had all the ingredients before. Having them help prepare the food helps because they see the individual ingredients going into the recipe. Talking to them about it when it’s plated at the table helps too. Ask them what their concern about the food is, and talk about their concern. Often, just hearing your child’s concern is enough to get them over their anxiety about something unfamiliar on the plate.

Before I had my plate served tonight, the boys had fished out all the pomegranate seeds out of both dishes and scarfed them down. Neither one of them touched the stuffing at Thanksgiving, but Big Boo was a stuffing convert after this meal. As soon as I told him the stuffing was made from croutons, he dug right in. Little Boo tried the stuffing but wasn’t convinced. He ate the meat and picked all the pomegranate garnets out of the stuffing. Hubby who is notorious for not liking bread, confided that he did indeed like bread prepared this way! I'd say three out of four ain't bad.

Looking for the other POM Wonderful Fresh Pomegranate recipe I concocted? Here are the details for Pesto Pomegranate Pasta Salad.

That was fun, I've never done a recipe contest before. I enjoyed the experience working with hubby to create the recipes, prepare the ingredients and feast with the family. Now I know two new recipes, plus blog posts in 24 hours is a little to ambitious for this mother of two preschoolers. I will give myself more time, and try one at a time when I commit to the next recipe contest.

I know the boys are hoping we win the case of fresh pomegranates and POM Wonderful Juice from the Foodie BlogRoll contest. I haven't seen them on special at the stores in a while and $2 a fruit is pretty pricey, so we may not have more until christmas stockings! My fingers and toes are crossed we are the randomly selected winners.