This dish must be made on the day before you plan to deep clean your kitchen and after disabling the smoke detector. Though truly delicious - the kind of chop that will cause you to pick up the bone and gnaw on it even in the presence of company - this recipe does make its presence known through spattering grease and smoke.
Quite frankly, the chop stands on its own and you could stop the recipe right after cooking it and serve it as it. That being said, the sauce is amazing so I do recommend gilding the lily, so to speak. This would actually make an excellent dinner party dish, especially if you roasted some halved figs in the oven and added them to the sauce at the last minute.
4 double-thick bone-in pork chops
2 cloves crushed garlic (or roasted *)
2 tsps Worcestershire sauce
2 tsps chopped fresh thyme
2 Tbsps fig jam
2 Tbsps grain mustard
2 Tbsps white wine (or Bourbon would be really good)
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tsps olive oil
Salt and pepper
30 minutes to an hour before you are ready to cook your chops, remove them from the fridge and rub each side with some of the garlic and some of the Worcestershire sauce. Set aside.
Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. As soon as it is sizzling, add the pork chops, making sure that they are not touching, sprinkle with half of the thyme and some salt and pepper. Use 2 skillets if needs be. Lower the heat and cook, without touching the meat, for 5 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 375.
Pick the chops up one by one (tongs work best) and hold the fatty edge of each chop against the hot pan bottom for 20 -30 seconds to help it crisp up. Lay the meat back in the pan on its other side; sprinkle the turned chops with the remaining thyme and salt and pepper again. Cook for an additional 4 minutes and then remove from the pan.
Wrap your perfectly brown and juicy chops in foil and place in the oven for 6 minutes.
Add the white wine to the pan and stir, scraping against the bottom of the pan to dissolve any bits of meat that have adhered to its surface. Then add the mustard and fig jam and stir well until they have melted and formed a homogeneous sauce.
Last but not least, add the cream and stir in. As soon as the sauce comes to a boil and starts to thicken, adjust for salt and remove from heat.
Place the pork chops on a serving dish. Cover with a foil tent and let rest for 5 minutes.
Add any meat juices that the chops release to the sauce as you reheat it.
Drizzle the chops generously with the sauce and serve at once.
If I say so myself, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum.
* crushed garlic is fine but I happened to have roast garlic left from making roast pepperoncini and used it instead. It does contribute a more mellow flavor than fresh garlic.