Pork Chops with Creamy Mushroom Sauce
By Middagsarkivet
- Easy
- 4 servings
Pork chops in cream sauce, kotletter i flødesovs in Danish, is the kind of dinner that never makes it into cookbooks because everyone already knows it. Pork is the cheap, everyday meat across Denmark, Sweden and Norway, and the mushroom cream sauce is the default dressing for it: a splash of cream, a handful of mushrooms, a pinch of thyme, done in the same pan the chops came out of.
The mushrooms in a Nordic kitchen would often be a jar or can of champignons, which is to say plain white mushrooms. Cremini give more flavor for the same money and the same effort. If you have a little white wine open, it goes in the pan before the cream; if not, stock alone is fine, and nobody at the table will know.
Boiled potatoes are the standard side, with something pickled or something green next to them. The sauce exists partly to be poured over the potatoes, so make enough.
How to make it
- 1
Boil the potatoes
Put the potatoes in a pot, cover with cold water, salt well and bring to a boil. Simmer until a knife slides in easily, then drain and keep covered.
- 2
Season the chops
Pat the pork chops dry and season both sides with salt and black pepper. Let them sit at room temperature while the potatoes come to a boil.
- 3
Fry the chops
Heat the butter and vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Fry the chops 4 to 5 minutes per side, until browned and an instant-read thermometer in the thickest part away from the bone shows 145°F (63°C).
- 4
Rest the meat
Move the chops to a plate, cover loosely with foil and rest at least 3 minutes. The rest is required for whole cuts of pork, and it also keeps them juicy.
- 5
Start the sauce
Lower the heat to medium, add the butter to the same skillet and cook the onion until soft, about 3 minutes. Add the mushrooms, raise the heat and fry until they have released their liquid and begun to brown, about 6 minutes.
- 6
Build the sauce
Stir in the garlic and thyme and cook 1 minute. Pour in the white wine, if using, and let it reduce almost completely, scraping the browned bits off the bottom of the pan.
- 7
Finish the sauce
Add the beef stock and heavy cream and simmer until the sauce coats a spoon, about 5 minutes. Stir in the mustard and season with salt and black pepper.
- 8
Serve
Return the chops and any juices from the plate to the pan, turn them once in the sauce and scatter the parsley over. Serve with the boiled potatoes.
A couple of tips
Dry chops brown, wet chops steam. Pat them with paper towels right before they hit the pan.
Give the mushrooms room. If the skillet looks crowded, fry them in two batches, otherwise they boil in their own liquid and stay pale.
Thin chops overcook in the time it takes to brown them. Look for chops at least 3/4 inch thick, and use a thermometer rather than guessing.
What you need
- An instant-read thermometer
- A large heavy skillet
Serving
Boiled potatoes and the sauce poured over them, with quick-pickled cucumber, a green salad or buttered green beans alongside. Rye bread on the table catches the last of the sauce.
Storing it
Keeps 3 days in the refrigerator in an airtight container. Reheat gently in a covered pan over low heat; the sauce can be loosened with a splash of milk or stock.
Questions and answers
- Can you freeze pork chops in cream sauce?
- The chops freeze fine, but the cream sauce tends to split when thawed. Freeze the meat and make fresh sauce, or accept a slightly grainy sauce and whisk it hard while reheating.
- What temperature should pork chops be cooked to?
- 145°F (63°C) in the thickest part, away from the bone, followed by a three minute rest. At that point the center can still look faintly pink, which is correct.
- Can I use boneless pork chops?
- Yes, but they cook faster and dry out more easily, so start checking the temperature after 3 minutes per side.
- What can replace the heavy cream?
- Half-and-half works with a slightly thinner result; whisk in a teaspoon of flour with the mushrooms if you want it to thicken. Skip the mustard if you use crème fraîche, which is already sharp.
- Can I make the sauce ahead?
- Yes. Make the mushroom sauce up to a day ahead, keep it refrigerated, and reheat it in the skillet while the chops fry.
This dish belongs to
Similar recipes
How it was made
This recipe was written by a language model. Below is what it cost, how long it took and when each step ran, so you can see how the archive comes about.
- $0.126
- 44.3 sec
- 2
- Passed
| Date | Step | Model | Usage | Time | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 29, 2026 | Wrote the recipe | anthropic/claude-opus-5 | 8,556 in · 3,125 out tokens | 39.8 sec | $0.121 |
| Oct 29, 2026 | Checked food safety | anthropic/claude-sonnet-5 | 2,430 in · 19 out tokens | 1.5 sec | $0.005 |