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These Easy Oven-Braised French Onion Pork Chops are an easy weeknight dinner with minimal ingredients and hardly any prep required. They are definitely a dish your family will be begging for because it’s one of the easiest pork chop recipes ever!
I’m always on the hunt for easy dinner recipes, and especially pork chop recipes that yield tender, juicy results. These 3-ingredient French Onion Pork Chops are the perfect chop to serve with some sauteed broccoli and make ahead mashed potatoes or rice.
While I dealt with some health issues a while back, my mom was helping out quite a bit with my kids. She would make dinner, some times even recipes off of this site, but there was one dish that she made that had us gobbling up the meal like it was going out of style, which was these Oven-Braised Pork Chops.
How to Braise Pork Chops
You don’t see a lot of pork chop recipes on the site because I have never had good luck with them. Pork Tenderloin? CHECK. Pork Loin? CHECK. Pork Roast? CHECK CHECK. But pork chop recipes? Nope. They always seemed to come out dry. I mean dry to the point where you’re wondering if you have a knife sharp enough to cut them. So why did my pork chops never turn out? I wasn’t using the right method, or the right sauce…I mean gravy…because everything’s better with gravy, right?
I absolutely expected these pork chops to be difficult to make, until she wrote out the recipe for me. Pork chops, onion soup mix, water. You were expecting more too, right? But that’s it, just 3 ingredients. Of course there are optional add ins, like more fresh onions or mushrooms, but that’s totally up to you.
How to Make French Onion Pork Chops
My mom’s pork chop recipe is super easy, and requires just a few ingredients.
- You will need a heavy bottomed, oven safe skillet, like a cast iron or this one.
- The pork chops start on the stove to get a nice sear, then are covered with the onion soup mix and water and cooked in the oven for 20-30 minutes. The longer you can leave them in there, the more tender they will become.
- You can serve them just right out of the oven if you like, or you can make a yummy gravy with mushrooms, like we do.
We’ve had these pork chops (the mother of all pork chop recipes) once a month at least for the past 6 months, that’s how good they are. Kid tested. Mother approved.
What Temperature Should Porks Be Cooked To?
The FDA recently recommended that pork chops can be cooked to a minimum of 145 degrees, or medium rare, and up to 165 degrees for well done. Braising like with this pork chop recipe will typically yield more on the well done side but will still be nice and tender.
More Pork Recipes
- One Pot Smothered Pork Chops
- Easy Crock Pot Pork Roast
- Easy Baked Pork Chops with Brown Sugar
- Lemon Herb Pork Tenderloin
More Easy Dinners
- Baked Chicken Breasts
- One Pan Parmesan Meatballs
- Barbecue Ranch Cheddar Chicken
- One Pot Beef Stroganoff
Easy Oven Braised French Onion Pork Chops
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 pound bone-in pork chops
- 1 package dry onion soup mix
- 1 cup water
- 1/2 cup sliced mushrooms optional
- Chopped parsley for garnish – optional
- Chicken broth (if needed to thin out gravy)
- 1/4 cup All-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup Butter
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Heat oil in a large, oven safe, heavy-bottomed skillet over medium-high heat. Season pork chops with pepper, if desired, and brown on all sides, 2 to 3 minutes per side.
- Sprinkle onion soup mix over the pork chops. Pour in water.
- Transfer to 350 degree oven for 20-30 minutes, until fork-tender. Remove pork chops to a plate reserving the drippings in the pan.
- Meanwhile, in a separate small skillet, melt ¼ cup butter over medium-low heat. Stir in ¼ cup flour to make a roux. Cook for a few minutes, until mixture is a light golden color. Pour into the skillet with the pork chop drippings and whisk briskly as the mixture thickens. Add the pork chops back in and serve with gravy.
- Optional: Add sliced mushrooms to the skillet as you brown the pork chops and cook until soft and starting to caramelize.
- Sprinkle with chopped parsley for garnish, and serve immediately.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional Disclaimer Kristin Maxwell of “Yellow Bliss Road” is not a dietician or nutritionist, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate. For accurate calorie counts and other nutritional values, we recommend running the ingredients through your preferred online nutritional calculator. Calories and other nutritional values can vary depending on which brands were used.
Easy to make and delicious pork chop recipe! I used more mushrooms and beef bone broth to thin out a bit. My family loved these!! Thanks!!
Excellent! I used 1 c. mushrooms, unsalted chicken boullion, water and vegetable oil in the roux/gravy. Needed generous pepper and a bit of salt. This recipe will become a staple.
Nice! Thanks for your feedback Mary.
K.
My husband and I made this recipe tonight, and it was so delicious. This will definitely go on my favorites list!
Nice! Thanks for stopping by Amanda.
Why did my gravy come out thick, not gravy like to use on my mashed potatoes
Hi Kenny, I’m not sure of the answer to your question because the gravy is thick, but not so thick it won’t pour.
Hi after I added the roux my gravy was very thick and not thin like the picture showed. It didn’t look like gravy more like mush.
Hi Kenny, my guess if your chops didn’t give you enough drippings. You can always thin out a gravy with chicken broth or milk.
Delicious. Very easy to make. My chops were on the large side so I had to turn them midway. Juices(gravy) so tasty over rice. Try it. You’ll like it
Great feedback! Thanks for stopping by.
Should the pork chops be covered when they go in the oven?
No they do not need to be covered.
I loved the gravy but my chops did not come out tender. They probably were a bit over cooked but you did say that the longer they were in the oven the more tender they would become. I left them in the full 30 minutes. What can I do next time to make them come out tender? Because my husband really liked the flavor and I will definitely be making these again.
It really depends on the thickness of the chops themselves. Pork should be 145-160 degrees F, so I would watch them closely next time and measure the temperature.
Hi Kristin. I loved this recipe. Ive made it twice this week. The best pork chop recipe. Thx
That’s so awesome Lynn! Thanks for stopping by.
This recipe was going great until I got to the part where you add “1/2 cup butter and 1/2 cup flour.” That’s a stick of butter – did you actually make the gravy with these measurements? It turned my pan of beautiful drippings and onion soup into wallpaper paste. I’m actually kind of ashamed I didn’t talk myself out of it before I passed the point of no return. Waaaaaaay too much roux. I suggest you modify the recipe. Too bad – it seems like it would be yummy.
It depends on how much liquid you have, but yes it could be too much. Feel free to modify and make less.
A roux is made up with equal parts butter and flour then broth or drippings are added to make gravy. This is the French way that has worked for generations but you could always do it another way, have no idea what that would be unless you use cornstarch and water but we don’t care for snotty gravy.
Instead of the roux I used water and corn starch and added a little at a time that way it doesn’t turn out too thick.
Great idea Amanda, love that you made it your own!
Looks good. Probably try it but will use a Creuset dutch oven that I usually use for braising. Doing it covered will probably avoid the thick gravy issue described in other comments….
Thanks David! Great idea, let me know how the gravy turns out.
Do you cover the chops when you put them in the oven?
No, you will leave the pan uncovered.
Hello Kristin.
I have a question: What is the butter and flour used for? When I made this, I made a roux like directed and then added the drippings to it. But my roux was lumpy and I wasn’t sure how to serve it. It tasted like raw butter and flour. It wasn’t very appetizing. I ended up smothering it on top of the pork chops, but that didn’t look right, either. Plus it didn’t taste good. I scraped most of it off. But then my husband got the ingenious idea to put the butter and flour on top of the pork chops and then broil them for an additional 10-15 minutes, or until the flour and butter on top turned a deep brown color. The result tasted like breaded pork chops, but the roux was still squishy in places and wasn’t sticking to the pork chops very well….
So what did I do wrong? Please help!
Thank you!
It sounds like the butter and flour needed longer to cook. The butter melts and the flour is added to that, and they are whisked together so they shouldn’t be lumpy. Then it cooks for several minutes.
I’m anxious to try this. Would there be any harm in using some broth instead of water?
The only thing with using broth is the added salt. I would recommend using a low sodium or salt free broth.
I think this would be a fantastic cube steak recipe.
Yes I think it would, too!
I accidentally bought onion DIP mix instead of onion soup mix. I realized this AFTER I put the seared chops in the oven. Realizing my mistake, I pulled them out and was about to rinse them off and run to the market to get the right thing. But after talking it through with my husband, I chilled out and let it be. I’m glad I did, because it ended up being awesome. I added about a full cup more of water to thin out the gravy. I think there might be some corn starch in the onion dip mix, so the roux plus the onion dip mix made for a thick gravy, but I added water until it got to the consistency I liked and added a bit of garlic powder and a tad bit of salt. This is truly a winner, even with the accidental wrong main ingredient lol. Next time around I will buy onion SOUP mix 🙂
Onion soup mix and dip mix are pretty much the same thing, so you did good! Glad you stuck it out and that you were able to thin out the gravy to your liking.
Kristin can I sub canned french onion soup for the dry onion soup mix and water?
Hi Melissa, I can’t say for sure since I haven’t tried that myself. But I think I would still add some water since the soup in a can is usually condensed.
Having the same issue with the gravy being very thick. Are you supposed to cover the skillet while baking? The water that I had added to the onion soup on the pork chops had almost baked away. Had to add about a cup and a half of wTer after the roux was made and added to the skilletfor the gravy. Overall very tasty though.
You can add more liquid to the pan if it’s comes out dry.
I wonder if you can sub out chicken breast? Would they become more tender with longer braising time?
You could swap for chicken but I wouldn’t give it any more time. Maybe increase the temp to 400 degrees. This recipe hasn’t been tested with chicken, so if you try I’d love to know what you think.
My husband says that these were the best pork chops that he EVER tasted! I diced onion and garlic and a little jalapeno peppers and put in pan immediately after braising the chops. Removed the veggie mix and placed the chops back in pan and put veggie mix on top of chops and then put homemade dry gravy mix on top! These were finger licking good!
So happy that you and your family loved this recipe!
I love that you were able to make it work for you!
Thank you for stopping by!
Can i use wine for seasoning?.
Sure, you could replace some of the water with wine.
I made this tonight exactly like the recipe and the roux is way too thick! Very disappointed.
I think you mean the gravy? And I’m sorry it came out to thick for you. You could always add some broth (beef, chicken) to thin it out if it’s not to your liking.
Made this tonight and the rioux was way too thick. Added more water but it was like paste, not sure what I did wrong. So disappointed.
I have some boneless pork loin chops and was wondering if this would be a nice recipe for them. Also, could I try thickening the gravy with cornstarch and a bit of water or broth to be gluten free?
Yes to both questions! I’ve made the gravy both ways.
I made this tonight, and it was wonderful! My husband absolutely LOVED it. The gravy was a little bit too thick, but I just added a little bit of chicken broth and it was perfect!
If I double this recipe should I double the roux also?
Yes, if you’re doubling the recipe, you will need to double the entire list of ingredients.
And mushrooms and parsley too, right? I don’t see those listed in the list of ingredients. Looks great though.
Hi Teresa, those were included in the instructions as optional, but I’ve update the ingredients list to include them. Enjoy!