There’s a popular dish here in Chicago called chicken Vesuvio. An Italian-American dish which is hearty and perfect for this time of year when the weather is starting to turn cooler. It has a luscious sauce that consists of olive oil, butter, white wine, lots of garlic, lemon and oregano, it’s so delicious you’ll be tempted to drink it on its own! The best version of chicken Vesuvio ( in my opinion and many others) uses bone-in chicken, although you can find it made with boneless chicken breasts as well.
This same technique of cooking the meat and making the sauce can also be applied to bone-in pork chops like I’ve done here.
Another distinctive feature of Vesuvio dishes is the addition of potato wedges and peas which take on all the amazing flavors from the sauce.
Although this recipe for pork chops is for two you can easily double or triple it, and of course the same technique can be used for bone- in chicken. When making it with chicken you’ll just need to make sure you have enough sauce depending on how many chicken pieces you use.
For this recipe I used two nice sized Frenched bone-in, center cut pork loin chops, this could definitely be a date night meal or a slow Sunday dinner.
All you need to serve along side this is maybe a salad or another green vegetable, and that will do it!
Enjoy!
- 2 bone in Frenched, center cut pork loin pork chops
- 2 russet potatoes, medium size scrubbed clean with skin on then cut into quarter wedges
- 1 heaping cup of peas
- ¾ cup chicken broth
- ¾ cup dry white wine
- 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
- 6 garlic cloves, 3 whole and 3 thinly sliced
- 1 to 2 Tablespoons of dry oregano
- 3 tablespoons butter lightly rolled in flour (which helps gives the sauce a very light thickening)
- pinch of red pepper flakes
- 1 lemon cut into wedges
- parsley for garnish
- salt and pepper
- olive oil
- On a sheet pan drizzle the potato wedges with olive oil, salt and pepper then roast them at 400F til golden brown, then set aside.
- In an oven proof skillet drizzled with olive oil season the chops with salt and pepper and brown on both sides until almost done cooking, remove and set aside.
- In the same oven proof skillet add a drizzle of olive oil then add all the garlic and saute until lightly golden and starts to smell.
- Pour in the broth, then the wine, turn up the flame and let it reduce a bit.
- Add the lemon juice and oregano then whisk in the butter to make it glossy and thickened, if you need a little more butter go ahead.
- Place the chops into the sauce along with the meat juices, spooning that sauce all around.
- Arrange the potato wedges in the pan as well as the peas and lemon wedges.
- Simmer everything together making sure pork chops are done with a meat thermometer.
- I like to finish mine off under the broiler to give the whole dish a nice golden finishing color.
- Garnish with the chopped parsley.
I love to make this on a Sunday afternoon, always making extra so we can have the leftovers during the week. By the way, it tastes even better the next day!
INGREDIENTS
I’m Marie, a wife, mother, mother-in-law, and gramma of two beautiful girls. My passion is food, clear and simple but especially Italian food, hence the name of my blog, Proud Italian Cook. I want you to feel right at home here so grab a cup of coffee, I’ll get the pastries, take a look around and enjoy your visit! {
