Apricot-Honey Cheese & Sausage Stuffed Pork Chops, with Apricot Balsamic Glaze

I got this apricot-honey cheese at Costco, because it sounded good, without any clear idea of what to do with it.

The cheese is good. Sweet. Sort of crumbly like goat cheese. Strong, but nice apricot flavor. Reminds me a bit of flavored cream cheese (but, you know, fancy.)


I wasn't really sure what to do with it. But everything's nice stuffed in pork chops. So...

(I'm making cheesy, creamy, bacon polenta to go with this.)

Also, this refrigerates well. Get the pork chops stuffed, salt and pepper them, and they can sit covered in the fridge for a day or so. For the glaze, let it thicken a little less than you would, and it can be keep in the fridge till you're ready. When you're ready to serve it, re-heat slowly, add a bit more lemon juice if needed.

Ingredients:
- 4 thick cut pork chops

Stuffing
- ~1 c. apricot honey soft cheese
- 1 roll sweet Italian sausage (like 1.5c?)
- 1 med yellow onion, finely diced
- 3-4 tbps butter
- salt to taste

Glaze:
- ~2 tbsp butter
- ~1c apricot jam
- 1/4-1/3 c balsamic vinegar
- 4 cloves garlic, mashed
- ~1/4 very finely diced yellow onion
- ~1 tbsp ground sumac
- 3-5 tbsp lemon juice
- 1/2-1 tsp hot pepper/chili of your choice (I like cayenne, but chipotle or California might be good too)
- if desired, 5-10 drops liquid smoke (this gives it a nice smokey flavor, but it can be too strong really fast. Be cautious.)
- salt to taste

How to:
Filling
- Cut pockets in your pork chops. I am not good at this. If you have a good method, please comment and tell me. I mostly poke a knife in, wiggle it, then use my fingers to hollow out the pocket with as small an opening as possible.

-Put the butter in a pan and melt it. Add onions. Cook till they're very soft and translucent (like 15 min?)

-When onions are done, add sausage. Saute till it's cooked through, using a spatula to break it up into little pieces. (You want it to look like cooked ground beef, if possible).

-Take off heat, and let cool down some. Not totally cool, but not cooking-temp.

-Mix the cheese in.

-Stick it in the fridge, and let it cool down a lot.

- When the filling is cool, stuff the pork chops. More is always better. Seal either with tooth picks, or cooking twine. Set any extra filling aside.

-Preheat oven to 350.

-Season both sides of the chops with salt and pepper to taste.

- In a cast iron pan or oven safe skillet, melt a little butter, and sear both sides of the chops, and all edges (if you can, without the filling coming out)

- Cover the chops with any leftover stuffing. Stick 'em in the oven and bake. You're looking for an internal temp (in the pork) of 145. Be careful that your thermometer ends up in the pork, not the filling. Probably 20 minutes of baking?

- About 5 minutes before it's done, turn the oven way up. I'd use broil, but it sets my smoke detector off every time, so maybe 550? Use this to crisp up the tops, especially if there's any filling on the top. You want some nice crunchy bits. (You could also use a torch to do this. I really want a torch).

- Pull it out, let it rest. Top with glaze.


Glaze:
- Melt the butter in a sauce pan

- Add onion and garlic, saute for ~5 min, add lemon juice

- Reduce heat, and saute till super super super mushy. (Like 20 minutes?)

- Add jam, vinegar, and all spices

-  Turn heat to high and bring to a boil. Boil for 3-5 minutes, to let the sugars carmelize some. If you like a richer flavor, boil longer. Keep a close eye on it, though, because it can scorch easily!

- Turn heat down to very low, reduce till it's syrupy.