French Onion Soup Pork Chops

Confession time: I loathe French onion soup.

I cannot freaking stand it. It is just wholly unappetizing to me which is strange when you consider all of the things that go into the dish. I love onions. I love soup. I love melted cheese and croutons/bread in soup. I love all beef-based products. But somehow, when you combine all of these in one bowl, my stomach turns.

My husband, however, loves the stuff so when I saw the flavors translated to pork chops, I went for it.

I started with a massive batch of caramelized onions in the slow cooker. Yes, you can make them in the slow cooker and yes it's easy and amazing and delicious and yes it's possibly changed my onion-loving life and your house smells rad when you come home from work the night you try them. I sliced up three or four large Vidalia onions (I like the added sweetness), tossed them with a little olive oil, and butter (about two pats, chopped small), and salt, then set them on low for 10 hours.

Once done, I covered the bottom of a casserole dish with a ton of the sweet, melty onions. Then, you mix the following in a bowl:

- one packet of Lipton onion soup mix
- 1/2 cup beef stock (unsalted preferably)

It's an extremely complicated recipe, I tell you. Once mixed, nestle some pork chops (I did three so I had one leftover for lunch) on top of the onions, then pour the sauce over the chops.

Pop them in the oven at around 350/375 degrees until the pork is cooked through.

You instantly get that rich aroma from the beef stock plus the real fresh caramlized onions and the fake re-hydrated onion soup mix flavors. I served them with some onions that cooked with them and a fresh Brussels sprouts + craisin slaw.

These are SO FREAKING GOOD. The one main complaint? These veer into Too Salty territory, but, duh, I poured a packet of Lipton soup powder all over them. Those packets are salt, salt, sodium, salt, and deliciousness. So, pour yourself an extra glass of water at dinner to flush some of it out and you'll live, I promise.

I could also see these flavors working well with chicken if you swapped chicken stock for beef stock. Onion flavors are ones I will always gravitate toward, even if it comes from a dehydrated packet. Luckily for my salt-loving taste buds, Lipton sells two packs at a time, so I have another oniony creation coming your way soon!

Oh, and what do you do with the rest of the caramelized onions in your slow cooker? If you're an onion freak like me, put 'em in the fridge and use them up. Or, you can portion some out into those sandwich-sized Ziploc bags and freeze them. You'll have them around for future soups, pizzas, or pork chop recipes.