Pork Chops with Hard Cider Jus

Pork chops with Tapped Apple hard cider makes the perfect winter dinner.

Ingredients 8 (1-inch thick) bone-in pork chops (about 4 pounds)

1 cup Tapped Apple First Bite Hard Cider

1 tsp salt

1 1/4 tsp black pepper

2 1/2 TBSP unsalted butter

8 shallots (about 1 pound) halved

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

2. Pat pork chops dry and sprinkle salt and pepper on both sides. Melt 1 1/2 tablespoons of butter in a skillet on moderately high heat. Once butter is melted (and foaming subsides) brown pork chops in batches, cooking 3 minutes per side.

3. Transfer browned pork chops to a large shallow baking pan.

4. Add shallots and remaining butter to skillet and cook on medium high heat until shallots are golden and tender (6-8 minutes).

5. Add Tapped Apple First Bite Hard Cider and bring to a boil, stirring to scrape up brown bits on skillet. Cook until reduced to 3/4 cup (about 3 minutes).

6. Spoon shallots and sauce around pork chops and cook in lower third of the oven until meat thermometer reads 160 degrees (about 9 minutes). Make sure thermometer does not touch the bone for accurate reading.

7. Remove chops from oven and loosely cover with foil. Let chops stand for 5 minutes to continue cooking.

8. Serve chops with shallots and sauce.