Thick bone-in pork chops cooked in an Instant Pot to tender and juicy perfection with a rich and creamy garlic sauce. Really? Does it get any better than that?
We start with some good bone-in pork loin chops or bone-in ribeye chops that are about 1″ thick. We want to go for the thicker pork chops because they cook better in pressure cooker environment. Look for pork chops that have good marbling too. The fat helps keep the chops moist and tender. You’ll also get better results if the pork chops spend a few minutes out of the refrigerator before starting to cook them.
We’ll use a simple rub of salt, course ground black pepper, garlic powder, oregano and flour. Mix it all together and dredge the pork chops through it. Get all the sides well coated. The we set the Instant Pot to saute mode and melt the 2 tablespoons of butter. Once it says hot, we carefully add the pork chops and let them brown on each side for about 2 minutes. This will create a nice golden brown exterior.
After each side is sauteed, we remove the chops and add the smashed garlic to the pot. Why smashed garlic? For a couple of reasons. For one, quite frankly it’s easier than chopping up the 6 cloves of garlic. Also, smashing the fresh cloves of garlic extracts the natural oils and gives us a robust flavor. Once the smashed garlic has been added to the pot, stir it around for about a minute in the butter and browned bits on the bottom of the pot. We don’t want to go longer than 1 minute because garlic can start to burn quickly. Then we press cancel, add the broth and deglaze the bottom of the bot. This is very important. Deglazing is using a wooden spoon to scrape all the browned bits on the bottom of the pot. If we leave them stuck to the pot we’ll likely get a burn notice, which we certainly don’t want. After deglazing, we add 3-4 stems of fresh thyme to liquid, then nestle the pork chops into the liquid. After a 12 minute pressure cook and an 8 minute release, we remove the pork chops and make our creamy garlic sauce.
Creamy Garlic Sauce
The creamy garlic sauce is a simple combination of broth, heavy cream, lemon juice, thyme, black pepper and flour. The sauce is made by adding all the sauce ingredients to the liquid remaining in the pot, except the flour. Use a whisk and whisk it all in well. Then, use a ladle and ladle out about ¼ of the liquid into a bowl with the flour and whisk away! This will create a thick slurry, which we then pour back into the pot and continue to whisk until its all incorporated. Hit the saute button once again and let the sauce thicken for a few minutes.
Recipe
Instant Pot Pork Chops with Creamy Garlic Sauce
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 2 servings
Description
Tender and delicious Instant Pot pork chops with a rich, creamy garlic sauce.
Ingredients
Pork Chops:
- 2 large bone-in pork chops, about 1” thick
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper, course ground
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- 2 teaspoons flour
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 6 cloves of garlic, smashed
Creamy Garlic Sauce:
- 1 cup chicken broth
- ½ cup cream
- ½ tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 ½ tablespoons flour
- 6–8 stems of fresh thyme
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
Instructions
- To prepare the pork, combine the ½ tsp. of salt, black pepper, garlic powder, dried oregano and 2 teaspoons of flour in a shallow dish. Dredge the pork chops in the mixture on all sides.
- Turn the instant pot to the “Saute” function and add the butter to the pot. Once the butter is melted and just beginning to brown, add the pork chops to the pot in a single layer (not overlapping). Brown the pork chops on each side for 1-2 minutes, or until they have a nice browned exterior. Remove the pork chops and add the smashed garlic and give them a stir in the browned bits at the bottom of the pot.
- Add the water or broth and scrape up any leftover browned bits at the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon. Nestle the pork chops back into the liquid along with half of the thyme stems. Press the “Cancel” button on the Instant Pot and place the lid on the Instant Pot with the vent set to the “sealing” position.
- Select the “Pressure Cook” (Manual) option on your Instant Pot and set the timer to 12 minutes at high pressure. Once the timer is up, allow the pressure to naturally release for 8 minutes, then flip the vent to the quick release to finish releasing any steam.
- Carefully remove the pork chops from the pan along with the thyme stems. Set the pot to the “Saute” function again and use tongs or a fork to break up the softened bits of garlic. Add the remaining thyme stems. Once the liquid begins to bubble, add in the cream and lemon juice and give everything a stir. Ladle out about ¼ of the liquid and pour into a small bowl. Whisk it together with the flour to create a slurry. Pour the slurry back into the pot and whisk until the sauce begins to thicken. Set the pot to “cancel” once the sauce thickens to your liking. Note that it will keep thickening after you remove it from the heat. If it thickens too much, you can whisk in a little additional water.
- Remove any remaining stems from the sauce and season with salt and pepper. Pour the sauce over the pork chops and serve with your favorite side dish.
- Prep Time: 10 min
- Cook Time: 20 min (including release time)
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Instant Pot
- Cuisine: American
Allison says
Outstanding my mom sucked the meat off the bones!!! She’s so fussy refuses to eat the same meal the second day well guess what she didn’t complain and did the same thing on the 2nd day too. Thank you I’ll be printing this.
Janice says
First meal and first time using my instapot. . Recipe was quick to prepare and easy to follow. PChops were very tender.
Janet says
Only changes I made was I doubled the ingredients to make sure that all my pork was covered and I put the pork in the broiler to give it some color. My picky husband ate the lot and said it was a winner. Had a great flavor. I had no fresh thyme so I used some dried instead.
Great recipe, will make again
Chris says
I don’t see where it says how much water to add with the broth?
Chris says
OR broth! I see it now ????
Beth Duncan says
Cooked it tonight, delicious. BUT as suggested added onions, extra cream, parmesan, seasoning and garlic. Def to be repeated. Thank you for the recipe and added suggestions
Krysta says
I like to use boneless pork chops that are about 1/2 inch thick. What would you recommend time wise for the pressure cooking portion? I’m still very new to the instant pot!
RecipeTeacher says
Hi Krysta. Boneless are usually more lean and being thinner will require a couple less minutes cooking time.
Laurie Bundy says
Followed the recipe exactly on the quantities and while the pork chops were OK, I found the overall flavor to be bland and lacking something. Perhaps the recipe needs onion, or maybe some parmesan cheese? I was so excited to try this as I love garlic and it looks very good, but I would not make this again.
RecipeTeacher says
Hi Laurie and I thank you for your feedback. We’ve been super pleased with it on a number of occasions but I will say, adding some parmesan cheese and onions sounds great too!!
Katie says
I made the recipe but the sauce seemed bland, so I added a little more cream and some garlic salt and it was amazing! My picky eater kids even ate it!! Thank you
Dawn says
just made this and we all found it very bland. no real flavor. huge disappointment waited all week to try this recipe and was so very excited
Tiff says
There’s no garlic in the garlic sauce??
RecipeTeacher says
Hi Tiff, there are 6 cloves of garlic added to the dish in step 2. The rest of the sauce ingredients are added at the end.
Paul says
Is there a crock pot version of this recipe? I’m retired and prefer to use my crock pot and cook dinner slowly.
Jaime says
I have a large family. What would the changes be to the recipe if I was cooking 8-10 pieces instead of 2?
RecipeTeacher says
Hi Jaime. You’d be best to do in batches. It will depend too on the size of your pork chops and instant pot.