San Francisco Pork Chops {Slow Cooker}
These tender San Francisco pork chops, cooked in a rich, flavorful sauce, are insanely easy to make thanks to the slow cooker!
I am frantically trying to share with you all of my slow cooker/soup recipes I have in queue before the weather turns warmer (which for some has probably already happened but for me, alas, it has not).
I couldn’t let another minute slide before offering up this amazing slow cooker recipe for you to make.
Although on second thought, I’m realizing that I actually use my slow cooker more in the summer months than I do in the winter.
Not having to heat up my entire house by turning on the oven is a huge plus. Slow cooker for the win ALL year long!
Probably one of the best pork recipes I have for the slow cooker, these San Francisco pork chops in question bathe in a simple, rich sauce that has an ending depth of flavor that belies the every day ingredients.
Thanks to the quick cornstarch slurry in the final steps, the sauce becomes more like a glaze that envelopes the tender pork in a delicious, mouth-watering gravy.
Please make this. And please, brown the pork chops before adding to the slow cooker. And please, don’t omit the red pepper flakes. You may reduce them to a pinch, but the dish needs them. And please try not to lick your plate when you are done eating.
Ok, I’m done with the pleases.
And for those of you that are wanting an Instant Pot conversion for these San Francisco pork chops – I haven’t made this recipe in the IP yet, but I’m guessing about 15-20 minutes high pressure (natural release for 10 minutes and then quick release remaining pressure) should be a good starting point.
These are perfect with this brown rice and a nice green veggie, like roasted broccoli.
One Year Ago: Cheesy Garlic Bread
Two Years Ago: Toasted Orzo with Peas and Parmesan
Three Years Ago: Black and White Bean Dip
San Francisco Chops {Slow Cooker}
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 4 pork chops, about 1-inch thick
- Salt and pepper for seasoning
- 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
- ¼ cup reduced-sodium soy sauce
- ¼ cup low-sodium chicken broth
- 2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 tablespoon cold water
- Hot Cooked Rice, for serving
Instructions
- In a large 12-inch skillet, heat the oil over medium-high heat until it is simmering and hot. Season the pork chops on both sides with salt and pepper. Brown the pork chops for 1-2 minutes on each side in the hot oil until golden. Transfer the chops to the slow cooker. Add the garlic to the drippings in the skillet and stir constantly over medium heat until the garlic is aromatic and golden (but not burned or it will turn bitter!). Stir in the soy sauce, broth, brown sugar and red pepper flakes; cook and stir until sugar is dissolved. Pour over chops.
- Cover the slow cooker and cook on low for 7 to 8 hours until the meat is tender. If using bone-in pork chops, fish out the bones from the slow cooker. Remove the chops from the slow cooker to a shallow pan or plate – they will most likely be falling apart in tenderness at this point.
- In a small bowl, combine the cornstarch and cold water until smooth. Whisk the cornstarch slurry into the sauce in the slow cooker. Return the chops to the slow cooker. Turn the slow cooker heat to high and cook for 30 minutes to an hour longer, until the sauce is slightly thickened. If you want a super duper thick sauce, once you remove the chops from the slow cooker, pour the sauce into a pan and place it over medium heat on the stove. Add the cornstarch slurry and bring the sauce to a boil. Boil for 1-2 minutes until the sauce is thick. Add the pork and heat through.
- Serve the tender chops over rice and garnish with green onions, if desired.
Notes
Recommended Products
Recipe Source: adapted from Jane Deere
What cut of chips did you use? Mine stayed while and not shredded.
Can many of your slow cooker recipes adapt to the Instant Pot?? I am about to buy one and I love the idea of being able to make these yummy recipes when I get home from work!
Yes, a lot of them transition really well! I’ve been experimenting right and left.
I make frequently, and each time my family raves about it! This is one of my favorite crock pot recipes. The extra step of browning the pork is so simple and makes all the difference. I usually cook on low for about 5 hours and use 1-1.5 inch thick boneless pork chops.
I make frequently, and each time my family raves about it! This is one of my favorite crock pot recipes. The extra step of browning the pork is so simple and makes all the difference. I usually cook on low for about 5 hours and use 1-1.5 inch thick boneless pork chops.
would these work in the insta-pot? i just got one and have a pork loin i want to try in it. thanks for all your work and love for cooking. you are in my kitchen more than you know:)
I don’t see why not! I think it would work great.
Best pork chops of all time. We add some extra broth & soy in order to have more of that delicious sauce.
Have you ever tried this with boneless chicken breasts?
I haven’t but I believe others in the comment thread have.
These look great. I was wondering if you have ever tried browning the chops and making the sauce ahead of time? Because of crazy after school clubs and soccer practice, I will likely have to race home during my lunch hour to turn on the crock pot so this can be ready when everyone finally lands at home in the evening, so if possible, I’d like to brown the chops and make the sauce the night before, and then the next day pull it out of the fridge and turn on the crockpot. I wouldn’t think it would be crucial for everything to be hot going into the crockpot but thought I’d just see if you had any tips. Thank you so much. I wish you knew how many of your recipes grace our table on a weekly basis.
I think that sounds like a fabulous idea – should work great. And by the way, your family is so lucky to have you going the extra mile for a home cooked meal!
Hey! I made these for dinner last night and we loved the flavor, but they turned out a bit dry. When you first pour the sauce over the pork chops, are they completely covered? I have a large crock pot and by the time the pork chops were done cooking there wasn’t much sauce left. I was thinking that maybe I should double the sauce recipe so there will be more liquid in the crock pot…just wondering if anyone else has had problems with this. Thanks!
Hi Jessica – if they are too dry or there isn’t any liquid left then, yes, you might want to increase the liquid. I cook these in my round 4/5-quart slow cooker and so they have plenty of liquid by the end of cooking time.
Hi there – Love the look of this recipe! Just sitting here in the UK near London early in the morning having been woken by a car alarm and wondering what I can get going for some boneless pork chops I bought yesterday – YES – this looks like it will fit the bill! I’ll just get on to that now and will report back 🙂
Hi Mel. I’m new to your blog, and have only tried your slow cooker beef barley soup. It was so good that I’ve made it twice in 5 days, and given some away to 3 friends so they would have a taste. I also retired my 20 plus year old beef barley soup recipe that I had been making. That alone, says a lot. So what did I do just before midnight? I started making this recipe, that’s what. Yes, based on one other (amazing!) recipe you had in your blog, I figured I would tackle this one. I would like to point out that we don’t eat pork chops. And by “don’t”, I mean never. Well, this would have been a logical choice then, right? 😉 I read the recipe, and even checked out the comments section as well. Proud to say that I did brown the meat, and it made a world of difference, as the chops looked good this morning when they were removed from the Crockpot. Why up at midnight making porkchops, you say? Well, my husband is up before the earliest of birds to start his shift and makes his way home for lunch around 10:30am. We’ve sworn off take-out, and I’ve been cooking. I’m proud to say that when he arrives home, he will have a small plate of rice, baby peas and one of your delicious chops. For dinner will will have the same, but with some sauteed mushrooms and greens. Yes, life is good my friend, life is good. Oh, and my husband who had previously swore off pork chops is going to love them again, and you are to thank.
You are a good wife, Karen! So happy you have loved both of these recipes, thanks for letting me know!
I just made this and it is fantastic! For a Mum with three under three, this was a stress free and tasty dish. Thank you so much!!
Just made these last night and can I say, AMAZING. I keep snitching on the leftovers in my fridge. They are so delicious and so simple. Plus all the ingredients (besides the pork chops) were already in my pantry which is a double bonus in my book. Pork chops have always been my nemesis: dry, tough, and flavorless. Not these bad boys. Thank you Mel!! I am constantly coming back to your site when I am looking for something new to put on the menu.
I know this is an old post but I found this last fall when
I was looking for something different to do wih pork chops. I have made it several times since And my whole
Family loves it. I double the sauce and add a teaspoon of ground ginger to give it a bit of an Asian style taste
I love this recipe! I usually skip the thickening step at the end if we’re in a hurry, and it is still so delicious.
Made this last night. It was delicious… everyone loved it.
I really enjoy this site Mel. I love cooking and searching out new recipes is one of my favorite past times. All your recipes look so good!!
I love reading and cooking your recipes. This is in my slow cooker as I type. Smells so good.
This was the best pork I’ve ever had! Holy smokes, my husband and I licked our plates clean. Mel, you have made me such a great cook! Thank you so much! 🙂
Pam – Thanks so much, Pam!
I’ve been making the recipe for a couple of years now, and I have to say, it’s one of my favorites. It stays on my menu board on Pinterest.
This past weekend, I had a pork roast to cook, so I cooked it like this and it was amazing! I doubled the sauce and we had it with potatoes and broccoli. Very yummy!
could some of those with failures say what type crockpot they’ve used? I would
love to try these but have just become aware how important it is to use the right
cooker for a recipe. I had from the library THE GREAT AMERICAN SLOW COOKER BOOK, and saw they break down a recipe 3 ways, depending on the cooker,
from a small 2 to 3-quarter to a big 6 to 8 quart.
I ended up with pork jerky 🙁 all the liquid cooked off and the pork was just tough and inedible – cooked on low for 7 hours
Would it ruin taste if I placed a few dried apples slices in crockpot?
After reading the wonderful comments on this recipe, I have decided to make these chops tomorrow for dinner. I have a question regarding setting the slower cooker on high for the last 30 minutes to thicken the sauce…is the slow cooker’s lid on or off?
Kathy – I keep the slow cooker lid on.
Best Pork Chop recipe I have found!! Really delicious!!!
I made these tonight and they were very good! I made them as written except I used cayenne instead of red pepper flakes, which is basically the same thing except they’re ground up. I converted it to a stove top method instead of a slow cooker because if I’m going to sear the pork in a skillet I’m going to cook it in the same skillet! I hate to wash extra pots and pan…lol! This was delicious! I’ll be blogging about it soon with a link back to your page! Thank you so much for sharing! =D
Freezable??
Dana – not sure, never tried freezing, so you’ll have to experiment. Good luck!
Mel, I found your site by looking for brown rice cooking options. As a thank you for your recipes, may I ask if you are familiar with using potato starch as a thickening agent? To quote Jacques Pépin: “I often use a “pure starch” — generally potato starch or arrowroot — to finish a sauce and give it a bit of viscosity. If nothing else is available, you can substitute cornstarch, but it tends to make a sauce gooey and gelatinous. I prefer potato starch, which is made from steamed potatoes that are dried and ground. Potato starch is gluten-free and sometimes appears in baked goods, particularly Jewish-Passover specialties. Inexpensive and available in 1-pound packages, it can be found in the Kosher section of many supermarkets and in Asian specialty food shops (it is also used in Japanese cooking). Arrowroot, on the other hand, comes in very small containers and is very expensive. All of these starches are used in the same way: they are diluted with a little cold liquid — water, wine, or stock — and then stirred into a hot sauce. The starch thickens the sauce on contact and then it is usually brought to a boil.”
My go-to is Bob’s Red Mill Potato Starch, available on Amazon, four 1-pound bags for a very reasonable price and excellent quality. I’ve entirely switched from cornstarch to potato start for all my savory thickening needs; the thickening texture doesn’t change at all during freezing or reheating.
PS I was born in Little Fork, lived in the Falls (now in Indiana). How I miss the north woods. Please look out the window and enjoy them for me for a minute or two.
Happy cooking, JJ
I made these for Sunday dinner and they were fantastic, gorgeous, full of flavor and smelled so good they had everyone melting before they even made it to the table. I went with the transfer-back-to-the-pan-for-extra-thickening option and had people scraping their plates to get every bit of it. I also went with the baked brown rice. It was good, but I think I’d prefer some sort of potato with this. Your buttery thyme peas were great as a side. It was a Mel’s Kitchen Café meal all the way! I love how I can count on your recipes to be good enough for guests even if I don’t try them ahead of time.
Made this tonight. Wonderful! There were only two of us eating so I have leftovers for lunch tomorrow! Yay!
Thank you! I made this yesterday and we loved it!
Hmm…I’m going to have to try this again. I used a large crockpot, followed the recipe to a T, and used pork chops that were at LEAST 1 inch thick. Except, I only cooked mine for 4.5 hours because I forgot to start it until later in the day. I did double the sauce as many here suggest. The pork was tough, burnt on the edges, and dry as a bone. Most of the sauce was caked onto the bottom of my crock pot and couldn’t be salvaged either. The flavor, I could tell, would be great, but unfortunately this recipe was just waaay too dry to be enjoyable. Very disappointed. My crock pot usually cooks things just fine, so I’m not sure what went wrong here. I’d like to try it again, but my advice to everyone here: keep a close eye on it to avoid overcooking!
used this recipe for the base of my Asian stir fry over rice…mmm.
Great recipe! My husband and I really enjoyed the pork chops. Thanks. 🙂
Mel, what a winner!! I made this today for some friends who have a new baby (and some for my husband and me!) and it was a complete success. Made it just as written and it turned out beautifully. All four of us loved it! I cut 1″ chops from a whole pork tenderloin – great way to save some money on boneless pork chops. Served with roasted broccoli and “Egg Noodles with Garlic and Herbs” from foodnetwork.com. I so appreciate all the time and effort you put in to making your recipes flawless. Each one of them works like a charm every time!
Thick chops… a must. Ours were 1″ plus.
Double the sauce…. a must.
Brown rice ….a must.
I do not like pork chops and this was one of the best meals I have ever cooked.
So glad I found this recipe and am sending to everyone i know.
Steamed carrots with it and what a meal !!!
Thank you so much for posting.
I had macaroni & cheese last night, it was great! Can’t wait to try this recipe tomorrow night, thanks!
These were great and I don’t like pork chops! I have never had a recipe for them that they didn’t taste all dried out. This one was perfect – not dry at all! Thank you!
Just wondering what size crockpot you use for cooking these? Just checked them at about the 6 1/2 hour mark and my “sauce” is more like tar. Double checked the instructions. Can’t figure out where I went wrong lol.
AprilG – I use my round crockpot – I believe it’s 4 or 5 quart.
I must point out that I usually do not comment on blogs, but after running to your website numerous times, I need to thank you! All of your recipes are great. We had these pork chops tonight and my husband loved them! I rarely eat pork chops, but this recipe will make an appearance on our meal plan alot. They were yummy! Thanks again!
YUM! We had these for dinner tonight and my husband inquired, “Can we have this for dinner again tomorrow night?!?” 🙂 We love your recipes! Keep ’em coming….
Made these the other night and they were fantastic!! I quadrupled most the ingredients (minus the pork chops) to make more sauce. I also used Splenda brown sugar blend in place of regular brown sugar. I would advise against that as the aftertaste was terrible. Will be making these again in the next few weeks though as they were very very good!!
Hi Katz – yes, the general rule of thumb is that seasoning meat before browning gives the best flavor.
All the recipes I’ve read thru sound great, can’t wait to make several of them. One question, 50+ years ago when I learned to cook, I was taught not to season meat until after it had been browned. Your recipes say to season & then brown. Has that changed? I always say it is fun to learn & I enjoy trying new recipes.
I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve made these. We LOVE this recipe! It’s in the crockpot now! I usually double the sauce because we like to have a bit extra to pour on the rice (my husband loves extra), but otherwise I wouldn’t change a thing about this… It’s perfect!
Tried this recipe out on Sunday and I’m still daydreaming about those pork chops.
Thank you!
Oh, and thanks to the contributors who commented on the thickness of their cuts of meat – it helped me refine the cooking time to perfection.
More please!
Loved this! I defiently will double the sauce, there was barely any, and I think i prefer it on the runnier side so maybe 1 tsp flour. Thanks though, the pork chops were so yummy!!
I tried this recipe for the first time last night and it was a HUGE hit. This was so incredibly easy and delicious it will surely become a regular meal for us.
My husband said it was the best meal he’s had all year (and we cook and go out to nice restaurants alot)!
This is my husbands favorite dish ever! He said he would pay for it in a restaurant. My kids like it and they don’t even like pork chops.
I Diddnt have age red peppers or the chicken broth. I also cut the recipe in half. I substituted the red peppers and used paprekia (sp) and used white wine instead of the chicken broth, cooking off the alcohol of corse! It isn’t done yet but smells so wonderful. Thank you
I made this (again) last night. It’s a favorite at our house (at least with my husband and myself–I can’t get my 5-year-old to try it). While still delicious, my only problem has been that I only have regular soy sauce (not low-sodium), and it always comes out quite salty, even without salting the chops. I serve it with unsalted rice to try to balance it out. So if anyone manages to read this comment, know that low-sodium soy sauce is a must!