Easy Breaded Pork Chops Recipe with Mustard Twist

Discover a delicious twist on the classic breaded pork chops recipe with this alternative method. Perfect for a quick and wholesome meal, this recipe is inspired by a healthier cooking approach and requires only four ingredients. Join us at Semper Pot Pie as we share this easy-to-follow recipe that’s bound to become a family favorite.

The traditional way to make breaded pork chops is to do the 3 step breading method.  And I will absolutely show you how to do this in another post with another recipe. 

However, this recipe for this post is an alternative to that.  

I can’t take full credit for it. Years ago, I saw this method used in a cooking video for healthier cooking. I honestly can’t remember who it was. I can see her face almost…and I remember that she worked at a spa as a chef.  

Anyway, I’ve been making pork chops this way ever since. 

If you don’t count the seasonings, this recipe only has 4 ingredients. 

1. Pork chops
2. Bread or breadcrumbs
3. Olive Oil
4. Mustard

Pork Chops

The first one is pretty important for pork chops right…? You can use bone in or boneless. Any thickness is fine.  I don’t trim them up because I like the crunchy fat.  But you can trim them up if you’d like. 

Bread or breadcrumbs

The breading is very versatile. You can choose to use prepared dry breadcrumbs or fresh bread.  I usually use fresh bread. I save up all my heels in my freezer. In our house we don’t eat the heel of the bread and I kind of use it as an end cap to keep the rest of the bread fresh.  So once there is only the heels left, I pop them into a gallon freezer zip lock.  So when I need some breadcrumbs, I pull them out, throw them into the food processor (a blender works as well) and grind them until fine.  For this recipe, after I process them I add 1/2 tsp of garlic powder, 1/2 tsp of onion powder, 1/2 tsp of pepper, 1 tsp of salt and 1 tsp of Italian seasoning. (Use 1/2 tsp of salt if you are sensitive to salt, my husband likes things a little on the salty side). 

If you choose to use prepared breadcrumbs, you may need to use more oil.  I actually ran out of fresh bread when I was making these pork chops for the service members.  I remembered I had a box of leftover stuffing mix from Thanksgiving in the pantry.  I popped that in the food processor and processed those.  But the dried crumbs did require about double the olive oil. 

Olive oil

After I add all the seasonings, I pulse the food processor to mix.  I then let the food processor run on low speed. While it is running I add 3 tbs of olive oil to the mix. Remember, if using dry, you may need more.  I needed double when I did my dried breadcrumbs. 

Spread these breadcrumbs into a shallow pan.  

Our last ingredient…mustard.  I prefer a stone ground mustard.  But I can’t always find it.  For this week’s dinner, I used a dijon.  If you don’t like the little mustard seeds that are present in stone ground mustard, definitely use a smoother Dijon. 

Now here is more of a taste preference. I don’t like a strong mustard flavor, so I use 1/2-1tsp of mustard.  

This is too much! I scraped a lot of that off!

The Process

This recipe is so fast, so easy and so straightforward.  Rinse the pork chops and dry them well with paper towels.

Smear them with mustard (you can also do this with a pastry brush). 

Prepare the breadcrumbs.  If using dried, season them and using a fork, blend in some oil.  If you are making your own, zip them in a food processor, add your seasonings and drizzle the oil in with the food processor running. 

Place a rack over a foil covered pan.  

Coat the mustard covered pork chops with the breadcrumbs.  

Place pork chops on the rack.

Cook in a 375º oven for 25-30 minutes or until the center of the thickest part of the meat registers 145º.  

Here at Semper Pot Pie, we served these pork chops with Buttered Noodles and Buttery Garlic Zucchini.  

Again, both very simple and straight forward recipes.  Be sure not to overcook either the noodles or the zucchini! 

We rounded out the meal with an Oreo Poke Cake! Everyone loved it!!!