Pork Chops With Green Chiles and Apples

There are hundreds of weeknights in a year. That’s a lot of dinner! Test kitchen editor Kendra Vaculin is here to help. In her series Speedy Does It, she shares whoa-worthy meals you can get on the table like *snaps fingers* that.

I ate my fair share of green chiles on a recent trip to Sante Fe—on a classic Christmas-style smothered burrito, piled atop a burger, and even as an ice cream flavor. But my favorite bite of the region’s hero ingredient came in the form of a glazed apple fritter, which featured bits of chile speckled throughout the dough. The combination of apple and green chile has haunted me (in a good way!) ever since.

In this easy-but-impressive recipe, the pair takes center stage as a textural topping for meaty pork chops. I like to use thick-cut, bone-in chops here; each serves two people, so you can cook enough for four in one pan without having to work in batches. You’ll make the topping in the porky fond left behind, applying sweet-and-tangy agrodolce flavors to canned diced green chiles (the Hatch brand is great, but any will work) and large pieces of apples.

Any variety of apple is good in this recipe—we tried a bunch during testing, including tart Granny Smith (green apple, green chile has a nice ring to it, no?). Ultimately my favorite was red-skinned Honeycrisp, which provides sweetness, good crunch, and a nice pop of color in the otherwise muted topping.