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These pork chops and apples are a tender, cozy Slow Cooker dinner with soft apples and warm cinnamon-brown sauce. With just five ingredients, the Slow Cooker does the work while the pork chops turn tender and the apples caramelize underneath. You’re going to love how easy it is to serve over mashed potatoes, noodles, rice, or crusty bread.
Why You’ll Love It
- Five simple ingredients — pork chops, apples, brown sugar, cinnamon, and cider come together easily.
- Hands-off Slow Cooker meal — everything cooks in one Slow Cooker with minimal prep.
- Tender pork and soft apples — bone-in chops stay juicy while the apples caramelize underneath.
- Easy to customize — use firm apples like Honeycrisp, Granny Smith, or Gala.
- Great leftovers — the pork chops, apples, and sauce keep well for 3 to 4 days.
Ingredient Notes
Use bone-in pork chops that are about an inch thick. Thin chops will cook, of course, but they are more likely to turn dry and a little sad after six or seven hours. The bone helps keep them juicy and gives the finished dish that old-fashioned, falling-apart tenderness.
For apples, a mix is lovely—two tart Granny Smiths and two Honeycrisps—but four of one kind is perfectly fine. Gala apples work well too. You want firm apples, not the soft ones that have been rolling around in your fruit bowl since who knows when. Peel them. Leaving peels on can cause them to separate and float around in the sauce.
Light brown sugar is what the recipe calls for. Dark brown sugar would make the flavor deeper, but it would change the balance a bit, so stick with light.
Apple cider gives the nicest flavor, especially in the fall, but plain apple juice works just as well. Do not use apple cider vinegar by accident. That would be a sharp little disaster.
Ingredients
- 4 bone-in pork chops, about 1 inch thick, 2 to 2 1/2 pounds total
- 4 large firm apples, such as Honeycrisp, Granny Smith, or Gala, peeled, cored, and sliced about 1/2 inch thick
- 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 cup apple cider or apple juice
Instructions
Lightly grease the inside of a 4- to 6-quart Slow Cooker with cooking spray or the thinnest swipe of oil. This is mostly to help the apples not weld themselves to the bottom, which they will try to do if given half a chance.
Spread the peeled, cored, and sliced apples evenly across the bottom of the slow cooker. They will look like an awful lot at first, but they cook way down into a soft bed for the pork chops, so don’t fret.
In a small bowl, stir together the 1/2 cup light brown sugar and 1 tablespoon cinnamon until the cinnamon is evenly mixed through and you do not have any big stubborn clumps of brown sugar.
Sprinkle about half of the cinnamon-brown sugar mixture over the apples. Try to cover them fairly evenly, though this is not a precision operation.
Arrange the bone-in pork chops in a mostly single layer over the apples. A little overlap is fine, especially if your slow cooker has that oval shape, but don’t stack them in a heap. They cook more evenly when they have some breathing room.
Sprinkle the remaining cinnamon-brown sugar mixture over the tops of the pork chops. It will look a little strange—like you are making dessert with pork in it—but trust the process. I hate that phrase, but here we are.
Pour the 1/2 cup apple cider or apple juice around the pork chops, aiming for the spaces between them so you do not rinse all the sugar mixture right off the tops. The liquid should sit around the apples and chops, not cover everything.
Cover the slow cooker and cook on LOW for 6 to 7 hours, until the pork chops are very tender and beginning to pull away from the bone. Try not to lift the lid every hour to “check on things.” Every time you do, you lose heat, and then dinner takes longer.
Carefully lift the pork chops out with a wide spatula or tongs, because they can be tender enough to break apart. Gently stir the apples and sauce together around the chops, then nestle the chops back into the apples if you like that cozy, family-style look. Serve hot, spooning plenty of apples and cinnamon-brown sauce over each chop.
Variations
If you prefer a less sweet version, you can use chicken broth in place of the apple cider or juice. It is still good, though the apple cider version is the one that feels most like the original.
A pinch of salt and a small splash of apple cider vinegar over the apples adds a little depth, if you are not devoted to keeping this at five ingredients. You can also mix a pinch of nutmeg or cloves into the cinnamon and brown sugar. Cloves are potent, though—one minute you are adding “just a touch,” and the next your dinner tastes like the candle aisle at a craft store.
Boneless pork chops can work, but reduce the LOW cooking time to about 4 to 5 hours and keep an eye on them. They are fine, not terrible, but bone-in is better here. This is an easy recipe, but some shortcuts are not worth the bargain-bin regret.
Storage & Reheating
Store leftover pork chops, apples, and sauce in a shallow airtight container in the refrigerator once they have cooled down—don’t leave them sitting on the counter for hours. They will keep for 3 to 4 days.
To reheat, put a pork chop with some apples and sauce in a covered skillet over low heat, adding a small splash of apple cider or apple juice if it seems dry. You can also microwave it, covered loosely, in short bursts until hot all the way through. The apples get softer after a night in the fridge.
The pork should be reheated until hot throughout. And when you are working with the raw chops at the beginning, keep them refrigerated until you are ready, wash your hands and cutting board well, and follow standard food-safety practices.
Final Notes
Apples and pork always suit cooler evenings, even when it is still eighty-three degrees outside and the mosquitoes are acting like they pay property taxes here.
This dinner is not fancy. It does not need a garnish or a special plate or a dramatic reveal. It is just tender pork, soft apples, and that warm cinnamon sauce pooling around everything. The kind of meal that gets quieter at the table because there is plenty to eat.
And if there is a little sauce left in the bottom of the slow cooker afterward, well… save it for your mashed potatoes.
Slow Cooker Amish Pork Chops and Apples
Ingredients
- 4 bone-in pork chops About 1 inch thick; 2 to 2 1/2 pounds total
- 4 large firm apples Such as Honeycrisp, Granny Smith, or Gala; peeled, cored, and sliced about 1/2 inch thick
- 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 cup apple cider or apple juice
Instructions
- Lightly grease the inside of a 4- to 6-quart slow cooker with cooking spray or a thin swipe of oil.
- Spread the peeled, cored, and sliced apples evenly across the bottom of the slow cooker.
- In a small bowl, stir together the light brown sugar and cinnamon until evenly combined.
- Sprinkle about half of the cinnamon-brown sugar mixture evenly over the apples.
- Arrange the bone-in pork chops in a mostly single layer over the apples, allowing a little overlap if needed.
- Sprinkle the remaining cinnamon-brown sugar mixture over the tops of the pork chops.
- Pour the apple cider or apple juice around the pork chops, aiming for the spaces between them so the liquid does not rinse the sugar mixture off the tops.
- Cover the slow cooker and cook on LOW for 6 to 7 hours, until the pork chops are very tender and beginning to pull away from the bone.
- Carefully lift out the pork chops, gently stir the apples and sauce together, then nestle the chops back into the apples if desired and serve hot with plenty of apples and cinnamon-brown sauce.