Baked Pork Chops In Tomato Sauce

Juicy Baked Pork Chops in Tomato Sauce made with fresh tomatoes and passata, infused with aromatic herbs and warm allspice flavor. A humble and filling, true Greek family meal!

These easy, baked pork loin chops are a delicious weekday meal you can prepare with minimal effort. The sauce adds a great depth of flavor to the pork chops without the need to pan-fry or sear them first. You just slowly cook them straight into the sauce!

Table Of Contents

• How To Make
• Pork Chop Cuts
• How Long To Bake Pork Chops
• Recipe Tips
• Make Ahead
• Storing
• Reheating
• Serve With
• Recipe

How To Make

To make tender baked pork chops in tomato sauce, first, you prepare the tomato sauce on the stovetop, then add it to a baking pan with the pork chops and bake covered (for juicy and tender pork chops). Lastly, finish off baking uncovered for a few minutes.

The sauce needs to be cooked and thickened before you add it to the pan with the pork chops. This is done for three reasons.

One is to give time to the fresh tomatoes and tomato passata (sauce) to release their sour flavor and become sweeter. The second is to create a uniform flavor where all the spices and herbs blend nicely together. And third is for the sauce to thicken.

The tomato sauce needs to thicken on the stovetop because pork chops will release water as they bake, so unless we're planning on making a soupy stew, it's best to thicken the sauce well first.

The final step to baking pork chops in sauce is to uncover the baking pan and cook for a few more minutes. This gives a deeper color to the sauce and a nice, thicker saucy coating to the pork chops.

Pork Chop Cuts

You can use any part of the pork loin chop you want. In Greece, there are two cuts of pork chops. One is pork loin neck chops (mprizoles lemou) and the second is pork shoulder chops (mprizoles spalas). The first is more tender because it contains more marbled fat and connective tissue, while the second is equally delicious, leaner, with the fat being mostly on the outer edge of the chop, and therefore, easier to turn dry.

Cooking pork loin chops in the oven, coated with sauce and covered, means the pork chops become soft and tender. You don't run the risk of overcooking them and turning them dry (unless you overbake uncovered on the last step).

Therefore, you can use any pork chop cut you want. You can even use boneless pork neck or pork shoulder cut into sliced pieces (2 cm - ¾-inch thick) and make this recipe!

How Long To Bake Pork Chops

For about 1 hour and 10 minutes overall. This means 45 minutes of baking them covered and about 20-25 minutes of final baking uncovered. The final baking depends on how quickly the sauce thickens, so it's give or take. Don't expect the sauce to thicken as well as it does on the stovetop, though.

It's a different cooking method, so the sauce at the bottom of the pan will stay a bit liquid while the sauce coating the pork chops with become thicker. Overall, the baked tomato sauce won't be as uniform as a sauce thickened on the stovetop.

Recipe Tips

1. Leave pork chops at room temperature for 30 minutes before cooking them. This helps the meat to stay juicy and tender by avoiding sudden temperature shifts.
2. If tomatoes are not in season and you make this recipe during wintertime, it's better to skip using fresh tomatoes for this recipe. Use a can of whole canned tomatoes (skipping fresh tomatoes and tomato passata in this case) and pulse them in a blender or food processor. This will yield a thick-textured sauce similar to that of the summer version.

Make Ahead

You can cook the tomato sauce up to 4 days ahead and store it in the fridge until you're ready to bake the pork chops.

Storing

You can keep baked pork chop leftovers in airtight food containers in the fridge for up to 4 days.

Reheating

Reheat either in the microwave, covered with plastic wrap, for about 5 minutes (for each pork chop) on high. Or in a baking dish in the oven, covered with foil, for about 20 minutes in a well-preheated oven at 180°C / 355°F.

Serve With

These oven-baked pork chops with tomato sauce are best served with some steamed rice, potato fries, or mashed potatoes. You can try them together with my Greek Oven Fries with Feta recipe, or Healthy Mashed Potatoes with Greek Yogurt for a heavenly-flavorful meal.

If you want to skip the carbs, serve with Baked Greek Vegetables (Briami) and a piece of feta cheese on the side.

Recipe