Pork chop stuffing bake is one of those old-school dinners my grandmother made on cold Sundays, and I still make it pretty much the same way. Seared chops get tucked onto a bed of buttery stuffing, a creamy sauce goes over the top, and the whole thing bakes in one dish until the chops reach 145°F. The stuffing drinks up all the pork juices. About an hour start to finish, and most of that you’re just waiting.
I’ve got three rules for it, learned from a lot of dry pork over the years: sear the chops first, keep the dish covered with foil, and go by a thermometer instead of the timer. Stick to those and you won’t end up with the gray, chewy chops that gave this casserole its bad reputation.
Make it on Sunday and you’ve got Monday’s dinner half sorted. It also tastes a lot like Thanksgiving, minus the fourteen hours in the kitchen.
Quick Facts
- Prep: 15 minutes · Cook: 40 minutes · Rest: 5 minutes · Total: 1 hour
- Serves: 6 · Difficulty: easy
- Key ingredients: boneless pork chops, boxed stuffing mix, cream of mushroom soup, cheddar
- Make ahead: yes (assemble up to 24 hours ahead)
Table of Contents
- Why This Pork Chop Stuffing Bake Works
- Ingredients and Easy Swaps
- Equipment You Need for the Bake
- How to Make Pork Chop Stuffing Bake
- Bake Time Chart by Chop Thickness
- How Do You Keep Pork Chops Juicy in a Bake?
- Make It a Thanksgiving-Week Dinner
- Common Mistakes and Quick Fixes
- Easy Variations to Try (Apple, Cornbread, Sausage)
- What to Serve With Pork Chops and Stuffing
- Make Ahead, Store and Reheat
- Pork Chop Stuffing Bake FAQ: Quick Answers
- Last Tip Before You Bake It Tonight
Only want the amounts? Head straight to the recipe card.
Why This Pork Chop Stuffing Bake Works
Honestly, it’s three small things, and if you skip any of them you’ll notice.
The sear. Two minutes a side in a really hot pan, that’s all. I used to think searing was a fussy restaurant step until I made this once without it and the chops came out pale and kind of boiled-tasting. The oven does the actual cooking later.
The foil. My grandmother never once lifted the foil early and she’d swat your hand if you tried. All that steam stays trapped in there, keeping the pork moist and softening the stuffing underneath until it’s almost like bread pudding in the middle.
The sauce. Yes, it’s a can of cream of mushroom with a splash of milk, and no, I’m not apologizing. It slides down around the chops and soaks into the stuffing and tastes like every church potluck I went to as a kid. If canned soup isn’t your thing, there’s a swap in the table below.
The last 10 minutes are the best bit. Foil comes off, cheese goes on, and the stuffing poking out at the edges turns golden and crunchy. In my house people fight over the corners.
Ingredients and Easy Swaps
Nothing fancy here, and you probably have most of it already. Here’s what each thing is doing and what I’d use instead if you’re out.
| Ingredient | What it does | Swap | What changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boneless pork chops, 1 inch thick | Lean, quick-cooking main | Bone-in chops | Add 8-10 minutes; juicier near the bone |
| Boxed stuffing mix for chicken | Fast, seasoned base | 6 cups dry bread cubes + 1 tsp poultry seasoning | More texture, a bit more broth needed |
| Cream of mushroom soup | Creamy sauce | Cream of celery or cream of chicken | Milder, lighter flavor |
| Whole milk | Thins the soup | Chicken broth | Less creamy, more savory |
| Sharp cheddar | Melty, golden top | Swiss or Gruyère | Nuttier, more “stuffing-and-ham” taste |
| Butter | Moistens stuffing | Olive oil | Slightly less rich |
About the chops. Look for ones around an inch thick and roughly the same size so they’re done at the same time. Really thin chops (under 3/4 inch) dry out before the stuffing even gets hot, which I found out the frustrating way. If thin is all the store has, use the timing chart further down.
Want to make the stuffing from scratch? My Mrs. Cubbison’s stuffing recipe works great as the base. Just spread it under the chops the same way.
Equipment You Need for the Bake
You’ll need a 13×9-inch baking dish (the 3-quart kind), a big 12-inch skillet for searing (I use my old cast iron), some foil, and a medium pot with a lid if you’d rather make the stuffing separately. And an instant-read thermometer, which is honestly the one thing I’d tell you not to skip.
If your ovenproof skillet is huge, you could sear and bake in the same pan. With six chops mine just doesn’t fit, so I go with the baking dish.
How to Make Pork Chop Stuffing Bake
The exact amounts and numbered steps live in the recipe card below, so here I’ll just walk you through how it goes in my kitchen.
First the oven goes on at 375°F (190°C) and I grease the dish. Then the chops get patted really dry with paper towels (wet meat won’t brown, it just sort of steams and goes gray) and seasoned on both sides with salt, pepper and garlic powder.
The skillet gets hot with a little oil, hot enough that it shimmers, and the chops go in for about 2 minutes per side. Golden outside, still raw inside, and that’s exactly what you want. They wait on a plate while I turn the heat down, melt the butter in the same pan, and let the onion and celery soften for 4 minutes or so without letting them brown.
In goes the hot water. Once it simmers I turn the burner off, dump in the stuffing mix, clap a lid on, and give it 5 minutes before fluffing it with a fork. That gets spread into the dish, the chops go on top along with whatever juice ran out onto the plate, and the soup, milk and thyme (whisked together in a measuring cup, because I’m lazy about dishes) get poured over everything. Foil on, nice and tight.
It bakes covered for 20 minutes. Then the foil comes off, the cheese goes on, and it goes back for another 8 to 12 minutes. I start poking the thickest chop with my thermometer around minute 8 and pull it when it reads 145°F (63°C). After that it rests on the counter for 5 minutes. The USDA calls for a 3-minute rest after cooking pork chops anyway, and the juices settle back in while you set the table.
You’ll know it’s right when the sauce is bubbling at the sides, the cheese has a few browned spots, and the stuffing in the corners looks crunchy.
Never made a stuffing casserole before? Start with this one. It’s way more forgiving than it looks, and the foil does most of the work.
Pork Chop Stuffing Bake
Ingredients
- 6 boneless pork chops 1 inch thick, about 2 lb / 900 g total
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 4 tbsp butter 56 g
- 1/2 cup onion diced
- 1/2 cup celery diced
- 1 1/2 cups hot water 360 ml
- 1 box stuffing mix for chicken 6 oz / 170 g
- 1 can cream of mushroom soup 10.5 oz / 298 g
- 1/2 cup whole milk 120 ml
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme
- 1 cup sharp cheddar 113 g, shredded
Method
- Heat the oven to 375°F (190°C) and grease a 13×9-inch baking dish.
- Pat the chops dry and season both sides with salt, pepper and garlic powder.
- Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Sear the chops 2 minutes per side until golden. Move to a plate. They will not be cooked through.
- Melt the butter in the same skillet over medium heat. Cook the onion and celery 4 minutes, until soft.
- Add the hot water and bring to a simmer. Turn off the heat, stir in the stuffing mix, cover and let it sit 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork.
- Spread the stuffing in the baking dish and set the chops on top. Pour any plate juices over them.
- Whisk the soup, milk and thyme together and pour over the chops. Cover tightly with foil.
- Bake covered for 20 minutes. Remove the foil, sprinkle on the cheddar and bake 8 to 12 minutes more, until the chops reach 145°F (63°C) in the thickest part.
- Rest 5 minutes before serving.
Notes
Private Notes
Tried this recipe?
Let us know how it was!Bake Time Chart by Chop Thickness
Every recipe I found gave a single bake time, which drove me nuts, because the chops at my store range from flimsy to doorstop. Thickness is really what decides the timing. So I started jotting down what worked, and this chart is the result. These are for seared chops at 375°F (190°C), and they’re starting points, not promises. Your thermometer gets the final say.
| Chop type | Thickness | Covered | Uncovered | Check temp at |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boneless, thin | 1/2 inch | 12 min | 5 min | 15 min total |
| Boneless, standard | 3/4 inch | 15 min | 8 min | 20 min total |
| Boneless, thick | 1 inch | 20 min | 8-12 min | 25 min total |
| Bone-in | 1 inch | 25 min | 10-15 min | 32 min total |
| Bone-in, thick-cut | 1 1/4 inches | 30 min | 15 min | 40 min total |
Just so you know where other versions land: the Stove Top recipe from Kraft Heinz does 1/2-inch chops at 350°F for 20 to 25 minutes, and a Pepperidge Farm one bakes 3/4-inch chops at 400°F for 30. Neither sears first and the temperatures differ, so the numbers don’t line up with mine. Mine assume you seared.
How Do You Keep Pork Chops Juicy in a Bake?
Quick sear, bake it covered, and take it out the moment an instant-read thermometer hits 145°F (63°C), then give it 3 minutes to rest. That’s really the whole secret. Nine times out of ten when someone tells me their pork chops came out dry, it turns out they just cooked them too long.
Some other stuff I’ve picked up:
- Buy chops that match. If one’s thin and one’s thick, the thin one’s done first. Pull it out early.
- Trust the thermometer over the timer. My oven runs about 15 degrees hot. Yours might run cold. The thermometer doesn’t care.
- A little pink is fine. My mom still flinches at it, but the USDA lowered the safe temperature for whole cuts of pork to 145°F with a 3-minute rest years ago. A light blush in the center is safe at that point, and the USDA itself says color is not a reliable sign of doneness (the USDA FSIS fresh pork guide has more on this).
- Don’t skimp on sauce. It’s moisture insurance.
Make It a Thanksgiving-Week Dinner
Thanksgiving is Thursday, November 26, 2026 this year, a little over six weeks out as I’m writing this. Honestly this is the dish I make on repeat all October and November, when I’m craving stuffing but nowhere near ready to wrestle a turkey. Random fact I love: stuffing is very old, and the earliest written mention shows up in a Roman cookbook credited to Apicius.
I’ve used it two ways around the holiday. Some years it’s my practice run, a Tuesday night test of the stuffing I’m planning for the big day. And one year, when it was just four of us, I skipped the turkey completely and this was the main dish. Nobody complained. Add a green bean casserole and the plate’s done. My Durkee-style green bean casserole even bakes at the same temperature.
Two little things that trip people up that week. First, oven space. On Thanksgiving the oven is prime real estate, but this only needs about 40 minutes at 375°F so it fits in a gap. Second, leftovers. The USDA says cooked leftovers need to be in the fridge within 2 hours and eaten within 3 to 4 days (more on that in the storage section).
Common Mistakes and Quick Fixes
I’ve made pretty much every mistake on this list at least once, so here’s what to look for and what to do about it.
| Problem | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Dry, tough chops | Overbaked or too thin | Use a thermometer; pull at 145°F; use the chart |
| Soggy, gummy stuffing | Too much liquid or uncovered too long | Fluff stuffing first; follow the 1 1/2 cups water ratio |
| Dry, crumbly stuffing | Not enough butter or liquid | Add 2 tbsp warm broth over the top before covering |
| Pale, bland chops | Skipped the sear | Sear 2 minutes per side in a very hot pan |
| Sauce too thin | Too much milk | Bake uncovered 5 more minutes; it thickens as it rests |
| Cheese burned | Added too early | Add cheese only after the foil comes off |
The mistake I see the most? Peeking. Lifting the foil early lets all the steam out. Set a timer and leave it alone, I promise it’s worth it.
Easy Variations to Try (Apple, Cornbread, Sausage)
Apple and Sage Pork Chop Stuffing Bake
Stir a diced apple (something firm like Honeycrisp or Granny Smith) and a teaspoon of rubbed sage into the stuffing. Pork and apple have been best friends forever for a reason.
Cornbread Stuffing Version
Use a cornbread stuffing mix instead. It comes out crumblier and a bit sweeter. I add 2 extra tablespoons of butter so it doesn’t dry out.
Sausage Stuffing Pork Chops
Brown half a pound of breakfast sausage with the onion and fold it into the stuffing. Very hearty, very good on a cold night. Ground sausage needs to reach 160°F (71°C).
Slow Cooker Option
I tried this on a busy school day and it worked better than I expected. Stuffing on the bottom of a 6-quart slow cooker, unseared chops on top, sauce over it all, LOW for 4 to 5 hours. The stuffing goes soft and scoopable, more like old-fashioned dressing than casserole. Just check that the pork reaches 145°F.
What to Serve With Pork Chops and Stuffing
With stuffing on the plate, I don’t need more starch, so I keep the sides light and a bit tangy. Usually it’s a crisp salad from my fall salad recipes with an apple cider vinaigrette, or some green beans or Brussels sprouts roasted right alongside since the oven’s already at temperature. My dad insists on applesauce, which is old-fashioned but honestly pretty great with pork. And if you’re going for Thanksgiving vibes, a spoonful of cranberry sauce.
Make Ahead, Store and Reheat
If you want to get ahead, build the whole thing up to the point where the foil goes on, skip the baking, and stash it in the fridge for up to a day. It’ll need an extra 5 to 10 minutes covered since it’s going in cold. Leave the cheese off until the end.
Leftovers should be in the fridge within 2 hours of cooking and eaten within roughly 3 to 4 days, according to the USDA. I portion mine into shallow containers so they cool off quickly (here’s the USDA leftovers and food safety page if you want the details).
It also freezes fine for about 3 to 4 months if wrapped well. Thaw it overnight in the fridge.
To reheat, I cover it and warm it at 350°F (175°C) until the middle reads 165°F (74°C), which is the safe number for leftovers and casseroles (per FoodSafety.gov). If the stuffing looks a little parched, a spoonful of broth over the top perks it right up.
Pork Chop Stuffing Bake FAQ: Quick Answers
How do I know when the pork chops are done?
Use a thermometer, really. Poke it into the thickest chop and look for 145°F (63°C), then let it rest 3 minutes like the USDA says. Some pink in the middle is totally okay at that point. Going by color or the clock is how most of us end up with shoe leather.
Why is my stuffing too dry or too wet?
Dry stuffing is usually too little butter or liquid, or the foil came off too early. Soggy stuffing usually means too much water or sauce went in. I measure the water now instead of eyeballing it, and that fixed it for me.
Can I use bone-in pork chops?
Definitely, and they’re even juicier. They need about 8 to 10 more minutes under the foil. When you check the temp, get close to the bone but don’t touch it, or you’ll get a funny reading.
Can I use homemade stuffing instead of a boxed mix?
Sure. I use about 6 cups of seasoned bread cubes, somewhere between 3/4 and 1 cup of broth, and 1/4 cup of melted butter, tossed until it’s damp all over but not mushy.
Can I make pork chop stuffing bake ahead of time?
Yep, up to a day ahead in the fridge, covered. It’ll need 5 to 10 extra minutes under the foil, and save the cheese for the end.
Can I freeze it?
It does, for about 3 to 4 months. Thaw it in the fridge overnight and reheat until it’s 165°F (74°C) in the middle.
Do I have to sear the chops?
You can skip it, but I wouldn’t. You lose a lot of flavor and the chops look kind of pale. If you’re skipping anyway, give it 5 more minutes covered.
Last Tip Before You Bake It Tonight
If you don’t own an instant-read thermometer, grab a $10 one. It’ll save more dinners than any recipe ever will.
Give this a try this week, then come back and tell me in the comments how it turned out, or which swap you went with. If it makes it into your regular rotation, a star rating on the recipe card really helps other home cooks find it. And if Thanksgiving’s already on your mind, pin it now so it’s there waiting in November.
Still hungry? A green bean casserole and a pan of stuffing are the obvious next things to bake. And on days you can’t watch the oven, this slow cooker chicken stuffing casserole does the same cozy job on the counter.
