Tender Pork Chops

[mcokevin]

I cooked pork chops for the first time in years a couple of weeks ago and wasn't happy with how they came out. So I looked for a good reminder of technique and found this recipe from Epicurious. Didn't follow it to the letter, but turned out great. The butter and basting at the end is brilliant.

How to Cook Pork Chops the Right Way

Dry, grey, rubbery pork chops have no place in your kitchen.

www.epicurious.com

 

[PulledPorkSandwich]

I like pork chops, but regardless of what I do, they come out very tough.

I cooked a couple 1 inch chops last night and was disappointed. I marinated them for 5 hours -- oil, garlic, onion, salt, pepper, paprika, Worcester, balsamic vinegar -- then seared them in a cast iron pan on my grill. After searing, their IT was around 120, so I left them on the grill and cooked them indirectly. After 10 minutes the IT was over 160 -- too hot according to the article you link.

The chops were quite flavorful due to the marinade, but they were as tough as shoe leather. I have a couple more to cook. It seems like the obvious thing to do is to be very careful about IT and pull them at 135-145 and then let them rest for awhile.

I've tried wet brining chops with no luck. I've not yet tried dry-brining. I wonder if a better approach is to dry brine, apply a rub and simply smoke the chops low and slow.

 

[mcokevin]

I've done a couple more since posting this and all have turned out great. I've been pulling them at 135-140 and letting them rest a bit. I've done it with and without the butter step at the end, both tasted great.

 

[negolien]

yeah 146 is the new 160 for pork