This is super easy and very tasty!

Buy Pork Chops with fat! I mean fine marbleizing patters in the meat.. Remember fat is taste.

The morning before or the day before you cook them you add your favorite pork rub, In my case this was Bad Byron's Butt Rub, some kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper and some smoked paprika.. Tenderize your meat and massage the spices into the meat.

Let it sit, about an hour before cooking remove yon chops out of the fridge you want them to be almost room temperature when you start cooking.

Take your in my case trusty Le Creuset cast iron pan, heat it up until water drops just disappears when it comes in contact with it... Add butter do not be shy with the butter because it's going to act like a braising sauce.. Put your chops in the pan and sear one side, flip it within a min or so and sear the other while you do that lower the temperature on your stove so that it's barely a simmer around your chops you want them to cook slow after the initial searing put the cover over.

Took me about an hour, I flipped them a few times during and added just a touch of stock and water, the trick is to see to it that the chops does not dry cook.. So keep your eye on your chops, every 5 minutes or so adjust the heat, when the meat starts to loosen up from the bone it's done.

The end result was the most tender juicy chops you can imagine.. The heat and the time has dissolved the connective tissue and the collagen to the point where the meat almost falls off the bone.. The residue in your pan can also be easily converted into sauce, I fried bread in it because I run 3-4 miles a day!

 

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Sounds great, enjoy!

 

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Sounds good! I will tell you though, if you brine those pork chops, you can get a decent infusion of the flavors from your brine as well as achieve a delicious, moist end product without slow cooking it for ages... The upshot is that yes, you have to brine them for an hour or 2 depending on thickness, but that's an hour or 2 that you don't have to have them on the stove.

Again, I recommend you look for Alton Brown's brining episode - he talks about brining pork chops as well as things like poultry. I've brined pork chops myself with the typical salt water solution with added apple juice and mascerated fresh garlic - it's fantastic and infuses the chops with a delicious appley garlicky flavor - it's good, trust me! Add to that your rub or whatnot and you have a pork chop that is almost impossible to dry out and with multiple layers of flavor.

 

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I have never brined anything before.. I will simply have to try! You think apple cider vinegar works instead of apple juice? I bet he wants real juice which is pretty hard to come by in these parts.

Well one hour isn't that much time to spend on some really good chops, and they were juicy as hell when they came out the fat in the chops really saw to that.. But I will have to try brine next time.

 

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Hey Cawlin, think one can brine a pot roast? It always annoyed me that my pot roast always gets dry.. If brined and then braised it should solve that issue no?

 

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Apple cider vinegar is a no-go bud. That will change the entire chemistry of the whole deal and wind up partially cooking your chops (think about ceviche and how it uses citric acid to "cook" the fish - basically you'd get a similar effect with acetic acid - vinegar).

If you can't get apple juice or apple cider (NOT vinegar) don't sweat it - just try the brine deal and see Alton's video for time recommendations on chops. It might not be necessary with your recipe, but it's worth experimenting in either case don't you think?

I just suggested apple juice or cider because that's a flavor that seems to compliment pork very well.

When I brine my chickens or turkeys I use orange peels and garlic in the brine solution and then cook them stuffed with onion, apple, orange, and garlic.

Oh I did try mashing up an apple in the brine solution rather than using apple cider or juice and that didn't turn out to have much effect at all so... I'll save you the time on that experiment.

As for pot roast - I always cook mine in a slow cooker/crock pot for 6 or more hours and they come out juicy and tender. I don't think brining goes so well with beef though, but I could be wrong. To date, I've only brined chicken, turkey, and pork chops... though what do I know... do some research and let me know if you find out anything about brining beef.

 

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One should always tinker and improve, this is why my bolognese style ragu has turned into a monster that murder villages when there's a full moon.. In a good way

I will have to brine my chops next time, I'm going to try it next week.. I loove pork chops!

Yes I've pondered buying a crock pot or one of those electric slow cookers but never really gotten around to it..

 

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Looks really good, thanks for sharing it.

BTW, a crock pot is well worth the investment.

 

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Yeah man read up on it, there's a WEALTH of information and report back on your experiments and stuff.

As for a crock pot - do some research on those and find a good one - doesn't have to be top of the line, but just a solid quality one. The trick with those is getting one that REALLY COOKS SLOWLY - most of the "cheaper" ones around cook too quickly/with too high of a temperature and will actually burn stuff.

 

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Will do..

Have you tried making your ribs Alton Brown style yet?

 

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