Pork Chops

Since I started cooking I always shied away from pork chops. Growing up one of my least favorite meals to come home from school to was pork chops. I would never fault my mom for trying, because there wasn't a day we didn't have a home cooked meal and set family dinner time, but cooking meat properly was not her specialty. Her pork chops, no matter how much barbeque sauce, ketchup or other sauce you chose to dip them in, always ended up like a piece of leather (mom if you read this I mean it in the nicest way). I guess growing up and eating pork chops like that left me with the idea that pork was just always dry and took a thousand chews and a big gulp of water to swallow. However, the more I cook, and watch food related shows I feel like I am missing out by not eating more pork. So the other night I bought myself a nice bone in pork chop, brined it for a while and made sure not to over cook it and realized I definitely was missing out by not eating more pork chops. It was delicious and will definitely be something I eat more often. While nothing beats a good steak in my opinion, a good pork chop is definitely a good alternative.

Pork Chop

1 serving

For the Brine:

4 c water

1/4 c salt

1/4 c sugar

1/4 c cider vinegar

2 tbs yellow mustard

Add all ingredients to the water and heat it up so that all the sugar is dissolved. Then either add some ice cubes or put it in the refrigerator for awhile so it cools back down to at least room temperature. You don't want to put the pork in the brine when it is still hot, because the pork will start to cook. When the brine is cooled add the pork chop and let soak for a couple hours, refrigerated.

To cook the pork chop, take it out of the brine and dry it off. Season each side with pepper and maybe a little bit of salt, be careful with the salt since it will have absorbed some from the brine. Bring a frying pan up to medium-high heat, and cook it for 4-5 minutes per side, I brushed a little bit of barbeque sauce on each side of mine and cooked each side for an additional 30 seconds after that, if you are doing this factor in the extra 30 seconds per side into the total cooking time. Allow to rest for about 10 minutes then serve with sides of your choice, I went with garlic mashed potatoes, caramelized onions and some fried greens.

Eat well, Live well