Preparing Pork Chops For Grilling

Forget about those dry and tough pork chops that you grew up on. When prepped and cooked right, grilled pork chops are moist, flavorful and delicious. Since they’re so lean and mild, pork chops loved the flavoring from brines, marinades and rubs. A brine is a combo of salt and water. The salt helps the meat absorb the water making it juicier and it dissolves some of the protein filaments making for a more tender texture. Add spices, herbs and sweeteners like sugar, honey on the lasses and the chop will suck those up to. Here’s an apple cider brine, combine light brown sugar and coshere or sea salt in a heat-proof dish. Add just enough boiling water to dissolve the sugar. Stir in cold apple cider, pepper corns, and fresh thyme. Make sure that the mixture is cold. Don’t add meat to warm brine because it can foster the growth of bacteria. Submerge the chops in the brine and refrigerate them for 2 hours. Remove the chops and pat the chops dry and let them rest at room temperature for 20 minutes before grilling. A marinade is a mixture that coats the meat to infuse it with flavor. They usually have an acidic ingredient like vinegar or citrus juice which help to breakdown the meat and make it more moist and tender. Balance different flavors like salty, sweet, acidic, and spicy, how you like it. For example, honey garlic marinade has salty soy sauce combined with sweet honey, minced garlic cloves, fresh lemon juice, and vinegar. Add the pork chops and move them around to coat. Marinade them at room temperature for 30 minutes or in the refrigerator for a couple of hours. The longer they marinade the more flavor they’ll have. Spice rubs are another way to add quick flavor. Rubs are a mixture of herbs, spices, salt and sugar that’s rubbed all over the outside. The rub creates a flavorful crust in the outside of the chops and helps lock in moisture. You can use any combination of flavors that you like. Here’s a Caribbean rub with ground ginger, all spice, thyme, crushed red pepper, and brown sugar. Coat the chops and let them sit at room temperature for 30 minutes. Go Italian with garlic flakes, rosemary, and dried oregano. Mix chili powder, cumin, coriander, and cinnamon to create an enticing Latin-inspired flavor. Make extra, leftover rubs will keep in an air tight container at room temperature for several weeks. Now that you’re prepped, delicious chops and beans are a grilling away. For more delicious barbecue recipes, visit summerkitchen.tv.

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