One of my favorite meat dishes is pork chops, often with sauerkraut and sautéed apples. Now as much as I love them, pork chops can be a bit tricky because of all the meats I know, they’re one of the easiest to dry out, Chef Jerry Pellegrino offered to give me some tips on how to keep my pork chops moist:
There’s only one way I know that can give you a reliably moist pork chop and that is to sous-vide it.Now if you’re not familiar with sous-vide it’s a way of cooking food in water whose temperature is precisely controlled. You do this by putting the food in a plastic vacuum sealed pouch, and attaching a sous-vide machine to the side of a deep pot of water. That machine is a cylindrical thing with dials for setting the temperature you want. Once set, the water will get to that temperature and stay there exactly. So for pork chops you want to cook them to a temperature of 136°.Cook them in the water bath for about an hour, then remove them from their pouch. Next, you’ll want to pat the chops absolutely dry, and then season them. Working with a cast iron skillet, hold the chop with tongs and fry the fatty side of the chop until the fat is rendered. Then sear the chops in the hot skillet for maybe one minute per side and you’re done. The time you spend searing the pork will bring the internal temp up to the recommended 145° but still stay juicy.
You can also look for thicker chops. You can get double thick chops easily, and of course the thicker they are the more they will resist drying out. Just keep in mind a thicker chop will require a longer sous-vide.
If you don’t have a sous-vide there are other techniques. But first let’s talk about the most essential item, and that’s the chop itself. Get to know a farmer who raises Berkshire hogs and do everything you can to get your pork from them. The Berkshire is celebrated as the best hog for cooking and has superior flavor and moistness that leaves plain old supermarket pork chops far behind
Al: Our buddy Shane Hughes at Liberty Delight Farm specializes in Berkshire heritage breed hogs, and he is a master at it. Once you have your double thick Berkshire hog pork chop there are a couple things you can do. I think soaking them in a salty brine is a good idea. A couple hours soak will build up the juiciness and season the chop from the inside out. For pan-frying I would avoid high heat, medium heat is sufficient. Sear the chops on both sides, then reduce the heat to low, cover the skillet and cook until you get to 145°.And as we always recommend, pat the meat bone dry before searing. A damp piece of meat will only steam itself and that’s not what you want.
Now if you want to bake your pork chops, work with a hot 400° oven and leave the chops in for only about 15 minutes or so. Check the temp, and as soon as it hits about 140° take them out. They will continue to cook for a few more minutes and reach that desirable 145° mark.
Also, an overnight marinade would certainly help.But cooking the chops in, say, a creamy Dijon mustard sauce will help insulate the meat a bit, and add to the overall moistness.
And that’s just cream, Dijon mustard and a dash of Worcestershire sauce. Here’s how to do it:
sear the chops, take them out of the skillet, deglaze the pan and pour in your ingredients. The chops go back into the sauce and you finish in the oven.
