- Hey guys, a couple of weeks ago I asked you
on Facebook what recipe would you prefer,
grilled rosemary pork chops
or pluot sundaes with almond brittle?
And you all voted just about equally,
so I decided I had to do both.
This week we're gonna get to the grilled pork chops,
and next week I'll show you how to make
those pluot sundaes that are so delicious.
So now for the grilled pork chops.
I love this recipe because most of it can be made
on the grill, and it makes for such a pretty presentation.
It's also a good thing to make if you're
having company over and you just want to have
a big platter and let everybody dig in.
Let me show you how to make it.
The first thing we're gonna do
for our pork chops is make a brine.
If you've never made a brine before,
it's a really easy technique that basically just involves
water and salt and a little bit of seasoning.
The reason we want to make a brine is
it's basically going to change the cell structure
of that meat, which is going to allow it
to retain all of its moisture, which will result
in a tender and juicy cut of meat.
So to make our brine, we're gonna take out a large pot.
We're gonna fill it with six cups of water,
three tablespoons of salt,
three tablespoons of brown sugar,
four whole rosemary sprigs,
three cloves of smashed garlic,
a tablespoon of fennel seeds,
and a tablespoon of whole peppercorns.
We're gonna set our pot on a medium high flame,
and this will allow all of that salt and sugar to dissolve,
and at the same time it will also allow that rosemary
and the fennel seed and the peppercorns
to infuse this brine with a delicious flavor.
It's almost like steeping a tea.
Now, here is a critical step when dealing with brine
and meat, you want to make sure that that brine
is completely cooled before you put your pork chops in.
Otherwise, what's gonna happen is you're basically
going to cook those pork chops before you're ready
to serve them, and that's not gonna be any good,
boiled pork chops, so you want to make sure
that it's completely cooled.
For this recipe, we are going to use bone-in,
center cut pork chops, and that's another way
to make sure that your pork is nice and tender
and juicy is to buy it on the bone.
I find that sometimes if you get the cutlets,
they have a tendency of drying out very quickly
because they cook so quickly, so go for the bone-in.
Then we are going to submerge our chops
into our cooled brine, making sure that there's room
for all of them to fit.
And then, if you're doing this in a dutch oven,
which is why I like to do it this way,
you can just pop on the lid and put it in your fridge.
We're gonna let our pork chops rest in the brine
for anywhere from four to six hours.
That's the thing with brine, it really does take a few hours
to do its thing, so you do need to plan ahead.
Then about an hour before you plan to serve dinner,
you can prep your fennel.
Now, if you've never had roasted fennel before,
it is so delicious.
It has a wonderful almost licorice anise flavor
that when it's roasted it's sweet and tender
and it's just a really great thing to serve with pork.
We are just gonna slice our fennel into some nice wedges.
And then you can pop them in a large bowl,
give them a drizzle with just some olive oil,
season with salt, a little bit of freshly-cracked pepper.
That's all you have to do.
Now we're gonna pour this out on a rim-lined cookie sheet,
making sure it's all just a single layer.
And then you're gonna place it in a 425 Fahrenheit oven,
for really about 40 minutes.
And normally what I will do is, I will put them in there,
set the timer for 40 minutes, and at that point
my pork is really just sort of finishing grilling.
And then I turn the oven off.
I leave them in there, and that way they'll also
continue to kind of caramelize and keep warm
while you're getting the rest of the dinner ready.
Now it's time to prep our pork for the grill.
We want to release it from the brine,
and you'll see it'll be pretty wet,
so what I normally will do is pat it dry
with some paper towel, because you don't want
to take wet pork and put it on a hot grill
or you'll end up steaming the pork instead of searing it,
so make sure it's nice and dry.
Then we are going to brush it with a little bit
of olive oil, sprinkle some minced rosemary on top,
and then season with some freshly-cracked pepper.
And you want to do this on both sides.
We're not gonna add any salt at this point,
because, remember, it's been in the brine with all that salt
for at least four hours, so it's pretty well flavored.
But what I like to do instead is, at the end we're gonna
add a little finishing salt on the top,
and that'll be really good.
The next thing we're gonna do is prep our nectarines.
We're just gonna slice our nectarines in half.
We're gonna leave the skins on, remove the pit.
You do want to use nectarines that are sort of
medium ripeness because it's a lot easier to remove the pit
and it'll be a lot sweeter that way, too.
And then we're gonna brush each side with a little bit
of grape seed oil or vegetable oil.
Then we're gonna head out to the grill
with our pork chops and our nectarines.
You can put all your pork down.
And you can also put all of your nectarines down
at the same time, cut side down.
Now, pork is one of those meats that you don't want
to overcook, so it really has to do
with how thick your chops are.
If they look like mine and they're about
three-quarters of an inch thick,
then I say go about seven to eight minutes
on the first side, then you can flip them
and at the same time remember to flip those nectarines,
and then you can go another six to seven minutes
on the other side.
You know when they are done when you touch the top
of the pork chop and it feels like the edge here
of your thumb, that's really how
you can know that it's done.
If you go in here and it feels like this, kind of mushy,
it's not done yet, so sometimes that can be an easy way
to test if your pork is done.
Once everything is good to go, you can remove the pork
and the nectarines from your grill.
And then we are going to assemble this beautiful platter.
I like to use something long and rectangular.
And then I will lay all of my pork chops up the middle.
And then you can put all of your roasted fennel
on one side, and see how beautiful
that roasted fennel turns out to be.
It's nice and wilted and caramelized and it just looks
so beautiful alongside the grilled pork.
And then on the other side we're gonna put
our charred nectarines, which are also beautiful
and colorful and look so summery.
And then, as promised, we are going
to top our grilled pork with a little bit
of Maldon sea salt, or fleur de sel salt,
whatever you may have.
The nice thing about this salt is it's actually
not that salty, and it just gives you
a nice little texture and crunch
for a little burst of flavor in every bite.
And then you can bring your platter to the table,
and it makes for such a beautiful centerpiece
because there's so much to look at,
all of the colors and textures with that grilled pork
and the roasted fennel and, of course,
our beautiful nectarines.
I hope you guys give this one a try this summer
and let me know what you think.
And, as always, you can find the recipe in the description,
or you can head to entertainingwithbeth.com
for a printable version as well.
Alright, you guys, I will see you back here next week
when we are going to tackle the pluot sundae
with the almond brittle, one of my favorite summer desserts.
I'll see you then, bye.
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