Hey guys, welcome back to Basics with Babish
Where this week's episode is sponsored by the National Pork Board.
Which is a thing,
and we're here to help dispel some of the irrational fears preventing
your piggies from reaching their delicious potential.
Thick-cut, bone-in barbecue pork chops cooked both indoors and out.
This ain't just some other white meat.
Let's get down to basics.
All right, so whether we're making barbecue pork chops indoors or out we want to start with a basic brine.
This is going to be about a cup and a half of kosher salt or 3/4 of a cup of table salt, to four quarts of water.
Make sure you stirred a whole lot so it is very, very dissolved
before adding your pork chops.
I have two different kinds of pork chops here,
rib chops and loin chops -- two different kinds of textures and flavors.
Either way, we're going to cover them and refrigerate them for at least one hour and up to five.
Once brined it's time to start preparing for the cooking process.
For the outdoor version of these pork chops I've decided to enlist the help of one,
Mr. Bradley Leone,
who's going to teach us a little bit about building a two-zone fire.
Brad: "We're gonna put it on one side."
Br: "We're gonna add a little bit more reinforcement.
What he's basically doing is building a super hot fire on one side of a charcoal grill.
This is so we can cook our pork chops with both direct and indirect heat.
You can accomplish the same thing on a gas grill by only turning half the burners on high.
While that breeds I'm going to prep our brined pork chops.
Now the best way to distribute heat onto these guys is to stand them up by the bones and
pierce them, twice, with long wooden or metal skewers,
standing them up vertically on their bones. These are bone-in pork chops after all.
We're also going to employ a little trick to prevent the classic curling pork chop;
we're going to place two small slices
along the fat cap of each pork chop, being sure to cut through the layer of sinew,
this is going to prevent that sinew from contracting and making your pork chop curl.
Now onto the cool side of the fire
that is, the side of the fire that is not on fire;
we're going to place the chops bone side down, making sure there's a little bit of space between each of them
so the heat can circulate evenly.
I'm also going to insert a temperature probe to monitor when these guys get around 115 degrees Fahrenheit.
Br: "Boom, smoky!"
Once they hit that temperature that is when we're going to remove the skewers and place them horizontally
onto the hot side of the fire, where we're gonna start
building up a shellacked,
as Brad likes to call it,
barbecue crust by brushing layer after layer of
barbecue sauce, onto the pork, flipping continually until they reach an internal temperature of 145 degrees Fahrenheit.
The sugars and the barbecue sauce should caramelize and you should start seeing a beautiful exterior like these.
Once they hit their target temperature, it's time to remove them from the fire situation
and place them on a baking sheet for a three-minute rest,
to let the juices redistribute and let the meat relax a little bit.
Situate them on a nice carving board like this one.
We're gonna hit them with one last luxurious layer of barbecue sauce
before cutting them open to taking a look at the beautiful pink interior.
Not stark white and dry, but lightly pink and juicy.
You might even see a light smoke ring if you really did your job right.
Oh, wait a second. I'm just gonna put one last finishing touch on this bite
Oh, yeah.
Now let's see what Brad has to say about cooking the pork properly.
Br: "The biggest thing, biggest misunderstanding about pork these people hammer the hell out of it. They overcook it,
cook it to 150, 160, 175, trichinosis. Those days are over man."
Okay, rant over.
Now it's time to try to get those barbecue flavors indoors.
Let's start by building a sort of pseudo dry rub -- this method comes courtesy of America's Test Kitchen --
we're gonna combine one tablespoon of dark brown sugar with a solid teaspoon of paprika,
1/2 teaspoon of smoked paprika for extra smoky goodness,
1/2 teaspoon of ground coriander, and one whole teaspoon of ground cumin.
Oh and don't forget several healthy twists of freshly ground pepper.
No need to add salt, that was taken care of in the brining process.
Speaking of which, let's get our chops out of that salt water.
We want to pat 'em super duper dry because the drier these guys get, the better crust
we're going to be able to create.
So spare no paper towels as you endeavor to try to make these chops as dry as the day they were born.
Once they're nice and dry, it's time to hit 'em with our spice rub.
Make sure they are generously coated on all sides, that includes the fat cap and bone.
We're trying to infuse a ton of barbecue flavor in here, and we're not going to accomplish that by skimping.
Now let's set those aside while we build a rudimentary barbecue sauce.
Let's start with 1/2 a cup of plain Jane ketchup along with half of one small onion, finely grated.
A few solid hits, maybe one to two tablespoons, of Worcestershire sauce --
Is that how you say it?
That cannot possibly be right.
Half a teaspoon of smoked paprika, a little bit more smoky flavor.
Two full tablespoons of Dijon mustard.
This is gonna bring a great mustard flavor to the barbecue sauce
And another tablespoon or two of dark brown sugar.
Whisk the whole thing together,
and this is practically tasty enough as it is,
but I like to simmer it for at least thirty minutes before applying it to our chops.
Speaking of which, let's heat up two tablespoons of vegetable oil over medium-high heat in a nonstick pan,
to which we are going to introduce our dry rubbed pork chops.
I'm going to do two at a time, you can do up to four, just make sure they're not overlapping or too close together,
otherwise, you won't start to form this nice brown crust.
Oh, whoops, I forgot to put those nice little cuts in the side of our chops.
Better late than never.
I'm also going to insert our temperature probe into the side, so we can pull these guys at about 130 degrees Fahrenheit, or right now.
We're gonna take these off the heat, set them aside, and wipe out our pan.
In preparation for the indoor version of shellacking, we're going to start by again heating a tablespoon or two of oil
in our pan over medium-high heat, and then brushing our chops down with a layer of our barbecue sauce.
We're then going to place these, sauce side down into the preheated pan,
brushing down the exposed side with more sauce before flipping, saucing, repeating until
we have that similar barbecue crust and our chops have registered 145 degrees Fahrenheit internally.
Then set them aside, let 'em rest and then serve them with a little bit of extra barbecue sauce and a smile.
Now are these a dead ringer for genuine outdoor smoky barbecue?
No.
But
they're really,
really, really
good, and
probably the best pork chops that you could make out of your home kitchen.
Especially if you cook them to the proper temperature of 145 degrees Fahrenheit internally.
Watch them join not only the clean plate club,
but the clean Bone Club.
Sorry, I'm gonna chill out
with the clubs.
That's just how you know, it's really really good.
Brad Leone: "That's fine too. This is a --- oh, there's -- did you get that Vinny? The little oyster?" Babish: "The little nugget."
Brad: "There you go, atta boy, put that in your cookbook."
Babish: "Ah- Babbibuche."
Babish: "Wait that was- yeah."