Hey there, welcome back to NoRecipeRequired.com.
Iím Dave, and pork chops are one of my absolute favorite meals.
They are pretty easy to make once you know the techniques, and tonight Iím going to
show you how to cook a pork chop.
I got an absolute monster of a pork chop from a really great local butcher.
Itís going to super tasty.
The techniques Iím going to show you tonight are exactly the ones youíre going to use
whether you got a thin one a thick one, any particular kind of oneÖone right in the middle.
Letís go ahead and get started.
Alright letís talk about the first rule of the perfect pork chop.
Rule number 1 is buy a good pork chop.
Obviously you need a good quality pork chop.
Good meat from a reputable store.
Then I also like to buy double cut, or thick cut pork chops.
This one, this is a bit of the brontosaurus chop; itís absolutely enormous.
You donít need them this big, but if you see really really thin ones in there, you
know I kinda skip them really.
They are hard to keep nice and moist and tender.
They tend to dry out pretty quickly.
So rule number 1, get good pork.
Rule number 2 for the perfect pork chop is brine the pork chop.
So I just got a mixture here of water, salt and sugar.
Itís as simple as that, you can get more complex, you can add lot of flavors to it.
Spices, herbs all kinds of things, I welcome them all, they are all great, but you donít
need them.
The brine is going to make the pork chop much more tender, juicy and delicious.
Second Rule of the perfect pork chop is seasoning.
Now even though we brined itÖI skipped a ruleÖWeíre going to brine it, then weíre
going to pull it out of the brine a good half hour before weíre going to cook it, to let
it come up to room temperature.
That allows us to manage the doneness much better, than if we start cooking it when itís
cold.
So let it come up to room temperature.
Then you want to make sure itís seasoned well.
So despite being in the brine, that doesnít mean you can skip salt and pepper.
You want to make sure you get salt and pepper on both sides.
And be pretty liberal with it, especially depending on the size and the thickness of
the cut.
This is like I said the brontosaurus cut, quite thick and meaty, so youíre going to
need a good amount of seasoning to carry all they way through as youíre cutting through
the meat all the way to the inside.
I am even going to season the edge here, or side, because this is going to be another
side that I cook in the pan as well.
I like to leave my seasoning on for 15 ñ 20 minutes and then weíre going to fire it
off.
So letís go on to the next pork chop rule.
So I almost always, certainly for a pork chop this thick, start it onÖoh that is nice and
hotÖ.I start it on the stove top in a good hot pan, and let the outside sear and get
nice and golden brown, before we move it into the oven.
If you just cook it in the oven, youíll get it done, itíll be ok, but you wonít really
get that nice crust on the outside that generates a ton of flavor.
So Iím going to let this go, over medium heat for 3-4 minutes just on that side.
Donít touch it, donít mess with it, donít do anything with it, just let it cook down.
Iíve been going about 3 minutes or so, and I can tell just by looking at the edges of
the pan that weíre getting that nice golden brown crust on the outside.
That is exactly what I want.
So Iím going to flip it over, do the same thing on this side.
If you feel like the pan is scorching on the bottom you can certainly turn it down a little
bit to medium heat, but you want to make sure you keep high heat on it, or you wonít get
that nice sear.
So Iíve got my other side cooked down now, again golden brown.
And I think I mentioned, this particular chop had a nice fatty layer on the top and if your
chop has one of those, I highly recommend you spend some time cooking down, or rendering
down that fat, just by laying it down on itís side right there.
If you do that, itís gets kinds of nice and crispy and absolutely super delicious.
So Iím gong to do this for a few minutes, and then Iím going to pop the entire thing
into a 400 degree oven.
And Iím gong to use a meat thermometer for a chop this large to tell when itís done.
Weíre looking for an internal temperature of about 145.
So for a pork chop this size, I like to use a meat thermometer, because my hand test with
a pork chop this size is little bit tricky.
If youíre more comfortable with a meat thermometer, by all means do it, just donít poke, in,
and in, and in, and inÖjust kinda of leave it in there.
Weíre going to stick it into 400 degree oven for probably 15 minutes or so, or until we
get an internal temperature of about 145.
Ok so my pork chop has reached 145 degrees internal temperature which is right where
I want to put it out.
But we are not down yet.
Next rule, you gotta let it rest.
The juices are all going crazy inside there and if you cut it now they are all just going
to flow out.
So grab some foil, wrap it in foil, and let it rest for at least 5 minutes.
Ok, so the last rule was to let this rest and through the magic of carry over temperature,
we took it out at 140, the temperature is now up to 150, which is why we take it out
just a little bit early.
So once itís rested, Iím happy to remove our thermometer.
And you can serve it just like this, and itís absolutely perfect.
Or, because this is so huge, Iím actually splitting it with my wife, so Iím going to
slice it by taking it off the bone.
You can just use your knife and follow the bone around.
And, donít worry about that nice little rib, Iím going to work on that.
When youíre slicing it, make sure you get nice thick slices all the way down, and youíre
going to have beautiful, tender, juicy pork.
I happen to be serving my with a little bit of fried polenta cake.
Let me take like three of those slices, lay them down, give a little rinse to the hands,
and then I did some sautÈed apples as well, that we can just lay right on top along with
a little bit of juice.
And if we want to get pretty, you can grab a little rosemary, a little herbs, something
like that, stick it in there, and youíve got a beautiful pork chop.
The perfect pork chop, Iíll see you next time on www.noreciperequired.com