Pork Chops have long been a favourite meal here in my kitchen and a rare treat these days. We don't eat red meat very often, perhaps only once or twice a month as a rule. When we do have pork I like to make sure that I have really good pork.
I buy free range organic pork from our farmer's market butcher who has been so kind to home deliver fresh meat and poultry to us all through the pandemic. And his meat is excellent.
Herbed Pork Chops with Garlic Butter are a wonderful way of preparing the lovely thick chops that he sends to us. I like to buy the old fashioned chops, with the bone in and that lovely piece of tenderloin on the side.
His old fashioned chops are always excellent and I have to say they are at least 1 inch in thickness. One of the problems with cooking thick chops like that can be that the outside of them dries out before the centre is cooked.
I discovered brining pork chops a few years back and have brined my chops ever since. Once you start bringing your chops you will never go back to not brining.
Its really easy to do and doesn't really take a lot of time or effort on your part. You only need three simple ingredients.
Cold water, sugar and salt. I use fine sea salt but kosher salt is also good. I use a granulated white sugar and tap water.
You simply mix those three ingredients together in a non-reactive dish/bowl, add your chops and then leave them to brine for an hour, miniumum.
At the end of that time, simply remove the chops, discarding the water. Pat them dry with some paper towelling, and get ready to cook. Easy peasy.
And I guarantee you will never have a dry pork chop ever again. I promise you! You can bank on it and it works for pork chops of any thickness, bone in or boneless.
My mother used to cook our porkchops to death when I was growing up and we still loved them. They were as dry as a bone. You could have used them to shingle your roof! But again, pork chops were a rare treat so we gobbled them up.
We no longer have the issues with pork that existed back then. Our modern pork is a lot safer and you can eat it still pink if you want. I like to cook mine just until its done. It will continue to cook for a bit when you remove it from the pan or the oven, so just this side of cooked is perfect.
Funny story about people shingling their roof with food. During the great depression and the dust bowl of the Canadian Mid West, farmers and their families were starving due to crop failures, dought and what not.
The people of Nova Scotia had plenty of Cod. That was during the days when you could jig for cod and get bucketloads every hour of every day. One of the best ways for them to preserve it for the winter months was to salt it.
They would layer the filleted fish in large wooden barrels and crates with plenty of salt. This way it would keep indefinitely.
Eastern Canadians have always had hearts of gold. They are kind, kind, kind. Not ignorant of the plight of their Western Canadian people they sent them plenty of things to help them out, one of them being barrels and crates of prime salt cod.
The Westerners had no idea what it was and many used it to shingle their roof tops. True story. I got it from an old Alberta woman who had been a child during the great depression in a small town in Northern Alberta. Lil McNevin.
Their bellies went hungry while their roof tops lay there covered in plenty.
Back to the chops. These chops are rubbed in an herbed oil and browned in an oven proof skillet for a few minutes per side. I use my cast iron skillet. It is perfectly seasoned now.
It does a great job of cooking most things, especially things you need to finish in the oven. It is ever so easy to clean now that is has been properly seasoned and used for these last few years.
I would not now be without it.
The herb mixture is a very simple one. I used dried herbs. Flat leaf parsley, rosemary and sage. These herbs have a beautiful affinity with pork. The help to bring out the best of it.
These get mixed with some oil. You can use light olive or canola oil. You will also need some sweet paprika and salt and pepper.
You just rub this all over your dried brined chops and then brown them off in a nice hot skillet.
Once you have browned them on both sides, just leave them in the skillet. It will only take you a few minutes per side to brown them. You then finish them off by roasting them in a hot oven for a little while.
Now if your pork chops are really thin, you won't need to do this. Roasting them after browning them will over-cook them for sure. What is the point in brining if you intend on cooking them to death????
Mine were very thick, as I said, at least 1 inch thick. Roasting was the perfect way to finish them off without them ending up burnt and dried out.
While they are roasting in the oven you can make the garlic butter. It is a very simple mixture of room temperature butter mixed with garlic and herbs.
Rosemary, again as well as dried parsley. You will also need to season it a tiny bit. Just mix everything together well to combine.
You will pop a portion of this onto your hot roasted chops when they come out of the oven. Ready to melt into the golden brown sticky surface of those beautifully cooked chops. Oh my . . . pork and garlic are a marriage made in heaven if I don't say so myself!
I served them with Potatoes Sarladaise and some frozen peas and corn. Potatoes Sarladaise is an enchanting mixture of parsley potatoes cooked in duck fat until golden brown. I confess I cheat and buy them frozen.
They are so easy to heat up quickly in a skillet. Perfectly browned and gilt edges. The brand is Picard, a well known product from France. I think their products are exemplary. I get them in the frozen section of Ocado.
All-together this was a fabulously tasty meal. I highly recommend it!
Herbed Pork Chops with Garlic Butter
Yield: 2
prep time: 1 Hourcook time: 25 Mintotal time: 1 H & 25 M
Thick bone in chops are brined, cooked to perfection and served with a delicious pat of garlic butter melting on top. These are delicious.
Ingredients:
For the brine:
- 3 cups cold water
- 1 1/2 TBS fine sea salt or kosher salt
- 1 1/2 TBS granulated sugar
For the chops:
- 2 thick bone in centre cut pork loin chops
- 1/2 TBS oil
- 1 tsp dried flat leaf parsley
- 1/2 tsp crushed dried rosemary
- 1/4 tsp dried sage
- 1/4 tsp paprika
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
For the garlic butter:
- 2 TBS room temperature butter
- 1 clove of garlic , peeled and minced
- 1/4 tsp crushed rosemary
- 1 tsp dried flat leaf parsley
Instructions:
- An hour before you want to cook the chops, mix the water together with the salt and sugar in a bowl large enough to hold both chops. Add the chops and make sure they are submerged in the water. At the end of the hour, remove them from the water and pat dry.
- Preheat the oven to 190*C/375*F/ gas mark 5.
- Mix together the oil, parsley, sage, rosemary, paprika, salt and pepper. Rub this mixture into the the chops on both sides really well.
- Heat an oven-proof skillet over medium high heat. Add the chops. Brown on one side for about 2 to 3 minutes and then on the other for another 2 minutes. Pop the browned chops in the skillet into the oven and roast for 20 minutes until just cooked through and the juices run clear.
- Make the garlic butter while the chops are in the oven. Mix together all of the ingredients to combine well.
- Remove the cooked chops from the oven and top each with 1/2 of the garlic butter to serve.
This was a beautiful meal for two, but can very easily be multiplied to feed four or six or even more.
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