Grilled Pork Chops
Brined vs salted pork chops
Left: Brined Pork Chops, Right: Salted Pork Chops
Left: Brined Pork Chops, Middle: Salted Pork Chops, Right: left-brined chop, right-salted pork chop
Wanted to see how to make juicy pork chops on gas grill.
Tried brining pork chops for 1 hour vs just salting both sides before grilling.
grilled by searing first at high heat, flipping, cooking on high heat, then turning heat down to low, flip. And the finish off to 140-145 F with indirect heat. Basically, sear, but then cook to temperature with as much indirect heat as possible.
Sometime, I ought to try the pan-fry then finish off in oven techinque that I read was a good way to cook indoors.
results:
salting pork chop is superior to brining pork chop — only brine if it is especially challenging to keep the meat from drying out.
salted pork chop tasted more crisp, dry, just more grilled. Brined pork chop just tasted wetter – not juicier, wetter, and had that brined fried-chicken taste. It also doesn’t brown as well.
Both pork chops tasted good. My problem beforehand was that I was treating pork chops like chicken drumsticks — which seem to be a special exception in the grilling process — you really want to cook it thoroughly to around 190 F for chicken. It seems for pork and beef, you only want to bring it to the necessary temperatures, and not any higher otherwise you risk drying it out.
20150909
-Isaac