Grilled Bone in Pork Chops Stuffed and Topped with Apples – brined, double bone in pork chops are stuffed with pan seared apples. The stuffed pork chops are then smoked on my pellet grill (although any grill will work) and then seared off for that beautiful flavor crust. Also, scroll down to see that wonderful smoke ring.

Stuffed Pork Chop plate against yellow leaves of Fall — GrillinFools Images ©

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Listen, there is no better time to grill than in the Fall. I know, I know, it’s blustery and cold and the sun goes down a lot earlier. But do you know what the Fall doesn’t have? Humidity. It also doesn’t have mosquitos. And the temps don’t get into the high 90’s or low 100’s. For most of the Fall months I can throw on a vest and then all I need to do is stand near a hot grill and all is good in the temp department. Also, with having a TV out by the grill, I can enjoy a college football game, or NHL hockey or some playoff baseball.

Want to know what else the Fall has that the summer doesn’t. Apples. Loads and loads of apples. I love apples. All kinds of apples. So in this recipe, I used apples twice: as a main ingredient in the stuffing and as a cinnamon glazed topper for these THICK double bone pork chops! Hold on tight. We’re going to get started on this this one and it’s one helluva ride to get to Grilled Bone in Pork Chops Stuffed and Topped with Apples.

Interested in maybe the coolest, and tastiest cut on the pig, check these tomahawk pork chops with belly meat still on the bone.

Grilled Bone in Pork Chops Ingredients

Pork chop brine:

4 THICK bone in pork chops with two bones apiece
1 quart apple cider
1/4 cup salt

Thick pork chops ready for the brine GrillinFools Images ©

Stuffing Ingredients:

2 sticks salted butter (1/2 pound)
1 tbsp chopped onion
2 cups fresh bread crumbs
2 cups chopped apples
¼ cup chopped celery
2 tsp chopped fresh parsley

Glazed Apple Topping Ingredients:

2 tbsp butter, divided
3 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
4 medium tart apples, thinly sliced
2 tbsp chopped pecans

How do you grill pork chops without drying them out?

Brine the chops. Brining adds liquid into the meat as well as tenderizes the pork, and in this case adds flavor from the cider. That added moisture in the meat will make the chops juicier and make it harder to dry them out.

This recipe is for four chops, but we made seven of these. We brined four of them. The other three we didn’t. Why? Because so many people doubt the brining process. We wanted to try the brined pork chops versus the other ones. I defy anyone who tries this recipe to brine all but one pork chop and then do a side by side taste test. If you do it just one time, brining will be a must from that point forward.

But you have to have the control group. It can’t just be tasting brined pork chops and assume that unbrined are just as good. The comparison is necessary to keep our minds from saying, “This is what my pork chops normally taste like.” Trust me here because this is exactly what happened to me. I brined once, didn’t compare to unbrined and just assumed my pork tasted like that. It took me two years to give it a try again with a control group.

How to brine pork chops

So how does one brine? Liquid and salt. The ratio is one gallon of liquid to one cup of salt. So in this case, one quart of apple cider to 1/4 cup of salt. Put the chops in a resealable plastic bag and then fill with the salt and cider. Close the bag and slosh the cider around until the salt dissolves. Pouring the cider and salt in a pitcher and whisking or stirring till dissolved, also works. Place the bag into the fridge for four to twelve hours:

Four pork chops brining in apple cider — Dont brine more than 12 hours That becomes curing and risks turning the pork into ham GrillinFools Images ©

Remove the pork chops from the brine and pat dry with a paper towel. Now let’s get to the stuffing.

How to make apple stuffing for grilled bone in pork chops

I cranked up my grill to medium heat and set a cast iron pan on the grates. Once the pan comes up to temp, drop in the butter:

Butter melting — I LOVE butter GrillinFools Images ©

That doesn’t look like two sticks of butter. That’s because it isn’t. As we were creating this recipe, we were using a modified version of someone else’s recipe. Well, that idiot put a half a stick of butter with 3 cups of bread crumbs which made a pan full of dust. It was waaaay too much in terms of bread crumbs and not nearly enough butter. How do we know? Well, first we added the onions, apples, celery and then the parsley:

Adding parsley to the sizzling apples — Soften up the apples and then add the parsley GrillinFools Images ©

Then we added all those breadcrumbs to that little bit of butter:

Breadcrumbs being added to the sizzling apples — Looks like dry sand GrillinFools Images ©

Then we added another half stick of butter:

Adding more butter to the stuffing — Still not enough butter GrillinFools Images ©

And it still wasn’t enough. So we melted another whole stick of butter, poured it over the top and adjusted the totals for the ingredients list:

Melted butter being added to the stuffing — NOW we have enough butter GrillinFools Images ©

How to stuff pork chops

Now, make a pouch in those uber thick pork chops. First, salt and pepper them all the way around:

Salt and pepper the pork chops all the way around GrillinFools Images ©

Now get out a long, slender knife and hold a pork chop in the palm of your hand, bones side down and slice into the chop but don’t go all the way through, opening up about an inch and a half slit in the side:

Angrily carving out the pouch of the pork chops — Maybe this is a little much GrillinFools Images ©

Really angrily carving out those pockets — OK yeah way over the top GrillinFools Images ©

So maybe I was over emoting a bit here. I mean, what did that chop ever do to me?

Work the tip of the blade back and forth widening the space in the cavity but don’t enlarge the inch and a half slit in the chop:

Create a slit in the side of the pork chop GrillinFools Images ©

Using a couple fingers, make sure there is a good space inside the pork chop and try doing so without giggling like a 14 year old as I did here:

Make sure pocket is big enough — Then make sure pocket is big enough GrillinFools Images ©

Only one way to check that GrillinFools Images ©

The pocket is big enough GrillinFools Images ©

Me trying to be mature and failing badly GrillinFools Images ©

Still not able to grow up GrillinFools Images ©

If you’re waiting for me to mature, it’s going to be a loooonngggg time so don’t hold your breath here.

Make Stuffed Pork Chops:

Stuff those chops — And stuff those chops GrillinFools Images ©

It's OK for the stuffing to bulge out — Its OK for the stuffing to bulge out GrillinFools Images ©

Keep going until all the chops are stuffed:

Bring on the smoker GrillinFools Images ©

How do you cook pork chops on the grill?

We start by smoking these chops to about 10F degrees below the desired serving temperature (Which in this case is 145F-150) and then sear them off to take them that last 10 degrees. This is called the reverse sear process.

Indeed, we can serve pork chops at medium rare (145F-150F) according to the USDA.

For the smoke, I cranked up my Green Mountain Grills pellet cooker to 250F:

Can you tell which ones were brined — Can you tell which stuffed pork chops were brined GrillinFools Images ©

The Green Mountain Grill can handle 7 giant chops easily — The Green Mountain Grill can handle seven giant stuffed pork chops easily GrillinFools Images ©

I could've added five more if I had to — I couldve added five more if I had to GrillinFools Images ©

I smoked the chops at 250F until the chops hit 125F-130F internal. This only took about 45 minutes. These stuffed pork chops are thick, but when the pouch is cut into them, it’s more like smoking two thinner chops so the process is shorter than if there was no pouch.

Apple Stuffing/Topping Cooking Instructions:

While the pork chops are smoking on my pellet grill, time to make the apple topping. Back over to my other grill still at medium heat. I added the topping ingredients to another cast iron pan:

The ingredients of the glazed apple topper — This is the icing on the cake GrillinFools Images ©

One note. I used two different kinds of apples to have some added color for the pics. This was a mistake.

The green apples were much more dense than the red and thus the red apples were soft while the green apples were still crisp.

I would have preferred one consistency:

Cinnamon glazed apples — And our apples are glazed GrillinFools Images ©

The cinnamon glazed apples — I couldve put these straight into a pie GrillinFools Images ©

Then I cranked up another grill to high heat.

Once my stuffed pork chops reached 125-130 they were ready to sear:

Time to get my sear on!

Then, I took them out of the GMG pellet cooker and seared them off on the other cooker to make grilled bone in pork chops:

Grilling the chops on the American Made Grills — Flame on GrillinFools Images ©

I could’ve seared them on the Green Mountain as that grill gets to 550F, but my other grill was ready to go from cooking the apples so I flipped the stuffed pork chops over to that cooker rather than wait for the pellet grill to .

Additionally, make sure to crisp up that fat on the outer edge of the grilled bone in pork chops:

The Stuffed Pork Chops Plated:

Or stand up the stuffed pork chops because they are that thick:

But how did the grilled bone in pork chops look on the inside?

Grilled Bone in pork chops stuffed and topped with apples recap:

Indeed, the pork is a combo of sweet and savory with the cider brine penetrated into the meat. The stuffing is also a combo of sweet and savory. The topping is all sweet with a wonderful crunch from the nuts. It truly is a wonderful combo and perfect for the Fall season.

If you have any questions or comments about these grilled bone in pork chops stuffed and topped with apples, feel free to leave them below or send me an email.

Also, if you could leave us a great review with lots of stars that would be most appreciated!

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Grilled Bone In Pork Chops Recipe Card:

Apple Stuffed and Topped Bone In Pork Chops Me Widened 1 | GrillinFools — GrillinFools Images ©

Print Recipe

Grilled Bone in Pork Chops Stuffed and Topped with Apples

Cider brined pork chops, stuffed with apple stuffing, reverse seared and then topped with cinnamon glazed apples.

Prep Time20

Cook Time1

Total Time1 20

Course: Entree, Main Course

Cuisine: American, American Fare, Grilling, Pork, Pork Chop, Pork Chops

Keyword: #Apple Stuffed, #Apple Stuffed Pork Chops, Chops, Grill, Grilled Bone In Pork Chops, Grilled Pork Chops, Pellet Cooker, Pellet Grill, Pellet Smoker, Pork Chop, Pork Chops, Stuffed Pork Chops

Servings: People

Ingredients

Brine

4 bone-in pork chop thick, with two bones apiece
1 qt apple cider
¼ cup salt

Stuffing:

½ lb salted butter (2 stick)
1 tbsp onion chopped
2 cup fresh bread crumbs
2 cup apple chopped
¼ cup celery chopped
2 tsp fresh parsley chopped

Glazed Apple Topping:

2 tbsp salted butter divided
3 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground nutmeg
¼ tsp salt
4 medium tart apples thinly sliced
2 tbsp chopped pecans

Instructions

Add the chops, cider and salt into a resealable plastic bag and close the bag
Shake up until the salt dissolves
Place the bag into the fridge for 4-12 hours
Remove the chops from the bag, pat dry with paper towels and set aside
Place the 2 sticks of butter in a cast iron pan over medium heat
Once the butter melts, add the onions
Once the onions soften, add the celery and apples
Soften the apples and celery and then add the bread crumbs
Stir the bread crumbs until all the butter is absorbed
You may have to add more butter to get it to a consistency of wet sand
Add the parsley and stir it through
Remove the stuffing pan from the heat
Salt and pepper the pork chops
Carve slits in the side of the pork chops and create a good size pocket
Spoon the stuffing into each chop
Set the smoker to 250F and place the apple stuffed pork chops into the grill
Smoke until the chops hit 125-130
While the chops are smoking, place a clean cast iron pan back on the grill and add the topping ingredients
Stir the topping ingredients until the apples are soft then set to low heat to stay warm
Sear the chops until they hit 145F internal in the meat then remove from the heat and top with the warm apple topping and serve

Scott Thomas

Scott Thomas, the Original Grillin’ Fool, was sent off to college with a suitcase and a grill where he overcooked, undercooked and burned every piece of meat he could find. After thousands of failures, and quite a few successes, nearly two decades later he started a website to show step by step, picture by picture, foolproof instructions on how to make great things out of doors so that others don’t have to repeat the mistakes he’s made on the grill.

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This article was initially published on: December 3, 2020