How to Grill the Perfect Pork Chop

How to grill the perfect pork chop starts with a brine, then seasoning the chop followed by smoking it. Next is the sear, sauce, some more smoke and finally serve. This recipe has a lot of steps, but isn’t all that difficult.

When people ask me what the hardest thing to barbecue, I almost always say brisket. The stall on a brisket is maddening.

And while brisket is probably the hardest, grilling the perfect pork chop is a close second.

There is a perfect storm of reasons for this. First, the pork chop is generally from the pork loin, which is very lean and thus there is a small window for getting them right. Second is the myth that pork has to be cooked to well done, which is hard to nail with the low fat content.

That medium well rule is not the case anymore. The USDA has decided that pork only has to be taken to medium rare. That’s right, 145F degrees, please.

Now that we have those two things out of the way, learn how to grill the perfect pork chop.

The Perfect Pork Chop Ingredients:

• 3 massive pork chops (these are 2 inches thick)
• 1 qt apple cider (substitute apple juice)
• 1/4 cup salt
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 10 turns black pepper
• 10 turns white pepper
• Your favorite BBQ rub
• Your favorite BBQ sauce

There are 7 steps to this process for grilling the perfect pork chop.

1. Brine
2. Season/Rub
3. Smoke
4. Sear
5. Sauce
6. Smoke some more
7. Serve

How do you grill pork chops without drying them out?

Brine

What is brining? It’s one of the major keys to grill pork chops without drying them out.  Specifically, brining is soaking meat in a salt water solution. I take it to the next level and brine in apple cider if I can find it and apple juice when I can’t. The salt pushed the liquid into the meat making it juicier. It also adds flavor (remember, it’s apple juice and garlic), and the salt also tenderizes. Brining is absolutely necessary for the perfect pork chop. Remember when I said pork chops dry out really quick. Well brining expands that window so it makes it harder to dry them out. Brining adds liquid, flavor and tenderizes the meat. So basically it makes meat juicier, tastier and more tender.

Uh, hello. Win, win, win! 

Here’s what you will need for the brine:

Combine the apple cider or juice with the salt and pepper in a resealable plastic bag and swish around until the salt is dissolved. Add the garlic and the pork chops and place in the fridge for 2-12 hours.

I don’t like to brine more than 12 hours as it can start to cure the meat and it will be more like ham.

After the pork chops come out of the brine bath it’s time to season or rub them

Season/Rub

There’s nothing to this. Pat the chops dry with paper towels and coat one side of the pork chops with your favorite rub. No need to add any salt.

The pork chops are essentially salted from the brine so all they need is a dusting of rub:

Only season/rub one side while on the cutting board.

If these chops were flipped over to season the other side, most of the rub on the bottom will stick to the cutting board. Season the other side on the grill.

Smoke

Some of you are wondering why I didn’t say sear first. Yes, searing browns the pork chops which caramelizes the proteins and adds a ton of flavor to any meat. The problem is, if the chop is seared first, it won’t take on much smoke flavor. So smoke THEN sear which is the best of both worlds. It’s called the reverse sear method.

I cranked up my pellet smoker to 225 and added my monster pork chops, seasoned side down and then applied the rub to the top:

Notice that probe inserted into the pork chop? It’s vital that you have some way of checking the temp of the chops.

Once they hit about 115-120, you’re going to want to sear them.

Sear

Luckily, my pellet smoker has a gas powered sear station on the side, essentially giving me mini gas grill on the side of my pellet cooker.

Time to caramelize some proteins.

Nothing to this.

Just crank up the heat to as hot as it will go and put some grill marks on both sides of the chops:

Once the chops have grill marks on both sides, remove from the gas grill/sear station and put them back on the smoker to sauce.

Sauce

I slathered these soon-to-be-perfect pork chops with some BBQ sauce.

Now make sure to lay it on thick on both sides:

Time to smoke some more.

Smoke again

I know, I know. I said that once pork chops are seared they don’t take on any more smoke flavor. The chops won’t but the sauce will!

Extra layer of flavor, coming up! All we are doing here is thickening that sauce on the way to our desired doneness temp.

When the the perfect pork chops reach an internal temp between 145F and 150F, pull them from the grill to serve.

No, you don’t have to cook pork to well done according to the USDA.

I pulled these at around 148 simply because some people are still a little freaked out about pork with too much pink.

Serve

Might as well serve sides on a separate plates as these perfect pork chops practically fill a dinner plate:

Time to dive in with tines and blade.

How did I do?

How to Grill the Perfect Pork Chop Recap

Let’s see if we’ve achieved the perfect pork chop. We have the extra sweetness from the brine as well as added tenderness and juiciness. We have rub that melded into the outside of the chops as they smoked. Don’t forget that smoke ring. We have the caramelized proteins from the sear and the sweet and spicy Stubb’s Sweet Heat BBQ Sauce also infused with smoke. That my friends is layer upon layer upon layer of flavor perfection! Just remember – BSSSSSS:

1. Brine
2. Season
3. Smoke
4. Sear
5. Sauce
6. Smoke again
7. Serve

If you have any questions about How to Grill the Perfect Pork Chop, feel free to leave them below or send me an email.

Stubb’s BBQ Sauce sponsored this post

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How to Grill the Perfect Pork Chop Recipe Card:

Print Recipe

How to Grill the Perfect Pork Chop

The 7 step process to grill the perfect process - Brine, Season, Smoke, Sear, Sauce, Smoke Again and Serve or How to Grill the Perfect Pork Chop

Prep Time10 minutes mins

Cook Time1 hour hr

Total Time1 hour hr 10 minutes mins

Course: Entree, Main Course

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

Keyword: Barbecue, Barbecue Pork, BBQ, BBQ Pork, Grilled Pork Chops, Pellet Cooker, Pellet Grill, Pellet Smoker, Pork Chop, Pork Chops, Reverse Seared Pork Chops, Sear, Seared

Servings: 6 People

Ingredients

• 3 massive pork chops these are 2 inches thick
• 1 qt apple cider substitute apple juice
• ¼ cup salt
• 2 clove garlic minced
• 10 turn black pepper
• 10 turn white pepper
• your favorite BBQ rub
• Stubb's BBQ Sauce

Instructions

• Combine the cider or juice in a plastic bag with the salt, garlic and pepper
• When the salt is dissolved, add the pork chops and brine for 2-12 hours
• Remove from the brine and pat dry with paper towels
• Season one side with your favorite BBQ rub
• Place the pork chops, seasoned side down, on a smoker or grill set up to smoke with an internal temp of 225
• Season the other side and close the lid
• Remove the pork chops from the smoker when they reach an internal temp of 115-120 and sear them on another grill or a side burner
• Once they have good grill marks on both sides, place them back on the smoker and sauce them with the Stubb's BBQ sauce
• Close the lid and smoke them until they reach between 135-150 degrees
• 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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BBQ Grilling

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This article was initially published on: July 1, 2016