Reverse Seared Pork Chops with Watermelon Mango Salsa

Thick cut pork chops seasoned and then slow smoked before being seared for that beautiful flavor crust. We then add a fresh salsa to complete these reverse seared pork chops with watermelon mango salsa. 

I realize the title is quite a mouthful, but then so is this recipe. Har, har, har. I know, I know, groan! Before we dive into this, let’s talk about reverse searing.

What is the Reverse Sear Method?

Reverse searing means slowly bringing the temperature up on a protein either in the oven, an immersion cooker, or a smoker to short of the desired doneness temperature and then searing the meat at the end to finish the cooking process. We all know that searing is good for meat as it caramelizes the proteins (browns the meat) and makes it taste better. But if we sear first, we keep any smoke flavor from getting into the meat. By smoking first, THEN searing, we infuse the meat with smoke AND get us those delicious and beautiful grill marks which equate to more flavor.

It also cooks the meat more slowly and evenly which can be likened to a poor man’s sous vide. Smoke vide? Sear vide? Just spit balling ideas here. What’s really important is knowing this recipe is called Reverse Seared Pork Chops with Watermelon Mango Salsa

OK, let’s dive into reverse seared pork chops with watermelon mango salsa.

Reverse Seared Pork Chops with Watermelon Mango Salsa Ingredients:

• Three thick, bone in pork chops
• Salt
• Your favorite BBQ Rub
• 1/2 cup rough chopped watermelon
• 1/2 cup rough chopped mango
• 1/3 cup chopped yellow pepper
• 1/3 cup chopped red pepper
• 1/4 cup diced purple onions
• 2 tbsp chopped cilantro (substitute flat leaf parsley)
• 1 tbsp minced serrano pepper
• Juice of half a lime
• Pinch of salt

Let’s start with those big beautiful bone in pork chops provided to me by the Kansas Pork Association with the support of the National Pork Board who sponsored this blog post:

Pork Chop Prep

Seasoning is as simple as hitting them with some salt and then your favorite BBQ rub on both sides and around the outer edges:

Does reverse sear work for pork chops?

The reverse sear works really well for pork chops By smoking first, we imbue the pork with that lovely smoke flavor and then sear to caramelize the proteins on the outside to form that tasty flavor crust. The reverse sear brings the meat temp up slowly and makes for more even cooking. If we seared first, the meat wouldn’t take on much smoke flavor.

Which begs the question:

How do you reverse sear pork chops on a smoker?

To reverse sear, smoke the chops until they get to 10F degrees short of the desired doneness and then crank up the grill and sear them off to get that delicious flavor crust and bring the meat up that last 10F degrees.

How to Grill Reverse Seared Pork Chops

To smoke them, I set up my kamado grill with a plate setter (or smokin’ stone) between the fire and the pork chops.

Toss in a couple chunks of pecan and close the lid, target temp of 250F:

For other grills, set up coals to one side and put the meat to the other end of the grill

If you don’t have access to pecan wood and need to know what woods you do have access to pair well with, we can help. 

How to make watermelon mango salsa

While the chops are smoking, time to make the salsa:

Mix the rest of the ingredients together in a bowl and squeeze some lime over the top.

Now check on the pork chops that are smoking on the grill before being seared (hence the reverse sear method):

Once the chops reach an internal temp of 135 degrees, it’s time to crank up the fire.

Remove the plate setter (or smokin’ stone), open up the vents at the top and bottom and wait a few minutes for the fire to pull in all the air it wants.

Once we get above 500F degrees, it’s time to sear.

Chops back on the grill putting the sear in reverse sear:

All we need to do is to put some grill marks on these chops and take them up to 145F or medium rare which is now what the USDA has approved as the proper temp for pork.

No more well done, dry pork!

Once we get some nice char on all sides, we can plate the reverse seared pork chops and let them rest as we go retrieve the watermelon mango salsa from the fridge:

Then all we need is one of these:

Spoon it over the top and serve:

Reverse Seared Pork Chops with Watermelon Mango Salsa Summary

Such a cacophony of color and flavor. There’s the smoky, caramelized pork and then we have the light and fresh salsa that is both sweet and savory with a bit of a kick. Just the perfect summer meal. Did you know you can grill the melon, too? 

This post is sponsored by the Kansas Pork Association with the support of the National Pork Board. Remember to support your local farmers and ranchers like the good folks who raise our pork. Where would BBQ be without them? Seriously, think about that for a moment. That’s not a world I want to live in!

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Recipe Card:

Print Recipe

Reverse Seared Pork Chops with Watermelon Mango Salsa

Reverse Seared Pork Chops with Watermelon Mango Salsa: Pork Chops, seasoned then smoked before being seared and topped with a fresh watermelon, mango salsa

Prep Time5 minutes mins

Cook Time1 hour hr

Course: Entree, Main Course, Pork Chop, Pork Chops

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

Keyword: Charcoal, Charcoal Grill, Grilled Pork Chops, Kamado, Kamado Grill, Mango, Mango Salsa, Pork Chop, Pork Chops, reverse sear, reverse seared, Reverse Seared Pork Chops, Salsa, Watermelon

Servings: 6 People

Ingredients

• 3 bone-in pork chop
• salt
• your favorite BBQ rub

Watermelon Mango Salso

• ½ cup watermelon rough chopped
• ½ cup mango rough chopped
• ⅓ cup yellow pepper chopped
• ⅓ cup red pepper chopped
• ¼ cup red onion diced
• 2 tbsp cilantro chopped, (substitute flat leaf parsley)
• 1 tbsp serrano pepper minced
• 1 tbsp lime juice (from ½ lime)
• pinch salt

Instructions

• Season the pork chops with salt and the BBQ rub then prepare the grill for indirect grilling
• Smoke the chops at 250F until they reach 135F degrees
• While the chops are smoking, combine the rest of the ingredients into a salsa and set aside
• Once the chops reach 135F remove them from the grill and in this case take out the plate setter (or Smokin' Stone) and stoke up the fire by adding fuel (if needed) and open up the vents
• Once the temp at the grill grates reaches 500+F degrees, sear the pork chops on each side
• Once there are good grill marks on each side and the internal temp has crested 145, remove the chops from the grill to rest for 2-3 minutes
• Plate and spoon over the watermelon/mango salsa 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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BBQ Grilling

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This article was initially published on: July 30, 2018