My wife and I have a guest in town and we are on a tight budget at the moment. I have some pork chops that I want to cook up tonight and I am looking for suggestions on a good recipe. Any suggestions?
I would recommend brining your pork chops for an hour or two before cooking them if you have the time. Your brining solution can be really simple with just salt and sugar OR it can be more complex if you like a particular flavor profile.
The difference in moistness, tenderness, and flavor of your cooked chops versus not brining them will be noticeable, IMHO.
One caveat: if you buy "enhanced" pork from major supermarket brands, it's already been injected with water and salt, so there's no point to brining those. But if you buy better quality pork, you're not paying extra for their water and salt, plus you're able to control the flavor profile of the brine better.
Personally, I prefer a shorter time in a more concentrated brine (like a third cup of coarse salt per quart of water - don't use table salt). I think that makes it less likely that the meat will overabsorb and start to taste like corned beef. I only brine pork chops for about 90 minutes tops, and that's if they're thick bone-in chops. YMMV ...
