Chipotle Brined Pork Chops is a great way to get flavor into a pork chop and guaranteeing it retains some moisture. No more flavorless dried out pork chop dinners!
I love pork chops, and my favorite way to prepare them is with a chipotle brine. My wife and I eat these chipotle brined pork chops pretty often.
Almost everyone skips brining their meat but learning how to make a brine for my pork and chicken recipes has really been beneficial. My wife and I can’t cook a pork chop or a Thanksgiving turkey anymore without good soaking in a delicious brine.
If you don’t know what a brine is, it’s pretty simple. It’s just a salty liquid.
The most important reason to use one is to improve the overall juiciness of the meat you are soaking. It works wonderfully with virtually all cuts of poultry and pork.
In this blog, we are going to stick to cooking pork chops. I feel pork chops are the one cut of meat that is traditionally cooked to oblivion and usually to the point of it being dry and tough. Using a brine fixes both of these issues.
Salt to Liquid Ratio
My pork chop brines are usually composed of 10 parts water and 1 part salt by weight.
I start with 500 grams of water, 500 grams of ice cubes, and 100 grams of salt.
I know weighing out water and salt seems a little anal-retentive, but it’s the one sure way my concentration is always consistent. A food scale is probably the most used tool in my kitchen.
Make the Brine
Start by heating the water in a small saucepan and add the salt.
Bring the salt water to a simmer. This is where things can get fun.
At this point, you can add spices, herbs, or whatever other additions you want to add to your brine. I usually add at least some type of onion, garlic, and black pepper at this time.
Let everything simmer for approximately 5 minutes and turn off the heat.
The next step is critical from a food safety standpoint. You want to let your brine cool off for about 20-30 minutes.
Then add the ice cubes to your brine. You want your brine cold.
You never want to stick your pork chops or any meat into a warm liquid because it could potentially take your meat out of the safe-zone for food storage and that could lead to too many trips to the bathroom.
If the ice cubes didn’t bring your brine below 40 degrees F, go ahead and stash it in the fridge for an hour or until it’s cool enough to use. You could even do this part the night before and stash it in the fridge.
Marinate the Pork
Ok, so you have your cold brine.
Now put your pork chops into a Ziploc baggie and add the brine. Try and remove as much of the air as possible.
How long you need to brine will be dependent on how thick your chops are. If they are on the thin side (say less than 1/2 an inch), an hour should be long enough. If your pork chops are 1/2 inch to an inch thick, you can brine for 2-3 hours.
Remove from the brine and cook as you normally would. You can grill, fry in a hot skillet, or bake.
Chipotle Sauce
We like to serve the pork chops with a side of veggies and a cream cheese chipotle sauce. I’m not sure if you can really call it a sauce, but it is delicious.
The sauce is cream cheese, chipotle pepper chopped, and some of the adobo sauce that came with the chipotle pepper. Just mix them up really well and serve with your pork chop. The cream cheese and heat from the peppers play very well together.
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Chipotle Brined Pork Chops
Ingredients
- 500 g 1 L of Water (About 4 cups)
- 500 g ice cubes
- 100 g of Salt A little over 1/4 cup
- 1/4 tsp. Chipotle powder
- 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp. onion powder
- 10 black pepper corns whole
Instructions
- Add water and salt to sauce pan and bring to a simmer to dissolve the salt.
- Add the chipotle, garlic powder, onion powder, and pepper corns
- Simmer for 5 minutes
- Let brine cool for 15 to 20 minutes
- Add the ice cubes and chill the brine in the fridge until it is cooler than 40 degrees F.
- Once brine is cool, add pork chops and soak in brine for 2 to 3 hours.
- Remove pork chops from brine.
- Finish pork chops by baking, grilling, or frying in a hot skillet until pork chops are cooked through.
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