Maple-Brined Grilled Pork Chops

Maple-Brined Grilled Pork Chops

B is for Braising in our house, but also for Brining, especially when it comes to Pork Chops.  It you want moist, tender, juicy pork chops take the extra time to give them a nice soak in a brining liquid.  For some quick tips on Brining Basics click here.

Our standard brining-method goes something like this…

Use a 1/2 cup of kosher salt for every quart of water (if you’re using table salt, reduce by half).  You want only enough brine to cover the meat, so choose a plastic or glass container just large enough to hold your meat which reduces the amount of brine required.  Bring the water and salt to a boil, then cool completely before pouring over meat.  Adjust brining time according to protein.  Rinse meat before cooking.

In addition to the standard brine above, for these chops we used roughly:

½ cup maple syrup

¼ cup Dijon mustard

¼ cup cider vinergar

¼ cup brown sugar

5 cloves garlic

10 peppercorns

3 sprigs of rosemary

not enough red pepper flakes

Wow.  The chops had a subtle hint of sweet maple flavor which was such a nice surprise.  When grilled the natural sugars come to the surface and burst with flavor.  Maple-Brined Grilled Pork Chops served over a simple bed of spinach with Rosemary, Parmesan & Paprika Oil Roasted Potatoes = Winning.  It is Eat Out of the Fridge/Pantry Week afterall.