Pork Chop Recipes

To jazz up his juicy pork chops, Food & Wine’s Justin Chapple tops them with a crunchy, bright gremolata made with a quick mix of sunflower seeds, parsley, garlic and lemon.

Food & Wine’s Justin Chapple adds a bit of umami-rich miso to a cherry mostarda to amp up the flavor, making a perfect condiment for juicy pork chops.

The vibrant magenta beet puree that accompanies these luscious pork chops is made with almost equal parts beets and creamy Yukon Gold potatoes.

TV chef Marcela Valladolid has a simple and tasty preparation for grilled pork chops: she rubs and bastes them with a smoky sauce made from dried chiles and chicken broth.

These superjuicy pan-seared pork chops get incredible flavor from shio koji, a recently rediscovered sweet-salty condiment made from rice.

These pork chops are cut doubly thick so it's easy to give them a good char on the grill while keeping them super-juicy. They're also perfectly seasoned all the way through after a two-day soak in a brine packed with aromatics like juniper and onion.

Braising pork in milk, a method that Jimmy Bannos Jr., of The Purple Pig learned while cooking in Florence, results in supertender meat and an incredibly rich and flavorful gravy. Although the dish is rooted in Tuscan tradition, Bannos adds an American comfort-food spin by serving it with mashed potatoes.

Rubbing a vibrant jerk paste on chops before a quick 20 minutes on the grill gives them an insanely good, peppery heat.

“When I think of Piedmont, I think of rustic wild boar dishes,” Marcia Kiesel says about the inspiration behind these slow-cooked pork shoulder chops, which she pairs with the region’s robust Nebbiolos.

Chef Tim Love rubs meat with a bit of sugar to help brown it but finishes the dish over low heat so the sugar doesn't char the outside. Here, he coats pork chops with cocoa and chile powders for a rub that's like a deconstructed version of Mexican mole sauce.

Boneless, thin-cut pork chops can be fully cooked in three minutes, a fraction of the time it takes to cook thicker chops. Here, F&W’s Melissa Rubel Jacobson combines the meat with a few distinctly autumnal ingredients: sage, apple and hard cider.

Before cooking the locally raised Berkshire pork they sell at Fleisher's, Jessica and Joshua Applestone like to brine it for a few hours in a mixture of juniper berries, orange zest and peppercorns to help season the meat and keep it juicy. Then Jessica Applestone recommends cooking it simply with a sprig of rosemary. "Salt, pepper and flame is all you need. Why lose the beauty of the meat by adding more?" she says.

For the sweet-savory peach relish that accompanies these big, juicy pork chops, Amelia O’Reilly says it’s important to use firm, ripe fruit that won’t get mushy during pickling.

Sam Hayward prefers cooking with pork from small farmers who raise heritage breeds, such as Berkshire, Gloucestershire Old Spot or Duroc. This pork is deeply colored and often as marbled as high-quality beef, and Hayward treats it with the special care it deserves. His two-day curing process is worth the time because it allows the spices to penetrate these thick and juicy chops.

Chef Daniel Patterson uses ground dried seaweed as a rub to coat thick pork chops before pan-roasting them. This is a simplified version of the dish Patterson created, in which he cooked seaweed with garam masala and soy sauce then dehydrated and ground it.

This recipe is also delicious using Angostura in place of the homemade Woodland Bitters.

With lighter meats, pair the wine with the sauce.

Most tasters couldn't detect anchovies in the marinade for the pork and were pleasantly surprised to learn that they actually liked the hint of pungent saltiness. One secret is to let the chops marinate at room temperature for 30 minutes, which yields juicier meat after grilling.

When Matt Molina arrived in Italy, he had succulent pork chops wrapped in thin layers of lardo (cured pork fat). If lardo is hard to find, substitute pancetta (cured pork belly rolled into a log); unfurl the slices into long strips before wrapping the chops.

Chef Melissa Kelly raises her own Tamworth pigs. She uses a sweet and tangy maple-syrup and cider-vinegar brine to enhance the natural juiciness of the meat.

Seamus Mullen serves his citrus-glazed pork chops with a fresh, crunchy, spicy slaw that is an unexpected combination of endives, cauliflower and jalapeños with cashews and coconut.

Jonathan Wu’s cornstarch-battered pork chops are somehow crisp and nicely chewy at the same time. The Chinese five-spice powder and white pepper sprinkled on the chops after frying are like a touch of fairy dust.

It’s not a trick of molecular gastronomy that produces the shatteringly crisp crust on these butter-fried pork chops. The secret? Dried potato flakes, aka instant mashed potatoes. The flakes are made from dehydrated cooked potatoes and make a great gluten-free substitute for breadcrumbs. Be sure to look for hot cherry peppers, not sweet ones, to give the mayo-based sauce some kick.