How To Grill Pork Chops

When you’re picking out something to throw on the grill, skip the chicken and expensive steaks and head right over to the pork section. This lean meat is versatile, grills up quickly, and won’t be dry as long as you do one step before throwing it on the grill. Slice it up for salad or whip up a quick sauce and dinner is done. Here’s how to grill juicy, flavorful pork chops every single time.

When buying pork chops, there are a lot of options since chops can be cut from different areas of the loin. There are a few cuts of pork chops that are best for grilling:

• The blade end is the section at the front of the loin near the shoulder and is the fattiest cut.
• Rib chops are leaner and have a large, smooth section of meat.
• Bone-in center-cut chops have both the loin and tenderloin
• The sirloin is from the back end and has lots of muscles.

For grilling, I like rib or center-cut chops since they’re tender and don’t have too many chewy muscles. While I personally like bone-in since I like nibbling on the meat attached to the bones, boneless will work too. I always buy pork chops that are at least 1-inch thick, as thinner pork chops tend to cook too quickly before they have a chance to develop a nice crust on the outside.

It’s a good rule of thumb to always brine pork chops before grilling (and before you cook pork chops in the oven for that matter). Because pork chops are fairly lean, submerging them in a brine does two things:

• It keeps the meat moist by introducing extra moisture, which provides a little insurance in case the meat gets a little overcooked.
• It evenly seasons the meat beyond the surface.

• The base of this easy brine is cold water whisked with salt.
• I like to add some sugar to help with browning on the grill.
• You can also throw in aromatics like citrus peel, peppercorns, or bay leaves (or all three!).

Diamond Crystal kosher salt is what I use in my brine, but if you want to use another kind of salt, I recommend using an equal weight, not volume, of salt since the size of the salt granules vary greatly across brands and weight is the most accurate measurement.

Brining doesn’t have to be elaborate or take a long time. Since these are chops and not a big bird like a turkey, even brining for 30 minutes does wonders, and that’s about how long it’ll take to heat up the grill. The chops can sit in the brine for up to two hours, but don’t go beyond that or the texture of the meat can get spongy.

You can even brine individually frozen pork chops — just put them in the brine for the full two hours. They’ll be defrosted and ready to grill at that point.

After the pork chops are brined, there’s no need to rinse them off with water — simply dry them very well with paper towels. You can sprinkle on some black pepper at this point, or go with your favorite spice or spice rub. Just use a spice rub that doesn’t contain salt, as you’ve already seasoned the chops.

The pork chops are ready when they register 145°F in the thickest chop, which takes 10-13 minutes. The chops get seared over high heat to get those gorgeous grill marks for about three minutes per side, then moved over to medium heat to finish cooking, which will take anywhere from four to seven minutes depending on the thickness of the chops. This creates a nice crust on the outside and juicy meat inside.

When preparing an outdoor grill for pork chops, you’ll need to heat it for two levels of heat. How you accomplish this will depend on the type of grill you have:

• Gas grill: After initially turning up the burner to high and searing the outside of the pork chop, you’ll lower one of the burners to medium.
• Charcoal grill: Arrange the lit coals on one side of the grill and leave the other side empty.

Remember to keep the grill covered the whole time so that heat doesn’t escape.

Don’t serve your grilled pork chops straight off the grill — instead, let them rest for five minutes so that the juices in the meat redistribute themselves and the muscle fibers relax.

If you’re feeling saucy, serve your grilled pork chops with some chimichurri or sweet and tangy barbecue sauce on the side.

At Kitchn, we know how important it is to find recipes that are worth your time. That’s why every tutorial — like this one — features recipes that have been tried and tested by our team of developers and at-home cooks from across the country. Questions or feedback for us? Say hello: recipes@thekitchn.com.