I didn’t make that up; I really didn’t. I saw it in a magazine--I could have sworn it was Gourmet--but now I can’t find the recipe. I just spent an hour looking through my back issues, to no avail.
But I wish I had made up the technique of brushing olive oil on pork chops, seasoning them with salt and pepper, and then dredging them in fine bread crumbs and grilling them. I wish I had made it up because it makes juicy pork chops like you can’t imagine.
If we had pork chops at all when I was growing up, they were thin and boneless, cooked over low heat until they had taken on some brown color, which invariably took a very long time and left them very dry. A good friend, who is a good cook, sears pork cutlets over high heat and then braises them low and slow in gravy. The flavor of the gravy is good, salty and toothsome, but the tenderness of the meat is hit or miss. Sometimes it’s succulent; sometimes it resembles chewy animal hide.
Neither technique was making pork palatable to me. And pork should be palatable. Why can’t a pork chop, on the bone, with fat streaking through it, end up on the plate in a shimmering sea of its own delicious juices so that it needs no gravy?
To my mind, the problem was long cooking, a method that didn’t make sense to me. The best way to cook a pork chop is high and fast so that a savory crust is formed and the chop is cooked through, both sides done in about 5 minutes. This would be for a half-inch thick chop. Add a few minutes for a thicker one. The best heat source, of course, would be fire. Need I expound on the deliciousness of fire-roasted meat?
To hedge my bets against dry, flavorless meat if it turned out my timing was a little off, I tried a variety of methods to ensure flavor and moisture, including brining and dry rubs. While the brining introduced too much salt for my taste, the dry rub worked beautifully. My favorite combination turned out to be 1 tablespoon chipotle, 1 tablespoon cumin, 1 tablespoon brown sugar, 1 teaspoon coriander, and 1 teaspoon ground black pepper. I rubbed the meat, sprinkled it with salt, and let it sit out, loosely covered, while I got on with the business of firing the grill.
The result, as I had hoped, was flavorful meat that retained its juiciness. It was spicy, yes, but juicy.
We enjoyed this dish frequently for a couple of years until this spring when I ran across the bread crumb technique. It was just as simple to dredge the chops as to rub them, and the grilling time turned out to be the same. As for flavor, at my table savory won out over spicy, with the added bonus of bits of charred bread.
I may not have made it up, but I’m sharing it with you, so that has to count for something.
Grilled Pork Chops with Bread Crumbs
(adapted from Gourmet, I think)
4 bone-in center cut pork chops, ½-inch thick
3 to 4 tablespoons olive oil
salt and freshly ground black pepper
¾ cup unseasoned bread crumbs, panko, or crushed croutons
Lay the chops on a cooling rack set over a baking sheet. Liberally sprinkle with half the olive oil and use your fingers or a pastry brush to spread the oil around. Sprinkle on some salt and pepper. Flip the chops and repeat. Dredge both sides of each chop in the bread crumbs, shaking off any excess. Return the chops to the rack and keep, loosely covered, at room temperature for about 30 minutes while you prepare your fire to medium-high. Grill the chops, uncovered, for about 2 minutes. Flip them and cover the grill, leaving all vents wide open. But don’t go too far away. You’ll want to cook them only about 4 minutes longer, or until the juices gleaming through the top are clear. At that point, the chops will have the slightest bit of pink in the center, and they will be perfect. Let them rest 10 minutes before serving.
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