The other night we were feeling in the mood for a steak house dinner – something we don’t have very often – but when I visited the butcher shop I just didn’t see a steak that fit my bill of fare.  Everything was either too big or way too expensive.  But, the thick, center-cut pork chops looked great and would work just as well on the stove top grill.   And if I honored them well, they would be just as satisfying as a juicy steak.
What exactly does it mean to honor a pork chop?  Well, if you just pop pork chops on the grill they will usually be dry and stringy – unless you’re cooking heritage pork which is generally well-marbled and extremely flavorful – and just not very good.  But, if you brine them (check out my roast chicken for brining hints) you can usually reverse this.  So, I when I got home I immediately placed the chops in a brine for about an hour.  Once nicely brined, I patted them dry and seasoned them well with salt and pepper.  Placed them in a very hot stove top grill pan (mine is so well-worn that I’m thinking I have to get a new one – if you don’t own one, get one, it will become your most-used pan) and seared one side for about 3 minutes and then turned the chops to mark and sear the other for about the same amount of time.  Then, on somewhat lower heat and I continued to grill, turning a couple of times, for about another 12 minutes or until the meat was just barely cooked through.  I took them off the stove and let them rest for about 5 minutes.  I often serve pork chops with a fresh, lively chimmchurri (you’ll find a recipe in my post of September 15, 2010) or my mom’s pepper relish (you’ll find it in posts also but it can’t be made quite as quickly as the chimmchurri).  On this night we had a great pan of hash browns and some sautéed chard.  Not exactly steak house, but still mighty tasty.
About brining pork:  You can use a simple brine as I do for chicken OR you can make up a mix of beer, or cider, or cider vinegar and brown sugar with some chile flakes, citrus zest, and any herbs that suit you.  The latter brine infuses the pork with additional flavor which isn’t necessarily a bad thing since today’s pork is so lean and mild in flavor.