Mom's Perfect Pork Chops

By McCarleyRHLAC

Ingredients

• 4 pork chops
• 1 teaspoon bacon fat, grapeseed oil, or olive oil (or other high smoke point oil)
• Salt
• 1-2 teaspoons of dry rub*
• 1/4 cup cumin seeds
• 3 Tbsp whole black peppercorns
• 1 Tbsp coriander seeds
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt

Preparation

Step 1

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, but the way we have pork chops most regularly is with a simple dry rub and pan frying. My mother's been making chops this way for years. We use a dry rub of my father's, which requires some advance preparation (when you make some, you make more than you need than for just a few pork chops). If we are out of the dry rub, mom typically uses a bit of paprika, salt and pepper to season the chops.

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Combine cumin, peppercorns, and coriander in a heavy medium skillet. Stir over medium heat until fragrant and toasted, about 8 minutes. Cool slightly. Finely grind toasted spices in blender. Transfer to a small bowl. Mix in sugar and salt. Makes 1/2 cup.

Heat a large cast iron frying pan to medium high or high heat (hot enough to sear the meat). While the pan is heating, sprinkle a pinch of dry rub spices (about 1/8 teaspoon or a little more) on each of the pork chops. Using your fingers, rub the spices into the meat. Turn the chops over and repeat on the other side.

Once the pan is hot, add a teaspoon of oil or fat to the pan and coat the bottom of the pan. Right before you put the chops into the pan sprinkle each side with a little salt, or you can salt the chops in the pan. Put the chops in the pan. Make sure they are not crowding each other too much. There should be space between the chops in the pan or the meat will steam and not sear properly.

Tip: Arrange the chops in the pan with the thickest, boniest parts towards the center of the pan where they get the most heat.

Sear the chops, about 2 minutes on each side. Watch carefully, as soon as the chops are browned, flip them. As soon as you flip the chops, if you are using a cast iron pan, you can turn off the heat. Cast iron holds heat very well and there will be enough heat in the pan to finish cooking the meat.

If you have chops that are a lot thicker than 3/4" (many are sold that are 1 1/2"-thick), you can put a cover on the pan and let the chops finish cook for 5 minutes or so (if you are using a cast iron pan and have turned off the heat, there should be enough heat if you cover the pan to finish the cooking of a thicker chop, if not, lower the heat to low and cover.

which with practice I've learned as well. If you wait until you see juice oozing out of the top of the chop, it is definitely done. Mom typically just keeps the chops in the pan, the heat is turned off, so the pan is losing heat. The pan initially provides enough heat to sear the second side. As it initially cools it is still cooking, though not searing the meat. After a couple of minutes, it's just keeping the chops warm.

This recipe came just at the right time! I had gotten some pork chops to cook for dinner and your email had arrived. Decided to give it a try and it was fabulous! Perfect. Served it with a mixed green salad and cous cous. Used some of the leftover rub for fajitas I cooked the next night. Thank you!!

One of my favorite standby pork chop recipes is from Martha Stewart's Cooking Lite (don't love her--but love this book and her appetizer book). Season chops with salt/pepper/dried thyme. Press a fresh thyme stem in each side of chop. Brown in a little olive oil in a medium hot skillet. remove and add equal parts beef broth (Minor's is the best--keeps in the freezer, easy to reconstitute, made from roast beef) and red wine (or even sherry). For 3 chops--1/4 cup each broth and wine. Reduce down and serve over chops. Delicious! I serve with a side of lentils and a green (broccoli rabe or broccoli, etc.).

I made chops just last night. Though that particular batch will never make the blog, they were made simply as well. Just salt and pepper and a trip through the broiler for 5 minutes per side. They were perfect.

These sound fabulous, Elise! Glad you cooked bone-in chops; the bone adds great flavor to the meat. I'm a big fan of finishing chops with a lid on the pan--it helps keep the meat nice and moist. Sometimes, I even pour a splash of vermouth to the pan before covering. This further helps keep things nice and moist.

A very similar recipe is one of our favourites at home. My wife was born in a village south of Rome where coriander is liberally added to pork and especially sausages. Pork is cooked with sweet, home-made moscato wine which takes the plase of sugar in your recipe. Yum...

These chops realy remind me of how my mom used to make them, and they were so delicious- chops have just the right combination of fat and lean. Thanks for this "retro" recipe.

Your chops bring back some tasty memories! My mother always pan fried pork chops, but she would add a can of sauerkraut after browning the chops on one side, and I always liked how the kraut took on the flavors from the pan.

I just made this for my family and everyone loved it. I was afraid of having too much cumin within the mix. I added a little more sugar to my own taste and it came out wonderful. Thanks for the recipe! I will use this one for years to come.

This is exactly the way I always make pork chops as well. Except I use a creole rub. Everytime I plan on making them I look around for different recipes and inevitably always revert back to this way. You just can't beat a pan fried pork chop with applesauce. One of my favorite meals.

These were great! Mother knows best. I used 2 T of the dry rub with a combo of 1/2 sleeve of crushed Ritz crackers and 1/4 c. ground flax seeds. Fab-u-loso! Thank you for a great addition to our pork chop repertoire.

I love this recipe. I keep you Dad's rub on hand because I also use it on boneless chicken breast. I pound them just enough for even thickness. The sugar makes everything brown nicely. I do let the rub sit on the meat for at least 20 minutes, longer if I have time, so all the little flavors get to know each other.

Now is the time to use your Mom's tip with the Mason jar (I use a pint jar for spices)on the blender. I just love that tip.

This was great! It always amazes me how fast meat cooks on the stovetop. I mixed salt, pepper, sugar, and ground cumin and rubbed it into delicious pork chops from a local pig. Thank you!

I stumbled across the way I like chops cooked a few years ago. Start with regular non stick skillet. Just a little oil. You're going to burn the pan in this recipe but it is the only way for the flavor. Start med-high heat. Put your seasonings on chops put in pan after hot (it's going to pop) add a couple splashes of Worcestershire, after seasoning turn crispy and stick to chops(which will be fast) turn heat to low. This will work for thin chops. For thick chops you will need to make slits in the meat after the step of crisping the seasonings. And do not cover the pan (it will change taste). The recipe sounds strange but I have this down to an art. So far no one can make them the way I do. They are excellent!

I just made these pork chops for dinner tonight because I had a tub of bacon grease and figured why not! I added some dried thyme and rosemary to it, and it was wonderful! I thought your cooking time notes were very helpful since my pork chops were about an inch thick; they cooked perfectly! Thanks!

This method did not work for me. I used a cast iron skillet & the second side did not brown at all. Also, meat was only 120 degrees after turning off heat and leaving covered for five minutes. I turned the heat back up and browned the second side, but chops got quite dried out by then.

Made these tonight and they were great. I think it was the first time I didn't overcook pork chops. In response to the woman about not having a cast iron skillet - I used a nonstick skillet, followed the directions and it worked fine.

Remove chops from the skillet, and keep warm on a serving platter. Add shallots to the skillet, and cook for a few minutes, just until browned. Stir in vinegar, scraping any bits of lamb from the bottom of the skillet, then stir in the chicken broth. Continue to cook and stir over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes, until the sauce has reduced by half. If you don't, the sauce will be runny and not good. Strain the remaining liquid. Stir in the butter. Pour over the l chops, and serve.

This recipe is amazing! I followed it implicitly except for the dry rub part. I didn't have cumin seeds so I added 2 Tbsp of ground cumin. The grinding part didn't go so well so I sifted out the pieces that didn't become powdered. The rub is great and has a unique flavor. This is the first time I made perfect pork chops! Thanks for the recipe!

Thank you for this excellent recipe! I've struggled for years with pork chops trying to get them cooked through yet still juicy and flavorful. And not to hassle with a marinade, or koshering, or egg & breadcrumbs, or swamping them in mushroom soup (not least for health reasons, which is why we're eating pork rather than beef in the first place). I made your recipe tonight and it was the easiest AND tastiest of the dozens of methods I've tried. I let the dry rub sit on the meat for about 10 min before the skillet was ready. I don't have a big enough cast iron skillet, but a heavyweight stainless steel copper-clad one worked fine. We like our pork well done, so I left the burner on "low" for a few extra minutes with the lid askew, and ended up with a delicious brown juicy sauce (thanks to the sugar content) to spoon over the brown rice I had made to accompany the chops. From now on this is THE pork chop recipe in my house!

Hello, I have been using your site for years and it is definitely my go to place for recipes and general inspiration when it comes to cooking. My boyfriend and I have used this recipe several times, and we both agree that it's one of the best pork chop recipes we've ever tried. We have tried it both on the stove top in a cast iron pan, and on the BBQ. Generally I love anything and everything BBQ'ed, but in this case cooking them in the cast iron is definitely the better choice. They just come out sooo good!

I have never left a comment on this wonderful site but I had to say these chops were THE BEST I have ever made or eaten. My husband hails from a "pork family" while I had never eaten it until I met him. Needless to say, pork sort of intimidates me. Well, I felt as if the culinary golden goblet had landed on my counter-top when these were ready. My husband went on, and on, and on about how absolutely delicious these are. The best he'd EVER eaten in his life (score one for the d-i-l:). Our children said they looked, and tasted, like something you would see at a restaurant. When I made chops with another recipe a few weeks back he sadly said, "Oh, I thought you were going to make the Mom's Perfect Chops recipe." I would have normally been a little irked (I don't enjoy cooking) but took it as a great compliment. The best part, for me, is that he does not know how simple they are to make. Thank you Elise for sharing! Please thank your parents for me too! :)

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