Simple Pork Chop Brine Recipe

This post may contain affiliate links. See my privacy policy for details.

This quick and simple pork chop brine makes for a delicious coating on the outside of the pork chop with a moist and delicious inside. This is one of the easiest and tastiest ways to prepare pork chops for grilling!

For more great pork chop recipes, why not make this recipe for The Best Juicy Brown Sugar Baked Pork Chops? Or this recipe for Instant Pot Pork Chops instead? 

Simple Pork Chop Brine Recipe

Pork chops are a classic grill food for a reason; they are tender, succulent, and packed with pork flavor and that pairs perfectly with the smokiness of grilling.

The trouble, however, is to make sure that they are properly seasoned. Pork chops can tend to be pretty thick, and sometimes just salting the outside of them isn’t enough.

This recipe for a simple pork chop brine should result in some perfectly salted and delicious pork chops that are great for grilling up and serving to friends or family.                                                 

Simple Pork Chop Brine Recipe Ingredients

Make sure you look at the recipe card at the very bottom for the exact amounts so that you know exactly what to buy for this recipe.

• Pork chops, about 2 inches thick

Brine

• Boiling water

• Kosher salt

• Cooking molasses

• Brown sugar

• Cold water

• Apple cider vinegar

• Minced garlic

• Onion powder

• Garlic cloves

How To Make Simple Pork Chop Brine Recipe

Brine

• Combine the water, salt, molasses, and brown sugar in a large air-tight container until dissolved

• Add in the remaining ingredients and stir to combine

• Add in the pork chops, ensuring they are totally submerged into the brine

• Cover the container and place into the fridge for at least 4 hours, turning the pork chops a few times while marinating; you can also refrigerate overnight

Cooking The Pork Chops

• Heat your grill to medium-high heat and grill for 5 minutes, on each side, or until an instant read thermometer shows the internal temperature of the pork chop is a safe cooking temperature, about 145 Fahrenheit

• To broil, place the cops on a broiling rack 6 inches from the heating element and cook for 5 minutes per side, or until an instant read, thermometer shows 145 Fahrenheit.

Do You Have To Use Kosher Salt For This Recipe?

This recipe calls for using kosher salt to make the marinade, which is a specific type of cooking salt that not everyone has on hand.

There is a good reason for this, though; kosher salt is just the perfect salt to measure with.

Table salt, with its super fine grain size, is really hard to measure exactly, and a teaspoon of table salt weighs a lot more than a regular teaspoon of kosher salt.

Kosher salt is also really good for being able to measure a small amount of it by hand, as the larger grain size is easier to pick up with our fingers.

It is really important to either get some kosher salt yourself if you don’t have any or convert the amount of salt in this recipe.

If you tried to use a different type of salt, you would end up with a vastly under or over-salted dish!

Try and research the exact conversions depending on the brand of salt you have; Morton’s Kosher salt, for example, converts the ¼ cup of salt in this recipe to about 1 tablespoon less than a  ¼ cup if you were using their table salt.

How Long Can You Leave This Pork To Marinate?

There is always the temptation to leave your pork in the marinade for way longer than you need to, simply because the act of taking your pork out of the marinade means the start of cooking and the beginning of work.

For a lot of recipes, you can easily just leave your pork in its marinade for as long as you want, but for this one, you definitely don’t want to leave it too long. This is because of the fact that there is apple cider vinegar in the recipe.

While flavorful, and some acid in any dish is always tasty, if you leave your meat in an acidic marinade too long, the meat will start to denature and go mealy and slightly pinkish, basically part cooking it over time.

Make sure to stick to the recommended 4 hours or so, and don’t go above 8 hours as a maximum, to be able to get the best pork possible.  

Looking for more delicious Pork Chop recipes? Try these out:

• Parmesan Panko Pork Chops

• Stuffed Pork Chops

• Mushroom Soup Baked Pork Chops and Rice

Happy Cooking

Love,

Karlynn

PIN THIS RECIPE to your DINNER RECIPES Boards and Remember to FOLLOW ME ON PINTEREST!