I’ll be honest, I had never brined any cut of meat before. But, after having a delicious turkey on Thanksgiving that had been brined, I wanted to give it a try. I am NOTORIOUSLY awful at cooking pork chops. Too dry, too bland, too ick. Armed with my trusty new meat thermometer, though, I wanted to give chops another try.

I searched the internet for a brining recipe, hoping to add some flavor to pork. (Did you know it’s the other white meat? lol). I took a combination of different recipes, based on what I had in my pantry.

For 4 thin (about 1/2″ thick) chops I used:

1T dry mustard (NOT regular mustard! The powder found in the spice aisle.)

3/4 cup Kosher (NOT table) salt

Couple shakes out of the pepper canister

3/4 cup sugar

2 cups hot apple cider vinegar

1 tray of ice cubes

Mix the dry ingredients together in a nonreactive (glass or plastic) bowl.

Add in the HOT ACV.

Stir and stir and stir until the salt and sugar are dissolved.

Let sit for 20 minutes.

Add in the ice and stir to melt.

Now here is where I ran into a problem. The brine needs to completely cover the meat. So, the bowl I used wasn’t big enough for that. Nor was the first casserole dish I used. I finally used a 9×13 pan and had to add water to the brine so that chops were submerged.

Cover the dish and put in the fridge for up to 2 hours. Rinse the meat under cool water then cook until done. (A meat thermometer is very handy when it comes to cooking pork to make sure it is completely done.) I put the cooked chops on a plate and covered with foil for about 10 minutes to let the meat rest. The chops were juicy and nicely cooked and even reheated well the next day.