Grilled Chops And New Taters

Now that the garden is bearing, we’re trying to eat all we can from it.  For this meal we decided on grilled pork chops to go with new potatoes and salad for supper, but I didn’t get the chops out of the freezer until afternoon and by the time they thawed it was 4pm. 

I decided to go ahead and make up a simple brine and give them as much time in it as I could – brine was:

1qt water – half heated and half ice

1/4 cup light brown sugar  
!/4 cup kosher salt
1 Tbsp my pork rub (Billy Bones Competition and XXX Cherry)

Heat half the liquid and stir in the other ingredients until the salt and sugar are dissolved.  Pour into a measuring cup (leaves the pan heat behind) and add ice to make a quart.  Pour into a gallon plastic bag (leaves the heat in the glass behind), add chops, remove air and seal - I ended up brining for 3 hours, turning half way thru.

After starting the grill (gasser tonight), I removed them from the brine, patted them dry, and sprinkled on some more of the pork rub.

I cooked them over indirect heat to an internal temperature of 120, then moved them over high direct heat to develop a crust.  When they got to 130*, I glazed each side with Tennessee River Blackberry BBQ Sauce and pulled at 140* - knowing they would go up to 145* while resting.

For the potatoes, I scrubbed and boiled them in salted water until they were tender and the skins were busting open a little. 

In the meantime, I’d cooked some bacon about half way.

When the potatoes were done I smashed them with my hand and wrapped with two slices of bacon secured with toothpicks.  I brushed on some butter, added S&P, and put this side down, giving the same treatment to the top side.

I grilled to a golden brown and after flipping, I added a little more butter and some chopped fresh parsley and chives.

Here's my plate which included a nice salad from the last of our spinach.

From a cooking standpoint, the chops were excellent – moist and tender - but the flavor was just pretty good so I won’t use that combo again – I’m always looking for blow-me-away.  This is the second time to do potatoes this way and with the addition of the herbage, they were even better than the first time - and this post was mostly about them anyway.

While I was at it, I cooked extra potatoes so I could have this the next morning.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago:  Leftover Pork Tenderloin Version 2

Larry