I'm surprised your method isn't working. Sounds fine to me. It's a braising process. Just brown the chops and cook long and low with a little liquid, not too much. I like the chops to be thick, but I don't know how crucial that is to making them tender.

Jim

You are over cooking them.
In recent years pork breeders are selecting for leaner and leaner meats....remember the ads "pork the other white meat"? Well pork producers are trying to compete with chicken and having a boneless pork loin compete with a boneless chicken breast for fat content...
And with lack of fat comes intolerance for over cooking.
Cook that pork much less and the chops will be tender.
Think about cooking pork like a steak...medium well....and it will be tender.
the old guide lines about cooking pork to death to avoid trichnosis is no longer a concern, it has been eliminated from American hogs. Over cooking to the point of shoe leather toughness is the current concern of pork producers. If people don't like their chop[s, they won't be buying.
Linda C

Simmering them for an hour?

I agree with Linda.

Today's pork doesn't have the kind of connective tissue that the old piggies had, or the fat.

And, if you're using tenderloin chops, they have virtually no connective tissue at all.

No connective tissue, no melt in your mouth goodness.

I cook my chops VERY hot, VERY fast. Usually in a cast iron pan, and no more than 4 minutes on a side, depending on the thickness.

Then they rest for 10 minutes wrapped in foil.

A pork "steak" is generally much less expensive than loin and other chops, but has more fat. It used to be that they were the "tough" cuts, and needed long cooking, but in recent years because of the change in the market that Linda wrote of, the "tender" cuts have become so lean as to be quite dry and tough if cooked past medium...and frankly, even perfectly cooked, they are a bit bland as far as I'm concerned. Cooking pork well done isn't really necessary anymore, from a health standpoint, but for those of us who grew up eating it that way, it can be difficult to get used to pink pork. At the same time, it seems to me that the cheaper cuts, like the pork steak have become less tough. Perhaps they aren't letting the poor pigs move about as much?

In any case, I bought a big stack of pork steaks when there was a sale a while ago, at seventy some-odd cents a pound and we have been really enjoying them. They taste more like the pork chops I remember from childhood. And unless something is so tough I can't chew it, I'd rather have flavor over tenderness in any case.

Cbad, if you buy your pork at a supermarket it probably has a salt solution added and doesn't require a long cooking time... In days past a 2.5 oz lean pork chop only had 56 mg of sodium now it's much closer to 300 mg.

Rita O'Tay

What racheleleen said. I buy pork steaks now. The fat makes all the difference.

I agree, the pork steaks have more fat marbling which yields a moister and more tender piece of pork.

As LindaC and others noted, today's pork chops are from much leaner pigs, and so overcooking will yield you a tasteless, dry and tough piece of shoe leather that doesn't resemble a pork chop at all in either flavor or consistency.

I don't like rare pork, so mine gets cooked all the way through but I'd far rather have a pork steak or pork roast than a chop. Heck, I don't even have Carl cut chops when I have a pig butchered because neither of the girls ever liked them either.

And, as Rita noted, they are mostly full of "flavor enhancers" which are really only salt and water, so if you're watching your salt intake it's gonna jack that up there. I do brine loins in apple cider based brine and it adds a nice flavor but it also adds even more salt.

Cook them for a much shorter time and they'll be better but they won't ever taste like a pork chop "used to". It's a different variety of animal altogether nowadays, nearly all commercial pork is from Yorkshire or Hampshire hogs, long and lean animals with good feed conversion rates.

You can still get "heritage breeds" from local farmers, and you'll get the flavor and texture you used to get, but the small scale raising of hogs is expensive and labor intensive so it'll cost you more and the meat will be fattier than most people have come to expect.

Annie

Thanks so much for all the information. I will try the various suggestions. You people are the best. Thanks again for the help. Cbad.

Starting them in a cold pan, cooking gently, will yield a more tender, juicy piece of meat, but will not give you any of the caramelization that you get from the high heat...it's either tender/juicy or pretty!

Hot cast iron skillet, 3 or 4 minutes max first side, flip for 2 or 3 minutes and out to rest for a few minutes.
Nice caramelization, juicy inside, and flavorful.
Remember, the new cooked internal temp. is 140 or 145.
Cook it like in the old days and you have shoe leather.
One just needs to adapt to changing conditions and foods.
Selection of the fittest.
Jim in So Calif

We prefer to broil them. Sprinkle them with thyme, rosemary, lemon pepper, and a little garlic powder and broil jut until done, and they are always tender.
Sherry