I like thick chops for braising. Long and low cooking will make them tender and aromatic ingredients in the sauce gives them flavor. My usual preparation is to brown the chops well then braise them with lots of mirepoix and a little wine. At the end, a small can of tomato sauce is added to the pan to make a pasta sauce. The pasta sauce benefits from the pork which has been cooked in it and the pork benefits from the aromatic vegetables in which it was cooked. It's a win-win. You can play around with the sauce by adding calamata olives or other ingredients. Jim This post was edited by jimster on Thu, Jan 31, 13 at 19:58

If you insist on cooking pork chops until 160F internal, it is hard to avoid a dry, tough, bland meat. Brining can help, a little. Tricks like cutting a cavity inside the chop and filling it with fat (butter, etc) also helps. Breading the outside won't make the inside less dry, although the flavor of the breading may distract you. My approach is basically: - Brine if I have time - Don't over trim the chop, leave as much fat on as you can. Leave the bone in. - Pat the chop dry with paper towels. Dust it lightly with flour or corn starch if you want it even drier. - Rub the exterior with whatever you find tasty, at minimum salt and pepper - Oil the exterior of the chop - Get your pan as hot as you can. Don't use a non-stick pan or a thin steel or aluminum pan. Use a thick, heavy pan, preferably cast iron. Put it on high flame and walk away for at least 5 minutes. The pan should be smoking, almost scary hot. - Turn the hood fan to high or open the windows. - Drop a big pat of butter on the pan, it should melt and start to smoke and burn almost instantly if the pan is hot enough. - Place the oiled chop on the pool of browning butter. There should be sizzling and spitting. Don't flip, move, pat, or touch the chop. Yes, the chop may be stuck to the pan, ignore that, the sticking will break when the bottom of the chop is crusted enough. - After 2 minutes, remove the chop. The bottom should be brown and starting to get crusty. (These times are a starting point. Depending on your stove, you'll learn if 3 or 1.5 minutes works better than 2.) - Let the pan heat back up for a couple of minutes. Repeat with another big pat of butter and the other side of the chop. - After 1 minute, start measuring the internal temp. At 135F, pull the chop off the pan, to a plate to rest for 5 minutes. The temperature should coast up to the USDA-recommended 145F, or close enough. I cook my chops to 140F or so. I like it still a bit pink, and juicy. The point is that the high heat gets the exterior browning fast, before the interior is overcooked. There are combination baking/pan-frying methods too, which seem like too much trouble. You can also use the broiler - pre-heat the broiler on higj with the upper rack as close to the flame as possible, after you place the chop in the smoking hot pan, drop a pat of butter on the upper side, and place the pan under the broiler. This cooks both sides at once and is a big faster. A cable probe thermometer with a remote display helps. I imagine dcarch now sous-vides his chops?

Okay here it comes...with a qualifier. The pork loin roast(actually two that had been bound together) was double freezer bagged in the downstairs freezer since last year's holiday time. I had forgotten all about it and when I unearthed it and there wasn't a bit of freezer burn so I thought I could still use it. Now maybe it did suffer, or maybe not, but the texture wasn't right and the meat was dry, even with the middle a slight pink. It took every bit of an hour and 40 minutes to get up to 140. I let it rest, but cripes it was nearly 8 pm! My parents ate it and I tried to, but DH just refused after his second bite and grabbed some salami and cheese! The compote was good, not garlicky, and the addition of some honey crisp apple slices was great! I'd make the compote again, but I'm sticking with pork tenderloin or Diana's brined chop recipe, they were both much better! One last thing, I don't have fresh herbs on hand so I used my Penzy's dried ones. That could have made a flavor difference, but for $1.89 a package that would have been close to $8 in fresh herbs for a few sprigs. Oh well, it's a good thing that my parents were the "company" tonight. The remainder of the pork is in the trash can and the kitchen is closed!

Fori, I made the cornbread recipe from the back of the Quaker box. Used half the cornbread for the stuffing and served the rest the following night with Chili. It's quite good! Easy Corn Bread 1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour 3/4 cup Quaker or Aunt Jemima corn meal 1/4 cup sugar 2 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt (optional) 1 cup skim milk 1/4 cup vegetable oil 2 egg whites or 1 egg, beaten 1. Heat oven to 400° F. Grease 8 or 9-inch pan. 2. Combine dry ingredients. Stir in milk, oil and egg, mixing just until dry ingredients are moistened. 3. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until light golden brown and wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Serve warm. Servings: Aproximately 9 servings I think the stuffing would be great in a chicken or turkey, too. I usually don't care for fruit with meat, but this is one exception! Linda