Thick Cut Bone-In Pork Chop Recipe
Ever wonder how to prepare those big pork chops with the bone in without drying it out or using your oven?
So did we.
I think everybody struggles every now and again when preparing pork chops. The struggle is not drying that wonderful pork out. The struggle is not seeing the juice flow when you first cut into that piece of meat. The struggle is forcing yourself to eat that dried-out piece of jerky because you can’t bring yourself to toss it out.
So I will just quickly tell you the secrets.
Get a good crust on the meat with high heat. Baste the pork chop while cooking. Allow it to rest almost as long as it was cooked. That’s it.
You do these four things and you will be serving up the juiciest, more flavorful pork chops you have ever tasted.
Try our Crispy Pork Carnitas recipe!
Let’s break it down into some easy steps.
Cooking A Pan Fried Thick Cut Pork Chop
First things first. Have you ever pan-fried a pork chop and it curls up on you? When that happens it will cause the pork chops to cook unevenly. Here’s an easy tip to keep that from happening.
Lay them out on a cutting board and taking a sharp knife, just cut through the fat straight down every 2 inches or so. As the pork chop cooks, the cuts will expand and allow the chop to stay flat giving you an even cook.
Once you have that complete, season the pork chops liberally with salt and cracked black pepper. Go ahead and push that salt and pepper into the meat, making sure it will adhere when it’s time to go into the hot pan.
Don’t be afraid of your salt. In fact, if you’re not using it we recommend using Maldon salt for all your meats. It really has been a gamechanger when we prepare our meat dishes.
Set the pork chops to the side and begin to prepare the other ingredients.
Grab 4-5 cloves of garlic and give them a smash with the flat of a knife. We only want to crush them a little, allowing the garlic to infuse with the oil when we toss them in. Prepare the onion by giving them a rough chop. You want big pieces of onion, not diced.
Put a medium-sized skillet over medium-high heat and add the oil. Allow that oil to get nice and hot.
When ready, add the pork chops to the pan, laying away from you as to avoid any pesky hot oil popping up on you.
Note: For this recipe, we used bone-in pork chops that were close to 1 inch thick and weighed about 12 ounces each. Our pork chops were cooked for 8 minutes on each side. Depending on the size of the pork chops, you will cook them from 4 to 8 minutes on each side.
Before turning, check the cooked side for doneness. You should see a wonderfully caramelized cook. Then turn over to the other side.
When you have turned it , turn the heat down to medium and add the butter, garlic, onion, and sage leaves. Move the garlic, onion, and sage around in the butter and olive oil, pressing them here and there to release those wonderful oils.
Tip the pan and using a spoon, take the butter and olive oil and begin to baste the cooked top of the pork chop. This will infuse those flavors as well as keep it moist. Baste often as it cooks the additional time.
The butter and oil will begin to change color to a beautiful nut-brown color and the smells in your kitchen will be amazing!
Using some tongs, sear the edges of the pork chop by holding it vertically and cook each side of the pork chop until the fat has rendered sufficiently. A minute or so should be sufficient.
Check the other side for doneness. If you want to make sure the pork chops are done, use an instant-read thermometer. This is a particularly useful tool in the kitchen and if you don’t have one I highly recommend you get one.
When cooking is complete, remove the pan from heat and place the pork chops to rest on a cutting board. Allow them to rest the same time you cooked them.
This will give all that super-heated moisture in the meat the time to calm down and redistribute. This will assure that juicy tender pork chop versus the Sahara Desert pork chop.
After 5-10 minutes of resting, plate the pork chops and drizzle the butter and olive oil with the garlic, onions, and sage over the meat and serve.
We have cooked this many times now and each time it comes out amazing. You can play around with the herbs and aromatics as well. Instead of onion and sage, perhaps some thyme instead? Any aromatics with a brown butter sauce will make the bone-in pork chops sing!
We do love that sage and butter sauce, though!
Remember, the big secrets of juicy, moist pork chops are to get that sear, baste the chops, and allow to rest. Everything else is entirely up to you. Give it a try and let us know how it turned out!
Need a side to go with these amazing pork chops? Try our Roasted Green Beans and Mushroom dish. Or if you’re following the Keto path pair this up with an incredible Loaded Cauliflower Mash!
Or, if you want to take it up a level, check out our double bone-in smoked pork chops. These are crazy good, introducing some smoke to the cast of players. I don’t think I need to say anything about the wow factor … see for yourself! 🙂
Thick Cut Bone-In Pork Chop Recipe
Thick Cut Bone-In Pork Chop Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 Pork Chops 8oz – 12oz
- 5 Cloves Garlic
- 1/2 Onion Medium sized
- 5 Leaves Sage
- 4 tbsp Olive Oil
- 4 tbsp Butter
Instructions
Prep
- Lay them out on a cutting board and taking a sharp knife, cut through the fat straight down every 2 inches to prevent the chop from curling.
- Season chop liberally with salt and black pepper.
- Crack garlic with the flat side of a knife and remove the papery skin. Set aside.
- Chop roughly 1/2 onion into large chunks. Set aside.
Cook
- Put a medium-sized skillet over medium-high heat. Add olive oil.
- When oil just starts to smoke, add the pork chops, laying away from you to avoid hot oil spatter.
- Cook from 4 to 8 minutes on the first side, depending on the size. Flip to the other side.
- Turn heat to medium and add the onion, garlic, sage, and butter.
- Move ingredients around, mixing well with the butter and olive oil.
- Baste the pork chops often with the butter and olive oil.
- Cook the other side for 4-8 minutes, depending on the size.
- When almost done, using tongs, sear sides of the pork chops by holding the pork chop perpendicular. Do all sides of both and finish cooking this side.
- Remove from heat and allow to rest for the length of time it took to cook, 8 to 16 minutes.
- Drizzle the garlic, onions, sage and butter sauce over chops and serve.
Followed the recipe exact using brined chops.Simply awesome.
When resting can I cover them with foil to help hold in juices?
Of course! 🙂
Awesome!! My husband even said they were the best pork chops he’s ever had definitely will be the only way I cook thick chops again now the grocery store was out of stage so I use fresh thyme I will try to Sage the next time none the less they were delicious juicy in full flavor
Best, easiest recipe EVER! Followed instructions precisely and they came out beautifully golden on each side, perfectly seasoned and super juicy, not even the slightest bit dried out. Thank you for this gem:)
This is an amazing method— thank you! I was really scared to screw up my expensive heirloom chops from the farmers market, but now I want to marry them! Juicy and tender AF.
greetings struction looking forward to Preparing them🙂
My husband always complains when I buy thick pork chops. Not this time!! This goes into my regular rotation!
The chops were juicy and flavorful. I used fresh thyme.
Followed the recipe to a T and my thick chops turned out PERFECTLY. I substituted sage leaves with sage seasoning and it was still delicious. I wish my cast iron skillet was a little bigger, but the chops cooked all the way through and my husbands mouth was absolutely watering!!!
I’m about to try this recipe. Wish me luck! I’ve always struggled with chops for they’ve turned out dry… I’m gonna follow this recipe precisely… “fingers crossed”
I am not a good cook but this recipe was so simple and quite fast – I even had to skip the fancier garlic/herb part and these still came out delicious! A big hit with the family – thank you!
Delicious
These were restaurant worthy. cooked perfectly. Moist and flavorful. Cooked quickly. Make sure every thing else is prepared and ready to go.
Made this exactly written except I omitted sage because I didn’t have any. Easy, delicious and not at all dry!
Making these tomorrow! I don’t see what the internal temperature should be anywhere in the post or on the recipe card. Can anyone tell me, please? I do have a meat thermometer but, alas, it is not an instant read.
Hey Liesa, the rule is 145 degrees F. I will update the post to indicate that. Thanks!
This is the first recipe I have ever found that delivered juicy pork chops. They were the most juicy, delicious and tender pork chops I have ever made. My husband said that, and that’s a big deal!!
I did bring them to room temperature for about 30 minutes before starting, then prepped with salt and pepper, no brining. Substituted ground sage for the leaves. I removed the chops from the pan at 135°, on an instant read thermometer, which coincided perfectly with the times given in the recipe. I believe the resting time must be crucial as I’ve never done that before. This is an excellent recipe! Finally!! It will be the only way I will ever cook pork chops again! Thank you so much!
Coincidentally, when I saw the picture of the basting, I remembered my mom doing that. She made the best pork chops and mine were just as good today!
I meant to add, even tho I removed them at 135°, after resting, the temperature was a perfect 145°, give or take.
I always read the comments before making something new or trying a new technique..the comments on this thread were all so positive. I see why. This recipe is FIRE! I’ve been trying so hard to get this texture and moistness. My husband said it was delicious! It’s a hit and I’m excited to make this again and again!!
Hi, Janelle. We’re so happy to hear you loved the recipe! We too fought for years with pork chops and this recipe is the key!
Looks amazing—I’ve got some thin pork chops. Would these methods work for thinner pork chops as well? Just shorten the cooking time?
You are correct. Cook with a decent medium high heat to get that sear but yes, shorten the cooking time. If you have a thermopen, that would help tons so you can watch the temp.
The recipe is so simple and my pork chop came out so tender & delicious! I’ll make my chops this way going forward. Yummy!
Thanks, Elaine! We’re happy to hear you enjoy the recipe!