We grilled pork chops this past weekend and I wondered how many of you actually cut your own chops. We do, and by we, I mean Gene. 😄 You see, Gene used to be a butcher back in the day. It’s actually how we met, we worked at the same grocery store. He was the sexy butcher and I was the check out girl with a heart of gold. 😝 Actually it wasn’t quite like that, but I digress.
So, back to pork chops. Gene and I took a trip to the grocery store so he could show me what he looks for when he buys a boneless pork loin to make chops out of. When looking for the perfect boneless pork loin, look for the lightest color of meat. These should be sealed in cryovac to keep them air tight. The lighter the pork, the younger the animal and the meat will be more tender.
Slicing Pork Loin You’ll want to chill this loin down before slicing it. It will firm the meat up and make it easier to slice. When slicing, go with the thicker slices to keep moisture in. Turn the fat side up and slice at 3/4 of a inch.
Slice as many as you need and keep the remainder uncut until you are ready to use it. For this meal, we cut 6 chops and wrapped the rest up and froze it to use a different time. Which means that for a 6 lb. pork loin which we paid $1.99 lb or $12.00, we fed our family of 6 and we have another meal for later. (When purchasing boneless pork chops pre-cut in the store, you’ll easily pay $3.50 to $3.99 per pound. Cutting your own is a significant savings.)
Once the chops are cut, we sprinkled lemon pepper seasoning on them and fired up the grill. Once your grill is hot, put the chops on and set your timer for 6 minutes. Turn them over when your time is up and grill for another 6 minutes. This will vary depending on how hot your grill is. Since this is pork, you’ll want to make sure they are cooked all the way through. When you cut into them, the meat should be white all the way to the middle.
We added corn on the cob and garlic bread to our meal. It’s so very good.
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