14 Ingredients That Will Give You Supremely Tender Pork Chops

A good pork chop is succulent, savory, and oh-so tender. However, while a well-cooked pork chop is all this and more, this cut of meat is also notoriously easy to overcook. With the wrong decisions and a lack of detail, you could end up with a pork chop that's dry and flavorless — something that feels and tastes a little more like thick cardboard than anything you'd want to have for dinner.

Luckily, there are a few things you can do to achieve pork chop perfection, whether you're slow-cooking your pork chops, cooking them up quick for a weeknight dinner, or re-heating them for the second time. If you've already purchased your pork chops and it's too late for you to choose a bone-in versus bone-out chop, or a pork chop that's a certain size — two things that are important factors in maintaining moisture — there are a few staple pantry ingredients you'll want to incorporate into your cooking process. These are some ingredients that will give you supremely tender pork chops.

Milk and meat? It may not sound too appetizing at first, but it might just be your saving grace when it comes to cooking up delicious pork chops. While milk is not always a first choice when it comes to marinades, it actually is a superior choice for some cuts of meat, like pork chops. This is because milk proteins can help break apart meat's tough fibers, but a little more gently than an acid-based marinade. Additionally, the fat content in milk helps the meat retain moisture.

All you have to do to make a milk marinade for your pork chops is blend a mixture of milk and salt, and then dip your pork chops in this milk bath, let them rest in the fridge, and bring them out when it's time to cook. You can add extra seasonings to the milk bath, but it's not required. The milk and salt will do all the work to gently tenderize your pork chops without turning them to mush. When you're ready to cook, just pull the pork chops from the milk bath, pat them dry with a paper towel, and cook them as intended.

Mustard is an amazing condiment, so don't just relegate this refrigerator staple to your hot dogs. You can use it in your meat marinades as well, adding both flavor and a better texture to your pork chops.

Consider using mustard — any favorite variety will do, so long as it's not a dry, powered mustard — on your pork chops by subbing it as a baste while grilling, adding extra moisture and flavor. Plan on smoking your chops? Use mustard as an acidic and emulsifying binder before adding a dry rub or similar dry seasonings to your chops. You can also use mustard in place of eggs if you plan on dredging your pork chops in flour, milk, and eggs before frying, but you're short on eggs — or just want to try something new. You can also add mustard to a pork chop marinade. Along with an acidic vinegar, mustard can help tenderize your pork chops and add flavor, no matter how you're cooking them.

If you're cooking your pork chops via a method that you worry may make them too dry — such as via an air fryer — then you're going to need an acid-based marinade to ensure they come out nice and juicy on the other side. Acid-based marinades work by both softening and denaturing the pork, creating minuscule "pockets" where the marinade's flavors can live.

Possible acidic ingredients to add to your pork chop marinade include just about any vinegar, but if you're adding other pork-friendly ingredients like honey or mustards to the mix, consider a complimentary vinegar, like apple cider vinegar. These ingredients, plus some extra seasonings and spices, as well as a little vegetable oil, can make for a flavorful and effective marinade that only requires a few hours of soaking time, before you cook your pork chops. Your pork chops will come out nice and tenderized, whether you bake them, fry them, or go the air fryer route.

Salt has been used for centuries as a tenderizing ingredient and as a preservative. Salt-based brines, likewise, are often used to create tender, succulent final dishes — but you may be more familiar with using brines on your holiday turkey than you are your weeknight pork chops. However, don't overlook the power of salt and (or) a brine the next time you want to pull together a tasty pork-based dish.

In a Tasting Table interview with Chef Michael Lomonaco of Porter House in New York City, the chef admitted that he prefers, when time permits, to dry brine his pork overnight. But what exactly is a dry brine? Isn't a brine, by nature, wet — all salt water? Not really. A dry brine is basically a salt-based rub, sans all the liquid. All you have to do is mix your salt, sugar, and other seasonings and rub it all over your pork, pop it into the fridge, and let it rest overnight. You can further marinate your pork chops for greater or other flavors, but the salty dry brine itself can help the meat retain its overall moisture and then form a nice, brown crust when cooked.

Some may argue that using bourbon to tenderize a cut of meat is a waste of a delicious spirit, but if you want to enjoy the characteristic tasting notes of bourbon without the tipsy aftermath, consider using bourbon as a tenderizer for your pork chops.

According to a Tasting Table interview with Michelle Wallace, chef, pitmaster, and owner and founder of B'tween Sandwich Co. in Houston, bourbon not only adds flavor to your favorite cuts of meat, but it also acts as an all-natural tenderizer, due to the way it breaks down meats' enzymes. Better yet, don't use just bourbon as a tenderizing marinade. Combine it with some acids for even more tenderizing and a more nuanced flavor profile. In fact, Wallace told Tasting Table that pork chops were one of her two favorite cuts to marinate in bourbon, as the spirit can turn a typical pork chop "tender and juicy." Not sure what to add to your bourbon-based marinade for that perfect mix of spirit and acid? Try mustard, along with some onions, garlic, thyme, and honey.

Dr Pepper has a huge fanbase thanks to its unique flavor profile — but do you ever use Dr Pepper as anything more than just a refreshing beverage? Yes, you can use it in a cake or in your baked beans, but you can also use it in your marinades, and it just so happens to pair perfectly with pork chops.

Dr Pepper contains a few ingredients that make it ideal for tenderizing notoriously tough cuts of meat, including several different acids. It also, though, offers a flavor profile that works well with pork chops. Pork chops pair well with fruits and sugary components like honey or molasses, and those are the types of flavor notes that Dr Pepper offers — the soda is fruity, molasses-heavy, and caramel-y. To make a Dr Pepper-based marinade for your pork chops, just combine the soda with other basic marinade ingredients, including an acid like a vinegar or soy sauce, and then perhaps some other pork-perfect accompaniments, like mustard.

Pork chops occasionally show up on breakfast menus as an alternative to your typical bacon, sausage, or steak, but could you pair pork chops with particular breakfast ingredients for a tenderer, more succulent chop, no matter the time of day? If you reach for your maple syrup, that could just be the case.

Now, don't think we're talking about your plastic bottle of maple syrup-flavored table sugar or high fructose corn syrup. You'll want the real deal for your pork chops. What you'll do is combine your real maple syrup with a classic brine, for a mix of salt, hot water, and maple syrup. The result will be a salty, but sweet, tenderizing mixture that will make your pork chops taste like a bacon-y pancake — and who could really ask for anything better than that? If you want to take this mixture to the next level, you can add in other ingredients that pair well with pork and that have already been discussed, such as a acidic vinegar, mustard, or bourbon.

When you think pork and Italian, you don't really think of marrying pork chops specifically with your favorite Italian dishes. For the average home cook, Italian dishes that incorporate pork typically only go so far as pancetta, prosciutto, or porchetta. However, don't underestimate the myriad ways you can incorporate this cut of pork into your favorite Italian meals. You might just need to give those chops a bit of an Italian twist. Luckily, pesto is one of the ingredients that can make your pork chops just a little more succulent and oh-so-tender.

For your next hearty Italian meal, consider making up a batch of pesto-marinated pork chops. If you're feeling fancy, go the extra mile and make your pesto from scratch; it's probably a lot easier than you think. Then, let your pork chops rest in your pesto for a mere half an hour. Cook them along with some asparagus and cherry tomatoes, and you have the perfect accompaniment to a dish of pasta.

Similarly, if you're looking for ways to expand your use of pork chops by incorporating international flavors, look south of the border. While pork chops might not be the go-to in Mexican cuisine, at least not when compared to the popularity of carnitas, they can still find a spot on your dinner table next to some rice and beans when you use salsa as a marinade, flavor-enhancer, and moisture-provider as you cook up a batch of pork chops.

Use salsa as a do-it-all marinade with no need for any other ingredients; just pour on a jar and let your pork chops soak for a few hours before cooking, whether you choose to grill, pan fry, or bake them. You can also pour on a jar of salsa before popping your pork chops into the slow cooker to simmer while you're at work all day. Want the flavor but ready to cook your chops right this second? Go ahead and sear your pork chops, but let them finish cooking in a small amount of salsa in a covered pan, to lock in both moisture and flavor.

Yes, while most ingredients recommended for keeping your pork chops succulent and moist are liquids in of themselves, sometimes the best ingredient for keeping things wet is something that's already dry — like a dry rub. Just like a plain salt or salt-based dry brine can help your pork chops retain moisture, so can a broader dry rub.

Combine salt with all your favorite spices or seasonings for a flavorful mixture and generously massage the mixture into your pork chops. Let the dry rub sit on the chops for a bit, and then pan-fry the chops. Add extra moisture and fat by, after searing, adding some butter to the pan — preferably compound butter that contains complimentary herbs and spices, for even more flavor. Compound butter is very easy to make, if you don't have some on hand. Just blend your softened butter well with your chosen ingredients, whether that's herbs, spices, dried fruit, sweeteners, sun-dried tomatoes, or garlic, and let it re-harden in the fridge. When you add your compound butter to the pan along with your pork chops, let it melt, spooning the butter onto the chops as they finish cooking. You'll end up with a dish that feels fancy but is oh-so-easy to prepare.

Apples work really well with pork chops. Acidic ingredients can help pork chops cook up tender and retain moisture. So why not get the best of both worlds by using apple cider the next time you cook up some chops?

While you might not think of apple cider as being as acidic as, say, apple cider vinegar, it does contain a level of acidity that can help tenderize your pork chops, while adding that apple flavor to the meat's tissues. Not sure where to start? Marinate your pork chops in an acidic mix that incorporates your favorite apple cider and then go further by making an apple cider-based sauce. This apple cider pork chops recipe only requires a handful of ingredients and, after you pan-fry your pork chops, you create an apple cider sauce using butter, shallots, garlic, apple cider, thyme, and heavy whipping cream. It comes together in less than 40 minutes and provides perfect fall flavors.

No apple cider or apple cider vinegar on hand? No worries. Apple juice works well as a marinade, too. While you might not think of apple juice as acidic, just as you might not think the same of apple cider or even milk, it turns out that apple juice does have the right pH levels to tenderize your favorite cuts of meat. And with pork and apple being a winner of a flavor combo every time, there's no reason not to use this ingredient to accomplish a tender, succulent pork dish the next time you're craving this flavor pairing.

This is a marinade that requires no mixing whatsoever. Just add your apple juice to a zip-top bag along with your pork chops and let them sit in the juice for a few hours. Then, cook your pork chops per normal. For a broader flavor profile, you can add a dry rub to your apple juice-marinated pork chops, before cooking. Think flavors that naturally go well with apples, such as rosemary or sage.

What could be better than pork? How about more pork?

Bacon, in all its fatty glory, makes an excellent tool for helping you keep your pork chops nice and moist. If you have a pack of bacon on hand, consider wrapping strips of bacon around your pork chops before cooking them. Not only will you lend your pork chops some extra, oh-so-succulent flavor, but you'll also be adding extra fat to a cut of meat that has a tendency to dry out. The key is to not wrap too much bacon around your pork chops, because, yes, there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. You want to only use so much bacon that you get flavor and moisture, but not so much that you prevent the pork chops from cooking all the way before your bacon burns. You only need about four to five strips of bacon per chop.

So you've successfully prepared your pork chops using one of the ingredients above to lock in moisture and prevent your chops from drying out during the cooking process. You had a few chops leftover, popped them into the fridge, and are now ready to eat them for leftovers. How do you reheat the chops without turning them into that dreaded piece of pork cardboard?

Reheating pork chops is certainly more difficult than even cooking pork chops to begin with, in terms of keeping things all nice and moist. Stop before you just throw that chop in the microwave. Instead, reheat your chops low and slow in the oven, in a bath of gravy or stock. This method also works well if you're cooking your chops over a long timeframe and are worried that they might overcook over that time, such as if you have them simmering in a slow cooker all day.