Nice and easy, like summer: Skillet Barbecue Pork Chops

Store-bought barbecue sauce and stovetop cooking make the summery taste of barbecue pork chops weeknight quick and easy. Recipe below.

SUMMER AND BARBECUED PORK CHOPS JUST GO TOGETHER. Unless, like us, you still haven’t gotten your grill out (patio redo delays), or you don’t/can’t grill where you live. These skillet barbecue pork chops give you delicious summery saucy flavor with the bonus of being truly weeknight quick. And the bonus bonus of leaving you with just a skillet to clean, not your grill.

There are many variations on skillet barbecue chops out there. Some have you make a dry rub and your own sauce. Others just have you brown the chops, then add store-bought barbecue sauce to the pan. We chose the middle ground, using store-bought sauce, but starting the chops with a simple half-hour saltwater brine. The brine seasons the chops deep into the meat and, more important, leaves them tender and juicy, not chewy and dry.

So, bottled barbecue sauce. You’ll find a dazzling array in most supermarkets. We recently spent a long time being dazzled as we studied ingredients lists on many bottles before landing on Stubb’s Original Legendary Bar-B-Q Sauce. We chose it mostly for the ingredients it has and partly for what it doesn’t have. Stubb’s original sauce contains tomato puree, distilled vinegar, sugar, molasses, salt, spices (including black pepper, paprika, chili pepper), cornstarch and brown sugar—you know, real ingredients. It also contains (less than half a percent) of thickeners and natural flavor (including hickory smoke). What it doesn’t contain is high fructose corn syrup, the first or second ingredient on many sauces we checked. Besides the pork chops, barbecue sauce is the main ingredient in this recipe. If you’ve got a favorite bottled (or homemade) sauce, use it. If not, read the labels carefully.

A bonus for us is that the person on the label was a real person, C. B. Stubblefield—his family called him Stubb. He served in the U.S. Army’s last all-black army infantry in the Korean War. According to Taste of Home, “after being injured twice as a gunner, Stubb was assigned as a mess sergeant, where he treated his fellow soldiers to good music and even better food.” Returning home to Lubbock, Texas, he opened Stubb’s Legendary Bar-B-Q, a restaurant that doubled as a blues venue. To get the whole story, read Caroline Stanko’s article in Taste of Home.

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Skillet Barbecue Pork Chops

Store-bought barbecue sauce and stovetop cooking make the summery taste of barbecue pork chops weeknight quick and easy.

Cuisine American

Servings 3 to 4

Ingredients

• 3 or 4 pork chops (see Kitchen Notes)
• 1/4 cup table salt (or more—see Kitchen Notes)
• 1 quart water (or more—see Kitchen Notes)
• freshly ground black pepper
• olive oil
• 1/2 cup barbecue sauce (see Kitchen Notes)
• 1/2 cup water

Instructions

• Arrange chops in a glass baking dish in a single layer (or place in a bowl if they won’t fit in a baking dish). Make the brine—mix 1/4 cup of salt into 1 quart of water. Pour the brine over the chops, making sure they’re completely submerged. If not, mix more brine, using the same salt-to-water ratios and pour it over the chops. Brine the chops on the counter for 30 minutes. (You can also pop it in the fridge to brine, but we like letting the chops come to room temperature before cooking.)
• Pat chops dry with paper towels and season them with pepper. Heat olive oil in a large, heavy skillet (we used a nonstick sauté pan, but some like cast iron skillets) over medium-high heat. Add the chops to the pan and cook undisturbed on one side until nicely browned and slightly charred in places, about 6 to 8 minutes. Turn the chops and brown them on the other side for 5 to 6 minutes. Transfer chops to a plate and reduce heat under the pan to medium-low.
• Mix 1/2 cup of barbecue sauce with 1/2 cup of water and add to the pan. Return chops to the pan along with any accumulated juices, turn once or twice to coat with sauce on both sides, then cover the pan and cook until chops are cooked through, 5 to 7 minutes. An instant read thermometer should read 145ºF when inserted into the thickest part of the chop.
• Plate chops and pass the sauce around for spooning over the chops.

Kitchen Notes

Choosing your chops. Boneless or bone-in chops both work. You want them at least 1 inch thick. The sauce will accommodate 3 to 4 chops.

Making the brine. You need enough brine to submerge the chops completely. If 1 quart of water and 1/4 cup of salt aren’t enough, make more brine using the same salt-to-water ratio. As long as the ratio’s the same, it won’t over-salt the chops.

Picking your sauce. Besides the pork chops, the barbecue sauce is the main ingredient. Choose well. Read ingredients, looking for actual food names, like tomato puree, distilled vinegar, sugar, molasses, salt, spices and such. Steer clear of things like high fructose corn syrup, often the first or second ingredient in too many bottled sauces.