All the advice and recipes may help you out, but as noted, your real problem is that you’re cooking them way too long. I take mine off the heat at 140 or so. You won’t get trichinosis. Also, when you’re cooking meat you’ve had trouble with in the past, don’t freeze it.
–Cliffy
Trichinosis dies off at 137 IIRC so, yeah, you’ll be fine. I cook mine a little higher, to about 150 (even though I’ve been known to eat raw ground pork, I like my chops done on the slightly higher side of medium, but not quite medium well.) That said, I third or fourth or whatever the brining suggestion. That’s what I do when I’m dealing with people who freak out at the merest speck of pink inside pork. Brining changes the texture a bit, but it does make the chop softer and juicier, and the added salt (and flavorings, if using) work well if you’re dealing with cheap, bland, supermarket pork.
So I would definitely go with brining, at the very least.
I make pork chips by just frying them in a pan on high for a minute to crisp the exterior, then turn down the heat, add some liquid (water, wine, whatever) until the chops are half-covered, then and braise on low for maybe five minutes. The important thing is not to over cook - watch for the juices to run clear (or clear-ish for medium), then remove from the heat and from the pan immediately. It does take some practice.
Firstly, the best pork chops are thin and bone-in, you dredge them in seasoned flour and fry very quicky at a terrifcally high heat. Thick boneless chops should be treated more like little steaks - similar technique is fine, grilling is good, as well. Don’t poke them with a thermometer; you can tell by feel.
I want to pipe bomb the Pork Council for what they’ve done to pork…
squeegee’s technique is good, too, because it helps with the dry thing…
It’s like a preserve, but it’s sweetened entirely with fruit and fruit juice. It has no added sugar, and no artificial sweeteners. If it’s not available near you, apricot preserves would work, too.
Oh, and the recipe works equally well with boneless, skinless chicken thighs. Mmmmm.
How are you cooking them? Fried, broiled, baked? Do you cook them covered, uncovered, with a sauce underneath, or not, with acid, or not?
oops. double post
I didn’t think about them being frozen. I bought a big package of them and broke it down into smaller portions to freeze. Next time I will try them the day I buy them and see if I get different results.
In the past I was mostly trying to panfry them. I have also just baked them in the oven. The oven was worse.
Going to try that.
I’ve never done this with pork chops, but I’ll try this too.
I’ve tried baking them with a dry rub. Really bad. I’ve panfried them with a mushroom sauce, and that was better, but they were still pretty dry.
Better! I brined them for about two hours, patted them dry and seared them on each side in a medium-hot pan, then moved them to 400 degree oven for about twelve minutes. They were very much improved, but I am still going to work on them.
Thanks for all of the suggestions!