Don't toss out that pickle juice from your last jar of pickles. You can use the juice to make brining pork chops for the grill super easy and tasty.
Quick & Easy Pork Brining Hack
If you've been around my blog for even a few minutes, you'd know how much I love to brine pork. Since it's so lean compared to something like a beef steak, it can dry out really fast. And nobody wants dry pork. I think of brining pork like taking out insurance on it, if you overcook it a bit, it's still likely to stay juicy because you brined it first.
One day, I was short on time but planning to grill pork. Now, making a homemade brine doesn't take long, but that day, I didn't even have the extra minutes for it - being a blogger and a father of four can make life pretty busy. That's when I noticed I only had one pickle left in my container of Grillo's pickles. Instead of tossing out the leftover liquid, I decided to try it on the pork. It would do everything a brine does and it was already ready to go, once I finished that last pickle.
Here's my recipe to make brining pork even easier for you. I hope you'll give it a try.
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Ingredients
Let's take a look at what you will need to make these pork chops - spoiler the list is pretty short!
- Pork chops - You can use either boneless or bone-in pork chops. It's your choice. What I like to do to save money is buy a whole pork loin from Costco and then take the pork loin and cut it into pork chops. In that case they would be boneless chops. That is what I used when I made this recipe.
- Leftover pickle juice - The better the pickle brine the better the flavor the pickle juice will have. This is where you want to use the good stuff. Grillo's is our family's favorite. I picked some up the same time I got the pork at Costco. The leftover pickle juice has a lot of flavor. A cheap jar of pickles isn't going to add much in the way of flavor besides salt and vinegar. Pickles you find in the refrigerated section are usually better. If you are going to buy a jar of pickles, I recommend McClure's, they are made in my home state of Michigan. You will need 2 cups of pickle juice for about 8 pork chops.
- Grillo's Pickles Mild Pickle De Gallo (optional) - Grillo's makes what they call "pickle de gallo". It's finely chopped up pickles with onions, peppers. and garlic. It comes in mild, medium. and hot. It's really good on top of these pork chops. I purchased it at a Winco store in Oregon. I also hear you could find in Walmart stores.
Tips
Here are my best tips for making these pork chops extra special:
- Don't filter the pickle juice at all, you want all that flavor. Just make sure all the pickles are eaten out of it. I save my pickle container once the pickles are gone to use.
- Don't go past 2 hours of brining. The acid of the vinegar could begin to break down the pork chops and ruin their texture. I did notice that my pork chops did start turning white on the outside a bit at the 2 hour mark. It's enough time to flavor the pork chops and ensure that they don't dry out while grilling - one of the biggest issues when people grill pork chops.
- Always brine your pork chops in the fridge. Don't just leave them out on the counter.
- For grilling, I heat the grill up to around 400-450 degrees and arrange the pork in the center of the grill with plenty of space between so I can flip them over easily.
- Besides a good brine which you have with the pickle juice, the other important thing to make sure you have juicy pork chops on the grill is to use a good thermometer, so you can pull the pork the moment it's done.
- The type of thermometer I use is the Thermapen® ONE from ThermoWorks. I love it because it really does give you an accurate read out in 1 second. It's worth every penny as I use it nearly on a daily basis for temping meats, breads, baked goods, even chicken nuggets for my kids in the air fryer!
What issues have you had with grilling pork before? Leave a comment to let me know. Also make sure to check out my other grilled pork chop recipes such as Butterflied Grilled Pork Tenderloin and Juicy BBQ Grilled Pork Chops.
Pickle Juice Brined & Grilled Pork Chops
Ingredients
- 8 boneless pork chops about 1-inch thickness
- 2 cups pickle juice
- Grillo's Pickles Mild Pickle De Gallo optional
Instructions
To brine the pork chops
- Place pork chops into a gallon sized plastic bag.
- Add in 2 cups of leftover pickle juice. Make sure that all the pork chops are covered in the pickle juice.
- Seal the bag and place it into the fridge for 2 hours.
To grill the pork chops
- Preheat your grill to 400–450°F.
- Place the pork chops directly over the heat.
- Grill for 4 to 5 minutes on one side, or until you see a nice sear with defined grill marks. Flip the chops.
- Cook until the internal temperature reaches at least 145°F when checked with a thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the meat.
- Let the pork chops rest for 5 minutes before slicing for the juice to redistribute throughout the meat.
- Serve with the Grillo's Pickle de Galllo if using
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