🍎 Brown Sugar Brined Pork Chops with Spiced Apple

Our brown sugar brined pork chops with spiced apple just melt in your mouth. Belly-warming fall spices pair perfectly with the caramelized pork!

Course Dinner

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 13

Total Time 28

Servings pork chops

Calories 463.7kcal

Mix together 2 Tbsp of the brown sugar and Kosher salt in a medium bowl to create a brine. Rub both sides of each pork chop with the brine, and place pork chops on a plate together. Set aside on counter.
Heat a large skillet/pan on low-medium heat. Once pan is heated, add 1 Tbsp of the oil, onions, apples, and garlic. Cook for roughly 3 minutes (stirring occasionally) and then add seasonings. Stir together and cook for 3 minutes more. Remove contents from pan.
For the same pan, increase heat to medium-high. Add remaining 1 Tbsp olive oil and then pork chops. Cook the pork chops 3 minutes on each side. Once pork chops are fully cooked, add back in the apple/onion mix and cook for 1 more minute all together. Then transfer pork and apple/onion mix to a casserole dish, leaving any juices and food bits in the pan.
Decrease the pan's heat a little. Add salted butter and stir on and off for 3 minutes or so, until it browns and smells a little nutty, but not burnt. At this point stir in the apple cider vinegar and remaining 1/2 Tbsp brown sugar. Bring heat to low and let the brown butter glaze simmer until it's the thickness you like. Remove from heat and drizzle the glaze over the casserole dish. Plate each pork chop with a squirt of lemon juice.

- This recipe is technically for 4 adults, if each adult ate a whole pork chop and a lot of the fixings. But for our family (2 adults and 4 kids), this meal stretched out to 2-3 meals.

- If you increase onion or apple quantity, cook them a minute or two longer with the seasonings.

- Pork chops are fully cooked at a minimum of 145° F. This meat thermometer from Thermoworks takes a super accurate read.

- For the brown butter glaze - My pan was so hot that I only needed 1 minute (instead of 3 minutes) for the butter to get nutty-smelling. Really pay attention to your pan when making the glaze because it can burn so quickly.