Coffee Brined Pork Loin Chops

What?  Coffee in a brine.  Absolutely.  It brings smokey bitter notes to a naturally sweet meat like pork.  Grill it over sweet mesquite and omg...its terrific.

The coffee you use will make a difference. I prefer bold roasts for the rounded bitterness.  A medium roast will work in a pinch.  Skip right over the light "breakfast blend" roasts as they are too light to work well with this brine.

Costco sells pork loins, whole strips about 2-3 feet long on the cheap.  This lack of butchering on their part is a bonus for me in that I can cut it into thick loin chops or modest sides loin roasts.  All at a fraction of the cost the local groc charges.  Wrap it up in good freezer paper and its good to go for a couple of months before use.

I use the Thai red chili in this.  I like the heat and flavor.  If you can find it your groc is challenged and you need to tell them to get on the ball and stock them.  If that doesn't work you can substitute a red jalapeno pepper.

Coffee Brined Pork Loin Chops

• 4 large 1 1/2" thick pork loin chops
• 1 1/2 c water
• 1 heaping T coffee
• 1" piece of ginger sliced
• 4-5 cloves garlic - smashed
• 2 Thai red chili - sliced horizontally
• 1 T dried thyme 
• 1 t kosher salt

In sauce pot add ginger and coffee grounds.  Bring to a boil.  Then remove from heat and cover, let steep for 5-10 minutes.  Strain the mixture tossing coffee grounds but reserving the ginger slices.  Add smashed garlic, sliced Thai chili , salt and thyme.  Put the pork loin chops into a large food storage bag, pour in coffee mixture with the veggies and herbs.  Seal bag, place in a large bowl to catch potential leaks, and refrigerate for 6-8 hours.

1 hour prior to grilling pull the pork loin chops from the fridge and allow it to sit on counter to come to room temperature.  This ensures even cooking.  Remove chops from bag, pat dry with towel and grill 5-6 minutes per side until cooked through. (FDA recommends 165f, I' go with 150 so its still juicy but no longer pink).

Winner Winner Best Fried Chicken Dinner EVER...

OK...no secret am a fan of FoodNetwork and Ina Garten aka Barefoot Contessa.  In recent weeks to replace the Paula and Friends there's Barefoot and Friends.  A great combo, not that Barefoot needed help in the ratings department, bringing in celebrity chefs that compliment her simple food done well philosophy can't hurt.

Yesterday was one of my favorite chefs, Tyler Florence.  Among the stuff they made...fried chicken, something that I can get into when its done well, and this recipe is amazing.  Who knew simple fried chicken could be so good.  The Tyler Florence Fried Chicken recipe HERE.

I took their tips and added a few of my own to make this recipe work.  Here they are so you too can easily duplicate the results I got.

First...use peanut oil, it has a higher smoking point and doesn't impart a bitter burnt oil taste as easily as the less oils with a lower smoking point.  It made a difference as the house didn't even smell of oil when I was done frying.  Because it can take a higher heat less is absorbed when cooking too.

An interesting thing Tyler did was to flavor the cooking oil with herbs and garlic.  Hmmmm I thought, this could be something big and it is.  Wow, I used a whole head of garlic since we are fans of the garlic here.  The process is so stupid easy I don't know why I never thought of it before.  Simply halve your garlic head, add the prescribed herbs and slowly heat the oil to temp.  Tip...watch the garlic as it does get bitter when burnt, so yank it and the herbs out when the garlic head is a rich golden brown...somewhere around 300-325F.

A step included in this recipe is brining, or marinating in a salt solution.  I've always skipped this step as the one time I had brined poultry it as so salty it was inedible...WTF it was nasty.  Flash forward 10 years and I give it a try using Tyler's recipe and it was pretty amazing.  Moist flavorful, even the breasts, and not salty.  I think my friend Harry overdid the salt when he brined which made it mealy and disgusting.  I'll use this formula and timing with future chicken recipes as it really made a positive difference in the chicken tonight.

The other think I've learned over the years is allow the chicken to rest after its battered for 10-15 minutes while the oil and herbs come up to temperature.  Doing this allow the batter to adhere well to the chicken and not flake off while cooking or on the plate while you try to eat it.  It made the world of difference with this chicken.  Am glad I did it.  It was a home run with everyone including my UBER picky daughter.