How do you make tender pork chops?

I like grilling pork chops on my Weber 22", but unfortunately it's always hit or miss when it comes to tenderness & juiciness. They always have a nice flavor but lately my attempts at grilling those thick Costco pork chops have resulted in dry (and less tender) chops. They come out juicy sometimes but I can't get any consistency. I recall cooking very tender chops the last time I visited my parents, but these were about 1/2" thick w/bone in. So I'm wondering if the primary issue is the thickness of the pork chop. Too thick means on the grill longer with higher chance of drying out.

Last night I followed Kent Rollin's approach to tender pork chops, which was to marinade in lime juice for 4 hours, along with a little bit of Adolph's meat tenderizer. Then place in foil with butter and grill over direct heat 3min on each side. Unfortunately they still came out on the dry side. In Kent Rollin's defense, his pork chops looked to be between 1/2" to 1" thick so he didn't have to keep on the grill as long.

If the simple solution is to grill thinner chops then I'll start cutting the Costco chops in half, but I thought I'd ask for opinions to see if there's something else I can try. The attached pic was not from yesterdays cook, but was added so you can see thickness.

LYU370 said:

Don't over cook them!!! Sorry mom, your pork chops sucked, no need to kill something that's already dead. 135-137 tops, carryover will take them over the safe 140 threshold.

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I watched a How to BBQ Right youtube video by Malcom Reed and he also suggested removing a thick chop from the grill when internal temp hits 135 degrees. But I was a little skittish about doing that, but I didn't think about the carryover so maybe it's the way to go. Thanks!

IamMadMan said:

A simple brine can benefit pork, making it more tender and even adding flavors.


Keep in mind that a brine is different from a marinade.



Basic Wet Brine

4 Cups Water
1/4 Cup Kosher Salt
1/4 Cup Brown Sugar
2 Cups of Ice Cubes

Heat the water bring to a low simmer add salt and sugar once dissolved remove from heat and once it has cooled add the ice.

Suggested Brine Times for Thick Cut Pork Chops 2- 4 hours

Soy Sauce, Worcestershire Sauce, Granulated Garlic, Granulated Onion, any of these can all be added to the warm water before cooling for adding flavor into the brine. Never exceed Internal Temp of 145° or they become dry and tough.


Another way for tender chops is to briefly smoke / grill them and put then in Sous-Vide for a couple hours.

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I'll give this brine a try. Btw, my neighbor said he only cooks pork chops using his Sous-Vide. Honestly, when he mentioned that to me, I had no idea what a Sous-Vide was. I had to look it up to get a picture of what he was referring to.