Apple Smoked Pork Chops

Name: Apple Cider Brine Recipe
Prep time: 2 min
Total time: 12 h 2 min
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 4 cups apple cider; ⅓ cup coarse salt; 2 bay leaves; 8 whole cloves

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If you’re looking for the most unforgettable pork chops, this smoked pork chop recipe will blow your mind! Sponsored by the National Pork Board.

This is by far, the best of all the smoked pork chop recipes we’ve tried.

We absolutely love pork because it’s a delicious protein that can adapt to any flavor profile or recipe need.

Pork is also a personal fall favorite for us because it pairs so perfectly with the likes of pumpkin, cinnamon, maple, and in this recipe’s case, crisp fall apples.

You can use this recipe whether you are making smoked bone-in pork chops or smoked boneless pork chops.

If you’re a pork lover you’ll also drool over this Stuffed Porchetta Recipe, French Onion Smothered Pork Chops, Smoked Pork Loin, our Pork Belly Burnt Ends, and our Instant Pot Pulled Pork Recipe.

How to Smoke Pork Chops

During the fall, when the weather starts cooling down in Texas, we fire up our grill and smoker and take our pork cooking outside.

Smoking or grilling when the weather is right is such a fun activity to do with friends and family because it’s social, and the outdoor smells are incredible.

The key steps to smoking pork chops is to start with a brine, then season your meat, and smoke it at a low temperature.

Smoked Pork Chops Brine

Looking for the juiciest pork chops? Don’t forget your brine!

By letting your meat brine overnight, you will help to tenderize the meat. This is especially important for lean meats like pork.

For this recipe, we made apple brined pork chops using apple cider. Talk about a taste of Autumn!

It is a perfect mix of sweet to add to the salty brine. We used this on pork chops, but it would also be a terrific smoked pork loin brine.

Apple Cider Brine Recipe

Ingredients:

4 cups apple cider
⅓ cup coarse salt
2 bay leaves
8 whole cloves

Directions:

Mix all apple cider brine ingredients together.
Add pork chops to the brine.
Let the brine sit overnight in the refrigerator.
Prior to making your apple cider brined pork chops, remove them from the brine, rinse, and add your favorite rub. (Our sweet and savory pork rib rub recipe is great on pork chops too!)

Apple Cider Brine Recipe

Prep Time: 2 minutes

Additional Time: 12 hours

Total Time: 12 hours 2 minutes

Want the juiciest smoked pork chops? Start with this apple cider brine recipe.

Ingredients

4 cups apple cider
⅓ cup coarse salt
2 bay leaves
8 whole cloves

Instructions

Mix all apple cider brine ingredients together.
Add pork chops to the brine.
Let the brine sit overnight in the refrigerator.
Prior to making your apple cider brined pork chops, remove them from the brine, rinse, and add your favorite rub. (Our sweet and savory pork rib rub recipe is great on pork chops too!)

What Temp to Smoke Pork Chops

For our pork chops, we smoked them at a lower temperature: 250 degrees F.

It doesn’t take long to smoke pork chops compared to larger cuts of meat.

The lower temperature helps to allow more time for the smoke to kiss the meat, adding in more flavor.

How Long to Smoke Pork Chops

The length of time you smoke your pork chops will vary because you always want to cook pork by internal temperature, not time.

Your pork should reach an internal temperature of 145 degrees F with a 3 minute rest, so it’s smart to use a wireless meat thermometer throughout the entire smoke session.

The exact time to smoke pork chops will also vary based on how thick your chops are.

We had some nice, thick bone-in pork chops. They reached an internal temperature of 145 degrees right around 50 minutes.

It’s actually a misconception that pork must be cooked until juices run clear and the meat is fully white. If you do that it will be overcooked, and your pork will most likely be dry after its rest period.

For more information on pork cooking temperature head over to https://www.pork.org/pork-cooking-temperature/.

Glaze for Smoked Pork Chops

Our favorite part of this smoked pork chop recipe was the glaze!

We added about a cup of apple cider in a drip pan under the pork chop at the start of the smoke.

As the pork chops rendered, the juices from the meat combined with the apple cider.

Also, Gavin popped a pat of butter on the top of the pork chops after flipping the meat once they were on the smoker for 30 minutes.

The melted butter mixed with the sweet cider in the drip pan plus the power of the smoker provided a subtle kiss of smoke flavor.

Since this is a somewhat quick smoke session and at a low temperature, you don’t risk the cider burning in the drip tray, which would create a bitter flavor.

Once the pork was at its internal temperature, we removed the drip pan, stirred the glaze, and spooned it over our pork chops.

The glaze would also be amazing on a seasonal side such as Maple Mashed Sweet Potatoes.

Apple Smoked Pork Chop Recipe

Serves 2

Cook Time: ~60 minutes

Ingredients:

Apple cider brine (see recipe above)
2 pork chops
2 tbsp of your favorite pork rub (try our homemade pork rub from our smoked spare ribs recipe.)
1 additional cup of apple cider
2 tsp of butter
Fresh thyme, for garnish

Directions:

Brine your pork chops overnight in the refrigerator.
Rinse off the brine, then season the pork chops with your pork rub.
Set your smoker to 250 degrees.
Once the smoker is at a stable heat, add a drip pan with 1 cup of apple cider to the bottom level of your smoker and place your pork chops on the grates directly above the drip pan.
After 30 minutes of smoking, flip the pork chops and top each with a teaspoon of butter.
Continue to smoke the pork until your wireless thermometer reads a 145 degrees F internal temp.
Remove the pork chops from the smoker as well as the drip pan.
Stir the smoked pork chop glaze then spoon over the pork chops, garnish with fresh thyme.