Grapefruit & Garlic Brined Pork Chops

Admittedly, I sort of stole this concept from an episode of "The Best Thing I Ever Ate" but I figured I could explain how it worked out in real life...which was best described as good, but a lesson learned in the process.

So, for the brine: just 1 part olive oil, 1 part ruby red grapefruit juice (bottled works, though fresh squeezed is better) and about 2 minced cloves of garlic. You need enough to cover the entire piece of meat you are brining, so be sure to increase incrementally to accomplish this, and then let it sit in a covered container or ziploc bag for at least 8 hours in the fridge. When you are ready to cook, preheat the oven to bake at 375 and then place the chops on either a cookie sheet or a grilling pan - both of which you'll need to spray with a little Pam to prevent sticking. Next, brush some of the brine liquid over the tops and add a little freshly ground pepper. Now I was working with bone-in pork chops, about 1/2" thick, so the cooking time was 30 minutes, give or take how your oven runs.

The finished product was moist and garlicky, though not as fruity as I'd anticipated, which was ok, but if you are looking for more sweetness, feel free to add more juice to the original brine. The thing that I realized as I ate though was the potential the brine mix could have....if paired with a pork tenderloin, which is meatier than a chop and often has a bit less fat, plus then it could be topped with some fresh apple chutney. MMMMM. However, this is not what I made for dinner....this time.

So we ate the chops, which were good but lacking a little due to the cut, and served it with some simple cut wax & green beans and stuffing. So the take away from this is a good brine mix that can offer up some new flavor for pork.

- Melissa