How to Make Mustardy Apple Butter–Glazed Pork Chops

Test cook Keith Dresser and host Julia Collin Davison reveal the secrets to the perfect Mustardy Apple Butter-Glazed Pork Chops.

Get our recipe for Mustardy Apple Pork Chops: https://cooks.io/3BC2qg5
Buy our winning baking sheet: https://cooks.io/2OTFRd8
Buy our winning wire rack: https://cooks.io/3NtH2h6
Buy our winning tongs: https://cooks.io/3Bx35Rt

ABOUT US: Located in Boston’s Seaport District in the historic Innovation and Design Building, America’s Test Kitchen features 15,000 square feet of kitchen space including multiple photography and video studios. It is the home of Cook’s Illustrated magazine and Cook’s Country magazine and is the workday destination for more than 60 test cooks, editors, and cookware specialists. Our mission is to test recipes over and over again until we understand how and why they work and until we arrive at the best version.

If you like us, follow us:
http://americastestkitchen.com
http://facebook.com/americastestkitchen
Tweets by TestKitchen
http://instagram.com/testkitchen
http://pinterest.com/testkitchen

– Boneless pork chops cook through quickly making them ideal for a midweek dinner, but they don’t have a lot of flavor on their own. You really have to gussy them up with something. – Yeah, so chops are often glazed to dress ’em up, but if you’ve ever glazed a chop before,

You know that the glaze ends up on the plate, not on the meat. – Right. – So, today, we’re gonna cook chops where the glaze actually stays on the meat. – All right. – So, first the glaze. Now most glazes out there use a jam or a jelly. – [Julia] Mm-hmm.

– It gives a nice sheen. It gives sweetness and it makes a nice glaze. The only problem is, is that when you heat up a jam or a jelly, what’s it turn to? – Yeah, it turns to a runny mess. – A liquid. And so that’s never gonna stay on a chop.

So we searched the world over (giggling) to try to find something that would stick to the chop that would provide sweetness. And today we’re gonna use apple butter. It’s sweet, it’s tangy, but there’re also a lot of solids in there. So when we heat it up,

It’s not gonna run all over the place. So, we have three tablespoons of apple butter here. I’m gonna add two tablespoons of maple syrup, for sweetness, a little bit of glaze, one tablespoon of Dijon mustard, for some tanginess and a little bit of heat, one teaspoon of soy sauce, for seasoning

And a half teaspoon of cider vinegar, just for a little bit more acidity. I’m just gonna make sure that is well incorporated and everything is stirred together really well. Okay, that looks great. (spoon clicking) So that’s our glaze. – Nice and easy. – Easy peasy. Okay, now for the chops, we are gonna use boneless pork chops here. Six to eight ounces each,

And they’re about inch to three quarter inch thick, also very uniform, so they’re gonna cook through really evenly. Okay. So, now, I’m just gonna season these up with a little bit of Kosher salt. We have a teaspoon of Kosher salt here. Okay. That’s our seasoning. Now, for cooking.

High heat is the enemy of a good glaze. When you sear a chop, those proteins on the outside are gonna seize up and release moisture. – Ah. – Moisture comes out, not good for the glaze. It’s gonna wash the glaze away. – That makes sense.

– So, we are gonna go low and slow. Low and slow means less moisture coming outta the chops, meaning our glaze will stay in place. – And better for the meat ’cause you’ll have moister pork. – Yep. So I have a rack set in a foil lined rim baking sheet,

I’ve sprayed this with nonstick cooking spray, make sure the chops don’t stick to it. And I’m just gonna lay these out here, like this. – [Julia] Lined with foil. I’m guessing for easy cleanup. – Yeah, easy cleanup is always necessary for weeknight cooking. Also the wire rack will ensure that we get heat

All the way around the pork chops and cook evenly. Okay, before we cook these, I’m just gonna apply a base coat of glaze. Like painting. – Like painting. – Right, so what that base coat is gonna do, it’s gonna dry out in the oven and create a nice tacky surface. And then when we go back to apply the rest of the glaze, it will stick really well to the chops.

So I’m just gonna start with a teaspoon. – So not a lot. – [Keith] Not a lot. It doesn’t need to be that much. Teaspoon per chop. I just wanna brush the sides and the top. We’re not gonna worry about the bottom here. Okay, Julia, I think that is a good base coat.

– Nicely done. – Get this all touched up and ready to go. So we’re gonna bake this in a 275 degree oven. – Ooh, that is low. – Yeah, quite low. What we’re looking for is that we want the internal temp to be a 135 to 137, so just below serving temperature

And that’s gonna take 40 to 45 minutes. – [Julia] Okay. Mm, smelling good. – Yeah, it doesn’t look like much yet. Just wanna make sure that these are at the proper temperature. 136. So, what I’m gonna do now, is we’re gonna apply the rest of our glaze. – [Julia] Mm-hmm.

– So I’m gonna use a tablespoon. – [Julia] Well, I can see how the glaze is gonna stick nicely to that chop, because the chop is just tacky. – [Keith] Yeah, it’s the perfect base coat for this glaze. – [Julia] Nice. – You also know there’s no moisture coming off these chops.

– Right. – ‘Cause we’ve gone nice and slow and low. Okay? Again, just the tops and the sides. There’s gonna be moisture coming off the bottom, as the pork rests, so it doesn’t even make sense to glaze the bottom, but we do want to get a nice even coat here

– [Julia] Looking better. – It’s starting to look better. Okay, while I finish glazing these I’m gonna ask you to set the oven to broil. We’re gonna put these under the broiler, so the really high temperature is gonna kinda caramelize and char the bits

And dry that glaze out and make it nice and glazy. So, we’re done glazing. The broiler is hot. We’re gonna put these chops underneath the broiler, three to six minutes. And what we’re looking for is we’re gonna get little charred in spots and that’s gonna be nice and glossy. – [Julia] Okay.

– Let’s check on the progress. – Oh. – [Keith] Yeah, it’s been three minutes and you can see that we’re getting some charring around the edges and that glaze is nice and tacky. – [Julia] Those turn to corner right fast from looking a little homely to downright beautiful.

– The apple butter has stayed in place, kept everything on there. It hasn’t run off. – You can see ’em sizzling. – [Keith] They look great. – [Julia] They do. – We got some charring around there. The glaze is actually sticking to the chops. We’ll stay that way.

So I’m just gonna transfer these over to a platter, carefully, don’t want to disturb our glaze that we worked so hard at. Let those sit for five minutes. Let the juices redistribute. So when we cut into ’em, we don’t get juices all over the place. Then we can eat. – [Julia] All right.

– I think these chops have rested long enough. It’s time to eat. – Good, I’ve picked my chop. It’s calling my name. – [Keith] Julia’s chop. – [Julia] Yeah. – Now I just wanna show you one thing. We have a little bit of moisture coming outta here, which is natural.

But if we had seared these chops. we’d have three times as much as that. That’s not a lot. – No, it’s not. – [Keith] And I’m just gonna add a little mince parsley for you. – Mm. The glaze has stuck. Oh, perfectly cooked. Mm. Mm-hmm. – That apple butter is so reduced.

– [Julia] Yeah. – [Keith] That it packs a really big appley punch. – [Julia] Mm-hmm. You can just see how moist those chops are. – [Keith] That’s thanks to the slow and low heat. – [Julia] Yeah. – Sweet, tangy, touch of acidity. – [Julia] Yeah. – Perfect. – Thank you, Keith.

I love these pork chops. – Great, I’m glad you like them. – So if you wanna make these sweet, but savory glazed pork chops, make a thick glaze using apple butter and Dijon, roast the chops low and slow in a 275 degree oven and finish glazing under the broiler. From “America’s Test Kitchen”,

A foolproof and fabulous recipe for mustardy, apple butter glazed pork chops. This is definitely going on weeknight rotation. – Good, I’m glad. – Oh, my daughter’s gonna love these. Thanks for watching “America’s Test Kitchen”. What’d you think? – Well, leave a comment and let us know which recipes you’re excited to make

Or you can just say hello. – You can find links to today’s recipes and reviews in the video description. – And, don’t forget to subscribe to our channel. – See you later. – I’ll see you later.