Slow Cooker Pepper Pork Chops

I’ve been meaning to do two things for a long time now: Brine some meat, and use my slow cooker. So I did both at the same time, after seeing Alton Brown and Anne Burrell tout the brining process on the Food Network.

Now … take it from me, you can’t just up and decide you want to make Slow Cooker Pepper Pork Chops for dinner one night. Nope. It requires planning and scheduling. For one thing, when you brine the chops, you have to let it sit in the fridge for at least eight hours, preferably overnight. Then, you have to slow cook it for a total of six hours.

My schedule: Make the brine and brine the meat either in the late afternoon or right after supper before someone starts washing the dishes and hogging the kitchen. Then, at 10:30 a.m. the next day, do the prep and put the meat in the cooker (it should be about 11 a.m. or so, depending on how fast you work).

It only needs tending once. After 1½ hours, turn the cooker down to low, and then forget it for 4½ hours. Total cooking time is 6 hours, so it should be ready around 5 p.m.

Ingredients

• VEGETABLE BROTH, 2 cups
• SALT, ½ cup (Alton recommends Kosher, but whatever you have is fine)
• LIGHT-BROWN SUGAR, ½ cup
• BLACK PEPPERCORNS, 2 tablespoons, slightly crushed
• ICE, 1 pound
• PORK CHOPS, 3 to 4, thick, bone-in
• SALT (yes, again), 2 teaspoons
• DRIED APPLE SLICES, 3 ounces*
• OLIVE OIL, 2 tablespoons
• ONION, 1 large, frenched (julienned)
• CHICKEN BROTH, 1½ cups
• BLACK PEPPER, 1 tablespoon coarsely ground
• THYME, dried, 1 teaspoon

Directions

1. Pour the vegetable broth, ½ cup kosher salt, brown sugar and peppercorns in a medium saucepan and cook over medium-high heat until the salt and sugar dissolve.
2. Remove the saucepan from the heat and add in the ice.
3. Put the pork chops into a zip-top bag along with the iced brine, seal and leave in the refrigerator overnight.
4. The next day, take the chops out of the brine, rinse off and pat dry, and season on both sides with salt. Put the meat aside.
5. Place the apples in the slow cooker.
6. Sauté the chops in some olive oil over medium-high heat, about 5 to 6 minutes per side until they are browned. Place the chops on top of the apples in the slow cooker.
7. Use the remaining ½ teaspoon or so of the olive oil to sauté the onions until they’re almost brown, about 3 to 4 minutes. Deglaze the pan with the chicken broth, then add the black pepper and dried thyme. Pour this on top of the pork chops.
8. Cover the slow cooker, turn it onto “High,” and cook for 1½ hours. Set a kitchen timer or use the one on your oven. When the timer dings, turn the cooker heat to “Low” and cook for 4½ more hours.

* I couldn’t find dried apples, so I peeled, cored and sliced up a large apple and then laid the slices over the pork chops during the last half-hour of cooking.