Recipe for Smoking Pork Chops | Tender & Juicy

Pork chops are easy to prepare and fairly cheap. When it comes to taste, how do you even begin to describe it? Smoky, juicy, and heavenly. Did we mention that pork chops are rich in nutritional value? Whether it's grilled, baked, or smoked, they still contain various antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties. Our recipe for smoking pork chops is the best. We know that smokers might seem scary, to say the least, especially if you’re inexperienced. The highlight of your next celebration will be these juicy and pinky-smoked pork chops, ideally paired with a mouth-filling individual potato gratin. Let’s take a look.

Jump to:

• Ingredients
• Instructions
• Substitutions
• Variations
• Equipment
• Storage
• Tips
• Recipe for Smoking Pork Chops
• Comments

Ingredients

1. The pork

• Pork chops — 4 pcs., 1 ½-2 inches of thickness each.
• Kosher salt — 1 ½ tbsp.
• Olive oil.

2. The dry rub

• Onion powder — 1 tbsp.
• Garlic powder — 1 tbsp.
• Ground cinnamon — ½ tbsp.
• Paprika — 1 tbsp.
• Ground black pepper — 1 tbsp.

Instructions

1. Preheat your smoker to 250 degrees.

2. Combine the sweet rub ingredients in the mixing bowl, and stir well.

3. Don’t forget to add kosher salt.

4. Drizzle olive oil on chops and season them with the dry rub, evenly and on both sides.

5. Smearing the chops (optional) — heat olive oil in a skillet.

6. Smearing the chops (optional) — place the chops in the skillet and cook for a few minutes.

7. Transfer the pork chops to the heated smoker.

8. Cook for an hour at most, while using your meat thermometer to keep an eye on the temperature.

9. When the thickest part reaches 145 degrees, it’s time to stop.

10. Let your pork chops rest for five to ten minutes.

Substitutions

• The dry rub — In our experience, the combination of onion, garlic, paprika, black pepper, and cinnamon provides a heavenly, umami taste, and is more than great as a dry rub. If, however, you prefer a minimal approach and don’t want anything to overshadow the taste of your smoked pork chops, you can also settle for only salt and pepper. On the other hand, if you think you could add more sweetness, feel free to add white or brown sugar, which would enhance the flavor. Another option would be to replace the paprika with chili, to spice things up.

Variations

• Bone-in or boneless? — The ages-old discord about whether you should be using bone-in or boneless pork chops. It doesn’t matter, as both are essentially from the same muscle, so it’s all up to your personal preference. Keep in mind that bone-in pork chops cost a little bit less.

• Different cuts — There are various cuts when it comes to pork chop, some of these cuts are bone-in and some are boneless. If you’ve decided to go with a bone-in cut, feel free to experiment with rib chop and loin chop. Loin chop might be hard to work with if you are inexperienced. On the other hand, if you’ve opted for a boneless cut, a shoulder chop might be your favorite one.

Equipment

• Smoker.

• Meat thermometer.

• Medium-sized mixing bowl.

• Measuring cups and spoons.

Storage

• You can store these smoked pork chops in an airtight container, in your fridge, for up to 5-6 days.

Tips

• Choosing the right wood — When it comes to picking the right kind of wood for smoking, you face a pretty large number of choices, ranging from maple to cherry. When it comes to our recipe for smoking pork chops, though, we strongly recommend using applewood. Applewood provides a somewhat sweet taste, all the while without overshadowing the taste of your chops. Hickory is a close second, the textbook wood for smoking meat.

• Focus on the temperature — Although most recipes recommend smoking for 45-60 minutes, you should actually be checking the temperature, not the time. The time really depends on many things like the type of grill you use, or the thickness of your chops.

• Smearing the chops — You might have noticed that we’ve also added instructions for smearing the pork chops before smoking them, which is optional. We’ve found that smearing them for a minute or two brings out a deeper and more layered taste. Try it out!