Beer Brined Grilled Pork Chops

Hello all! Its been a busy week at work so I haven't been able to cook as much as I would like, but I certainly made up for it today! Beer brined grilled pork chops, mushroom rice, garlic Parmesan green beans and sugar-free peach jam. And never fear, all recipes will be up here over the next few days. I have been dreaming abut the delicious things I could make when the weekend came, so much so that when I'd wake up there would be drool on my pillow. Sadly the drool was from Marble who sneaked into bed in the middle of the night... Guess things aren't always what they seem. Tonight's dinner was no less mouth watering than the dreams I was having. The recipe from Epicurious was flawless except for the final rub. Because it contained so much salt I think the pork chops tasted a bit over salty.  Luckily, the mushroom rice was a bit under-salted so it worked out perfectly. I will put the original recipe here, but denote where I think you can cut salt just in case you're not a big fan of salty. If you are, keep the recipe as written and you will retain a good amount of water, but be blissfully satisfied with the salty savory flavors of this dish.
Here is the original recipe link:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Beer-Brined-Grilled-Pork-Chops-105298

Beer Brined Grilled Pork Chops

Ingredients

• 2 cups water
• 2 cups dark lager beer
• 1/4 cup coarse salt
• 3 tablespoons (packed) dark brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons mild-flavored (light) molasses
• 6 1- to 1 1/4-inch-thick center-cut bone-in pork chops

• 7 large garlic cloves, minced (I used 7 cubes of frozen garlic)
• 3 teaspoons coarsely ground black pepper
• 2 teaspoons salt (I'd go with 1/2 a tsp, or 1 tsp max)
• 2 teaspoons dried sage leaves (may compensate with an extra 1/2 tsp if you cut salt)

Combine 2 cups water, beer, 1/4 cup coarse salt, sugar, and molasses in large bowl. Stir until salt and sugar dissolve.  

Since you need 16 oz (2 cups) of beer it means you need to open 2 bottles. This also means you have a spare 8 ounces after you take what you need. Since I'm not a beer drinker, I gave this to Matt the sous-chef/grill master.

16 oz of beer ready to go in

2 cups of water, yes, I know.. its brown, but that's because I didn't rinse it after putting beer in. I didn't want to waste any of the beer flavor!

Dark brown sugar!

The first of 3 packed Tbs of brown sugar

I know it says light molasses, but this is what I had, and it turned out well, so I'd say any molasses would work!

The phrase, "Thicker than molasses" is not lying! This stuff was THICK!

The only way I knew to make course salt was to grind it. This took FOREVER! I eventually gave up after ~ 1/8 a cup and just poured in sea salt granules. This girl is a LAZY chef!

Grinding, grinding, grinding, BLAH! Next time, just have some sea-salt or Kosher salt on hand, it will make this much more pleasant!

Frothy!

Stir, stir, stir! All the sugar and most of the salt has been incorporated!

Place pork chops in large resealable plastic bag. Pour beer brine over pork chops; seal bag. Refrigerate 4 hours, turning bag occasionally, or just once, whatever... 

Ladling the brine into the bags

Marinating pork chops! Ready to go into the fridge

Prepare barbecue grill (heat to medium). Remove pork chops from beer brine; pat dry. 

Patting the pork chop dry so that the rub will stick better to it

Mix garlic, pepper, 2 teaspoons salt, and sage in small bowl. 

7 garlic cubes, salt, and pepper- too much salt if you ask me

Added the sage

Mix, mix, mix! This stuff smelled amazing! I almost gnawed on a raw pork chop it smelled so good!

Rub garlic mixture over both sides of pork chops

Gently massage the mixture into/onto the pork chops

These smelled so good!!!!! I'm pretty sure it was all the garlic, but it was amazing

Grill pork chops until instant-read thermometer inserted into center of chops registers 145°F to 150°F, about 7 minutes per side, occasionally moving chops to cooler part of rack if burning.  JUST BE SURE TO CHECK THE INTERNAL TEMP!

Transfer chops to platter; cover with foil, and let stand 5 minutes. Serve.

Before covering with foil

The full meal. DELICIOUS! I know there is a fair amount of brown on this plate, but the pop of green helps!

So tonight was a marvelous meal which made Matt and I very happy.  Matt trimmed down the time it took to grill because the thermometer read 150F within 7 minutes per side rather than the 10 they suggested. Matt could not taste the beer in the chops, but I did and it made such a nice light flavor when compared to the robust flavors of the garlic and sage. It was such a nice round subtle flavor that it helped tone down the pungency of the garlic. This is definitely something I would make for company, though I want to try it with the reduced amount of salt in the rub just to make sure that was the source of the over salting, well that and it was just so darn good I'd like to make it all over again!

Happy eating!