Greek Pork Chops made with a Greek feta marinade and bone-in or boneless pork chops. Add additional seasoning as you like and sear or grill. Optionally reverse sear if the pork chops are thicker or bone-in, or go straight to searing or grilling with thin pork chops. The pork chops are marinated in our very own Greek feta marinade. Consisting of ladolemono & feta cheese brine. To which all sorts of herbs and spices can be added to shape the overall flavors. Optionally served with a bit of crumbled feta cheese should you want. It pairs up well with a Greek salad, Greek Onions & Peppers (sautéed onions & peppers in ladolemono with Goya adobo seasoning), fries, Greek potatoes, or Greek lemon rice.
There are many variations you could go with for this dish. But the Greek feta marinade establishes the foundation for Greek-style pork chops. How you season the marinade to shape the overall flavors is entirely up to you, and there is certainly a lot to experiment with.
Greek Pork Chops Ingredients
Pork Chops, Greek Feta Marinade (Ladolemono & Feta Cheese Brine), Seasoning of choice.
Pork Chops
Use pork chops about 1/2 inch to 1 inch thick. Trim the excess fat off and render it so that you can use that as the main fat to sear the pork chops and weigh the pork chops so you know how much marinade to use. Fattier cuts are better than leaner cuts.
Ladolemono
Generally Greek pork chops are marinated in Ladolemono. Usually with yellow mustard added when used for pork and a lot of garlic. Often leftover or reserved ladolemono is saved to drizzle over the pork chops as they are resting. Since this recipe uses the combination of ladolemono and feta cheese brine. The ladolemono has to be first made up, and it’s extremely easy to do so. Just combine all the ingredients together and blend.
Greek Feta Marinade
The Greek feta marinade consists of combining ladolemono and feta cheese brine. This is an amazing marinade that establishes the base marinade and flavor. To which all kinds of additional herbs and spices can be added to shape the overall flavors.
Use 1/4 cup each of ladolemono & feta cheese brine per 1 lb of meat; slightly over 1 lb of meat is fine.
Greek Pork Chop Seasoning
With pork, the most common seasoning or ingredient to add to the marinade is mustard. Either Yellow or Dijon. Along with oregano, thyme, and a heat source such as black pepper or chili flakes. Savory and parsley work well, although I tend to save parsley for garnishing, along with aleppo.
This is one area where you should explore and experiment; I do all the time. Add additional herbs and spices you like to the marinade to elevate and shape the overall flavors.
These may include peppercorn, sweet chili flakes, oregano, savory, thyme, rosemary, lemon peel, yellow mild or spicy mustard, paprika, onion juice, and white wine or just Greek seasoning without any salt since the marinade will already contain salt from the feta chees brine. Poultry seasoning can also be used.
In fact, Greek pork chops often use the same marinade as souvlaki. So the herbs and spices used for souvlaki can be used for Greek pork chops too.
Standard Donair Spice
The standard donair spice can also be used for Greek pork chops. Use the below for every 1 lb of meat.
- Oregano: 1 tsp
- Garlic: 1 tsp
- Onion: 1 tsp
- Paprika: 1 tsp
- Black Pepper: 1 tsp or less
- Cayenne Pepper: 1/8 tsp or more
The Standard Donair spice also contains salt but is omitted here because the Greek feta marinade contains sufficient salt to season the meat.
How long to marinate
In all cases an overnight marinade is going to allow the meat to absorb the flavor and transfer the salt within the feta cheese brine into the meat. Especially so with thicker cuts. With thin cuts of 1/2-inch pork chops or thereabouts, you can get away with a shorter marinade time of about 4 hours. Longer really is better, though.
You can even place the marinade and pork chops into a freezer bag and freeze them. Then take them out the night before to thaw in the fridge and cook later that evening for supper. Making this a food prep meal.
Added black pepper, thyme, oregano, onion powder, parsley, and savory.
How to Cook Greek Pork Chops
There are a few different ways you can cook Greek pork chops. In all cases, take out the pork chops to rest on the counter so that they can come to room temperature or close to it.
- Searing: Great for thin pork chops where the meat will cook through just from searing. Heat a pan up over medium-high heat with a good amount of fat to coat the pan and sear for 3-5 minutes per side. An extra minute or two on each side for bone in.
- Searing and finishing in the oven: Usually with thicker pork chops or bone-in pork chops. Initially starts off searing as above, but is placed into the oven at 400°F to 425°F to finish cooking until the internal temperature is about 5 degrees less than the final desired internal temperature.
- Reverse Searing: Place the pork chops into the oven between 250°F and 300°F and cook until the internal temperature is about 10-15 degrees below the desired internal temperature. Heat a pan up over medium heat with enough fat to coat the pan and wait until it’s hot. Sear for 3-5 minutes to build the crust.
- Grilling: Grill over high heat for about 3-5 minutes per side. A few minutes longer per side for bone-in pork chops. If thicker than 1/2 inch pork chops, then transfer to the cooler side to finish cooking in indirect heat until the desired internal temperature.
However, you choose to cook the pork chops. Either searing, reverse searing, searing and finishing in the oven, or grilling. Ensure an internal temperature of 145°F – 155°F is reached and allow the pork chops to rest for 5-10 minutes before serving.
Serving Greek Pork Chops
Serve the rested Greek pork chips whole or sliced into bite-sized pieces before serving. Optionally garnish with Parsley & Aleppo. A lemon wedge can be included to squeeze over the pork chops for a bright and zesty flavor, and/or any leftover ladolemono can be drizzled over the pork chops as they are resting before serving.
These pork chops are commonly served with a Greek salad, but there are plenty of other side dishes and condiments that they can be served with. Such as Greek Lemon Rice, Greek Potatoes, Fries, Roasted Vegetables, Baked Potatoes, Greek Sauteed Onions & Peppers, and Tzatziki or Greek Gyro White Sauce.
Greek Salad
Since you are using the feta cheese brine for the Greek feta marinade. Make a Greek salad to use up the feta cheese and serve it on the side.
Quick Greek Pork Chop Dinner
This recipe is considered a quick meal. While it does take time to marinate the pork. Making up the marinade and cooking the pork chops is done pretty quickly.
Ingredients
- 4 Pork Chops - 2 lbs or slightly more
- 1/4 C Rendered Pork Fat - or Lard
- 1 C Greek Feta Marinade - See notes
- As Desired Seasoning of choice - See the post for some ideas
- As Desired Feta Cheese crumbled - Optional
Instructions
- Preparation: Prepare the Greek feta marinade and empty it into a marinating bowl. Trim excess fat from the pork chops and chop into small pieces. Save the trimmed and chopped fat to render out later. Place the pork chops into the marinade and marinate overnight.
- Rendered Pork Fat: Place the trimmed and chopped pork fat into a skillet over medium heat and render the fat. Mix once in a while. Once the crackling is crisp and browned, discard, reserving the fat to sear the pork chops.If you do not have enough rendered fat, top it up with lard to make about 1/4 cup of total fat. Optionally, you can skip the rendering process and just use lard. If grilling, this step is also skipped, as the pork chops just go straight to the grill.
- Seared Pork Chops: Sear the pork chops over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes per side, or until nicely browned and the juices run clear, at an internal temperature of 145°F. If cooking bone-in pork chops or if the pork chops are a bit thicker, place them into a preheated oven at 300°F and continue to cook until they are 10-15 degrees away from the desired internal temperature. Then sear over medium heat with enough fat to coat the bottom of the pan for 3-5 minutes per side or until the desired internal temperature is reached. You can also sear and finish in the oven.
- Rest and Plate: Rest the pork chops for 5-10 minutes. Optionally garnish with parsley and chili flakes or Aleppo before serving.
Notes
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