Montreal Pork Chops

Montreal Pork Chops are Bone-in or Boneless Pork Chops, seasoned with Montreal Steak Seasoning. Seared in Rendered Fat from the trimmings off the Pork Chops. Serve these up with some Steak Sauce, Pan Sauce or Gravies.

How you want to cook them is really up to you and how thick the pork chops are. You can season the pork chops before cooking or afterwards.

Pork Chops

Any thickness of Pork Chops can be used. Thinner Pork Chops can just be pan seared. While Thicker cuts will need to be Pan Seared and finished in the Oven or Reversed Seared.

Rendered Fat

Trim the Pork Chops of excess fat and chop up into small pieces. This will be used to render the fat out in preparation for searing the Pork Chops.

Cook the small pieces of fat trimmings over medium heat until the fat has been rendered. For more information on rendered fat check out my post Rendered Fat. If you end up with very little fat, you can add more using Lard or Oil.

Smaller pieces will render out much quicker than larger pieces. Anywhere from 5 – 15 minutes.

Montreal Steak Seasoning

What a wonderful blend of spices and the flavors it adds to meat either directly or marinated. Brush the Pork Chops with Oil and season with Montreal Steak Spice or Season after they have been seared.

After searing, sprinkle on some fresh Montreal Steak Spice and allow the Pork Chops to rest.

When To Season the Meat

Brush with Oil and season the meat with Montreal Steak Spice, cover it and refrigerate it well in advance before you plan to cook. This gives it time to rehydrate. If the Pork Chops can be cooked through to the desired doneness within 3 minutes per side then just sear the pork Chops. If on the other hand they will not be cooked through, then either sear and finish in the oven or reverse sear the Pork Chops.

Oil Temperature

In this recipe the Oil needs to be hot in order to get a good sear, but not to hot that it burns the spices. The temperature of the fat will burn off any dry seasoning you place on the meat, unless it is rehydrated.

This is why you see steaks being seared in just the fat and then Butter, Garlic and fresh Herbs being added, all of which have some moisture in them and you see the Fat in the form of butter constantly scooped and drizzled over the meat to baste it, but to also prevent it from burning. For Montreal Steak Spice, the seasoning is dried.

For this reason, the Pork Chops are brushed with oil, seasoned, covered and refrigerated to rehydrate the seasoning or the Pork Chops are seasoned after searing and rested.

Salt & Pepper Seasoning

Although you do typically want to season meat with Salt & Pepper well in advance for searing. The Pepper maybe yes, maybe no, or yes and add more after it has been cooked. Because you run into the same issue with how hot the fat is and the Black pepper burning up and losing its flavor.

The Salt on the other hand really helps to dry the surface out for an optimal sear, if given time to work. You also see this with Steaks that are salted and left to air dry for days.

Seasoning after Cooking

You can also season the meat after it has been seared. This allows the Pork Chops to be seared up for as long as they needed to be cooked to the desired internal temp, anywhere from 3-5 minutes per side. Montreal Steak Spice is added immediately after searing and the Pork Chops were rested. The rest time also rehydrates the Seasoning.

This method is especially good when you don’t want to wait around for the seasoning to rehydrate. With this method, there is no burning of the spices at all, they are just rehydrated, adding a fresh taste to the Meat and they can go straight to the pan right after rendering the fat.

However, brushing with Oil, Seasoning the Pork Chops with the Montreal Steak Spice and allowing it to rest also rehydrates the seasoning and gets the flavor deeper into the meat.

Either way is fine and really comes down to preference.

Brush the Steaks With Oil

Brush the Meat with Oil. For this I really like the use of JAH Meat Oil. It has a slight Smokey with Umami flavors that works very well with both Pork & Beef. Then Montreal Steak Seasoning is used. The Oil will also assist in rehydrating the Montreal Steak Spice.

How to Sear Pork Chops

Make sure that the meat is completely thawed and at room temp. If refrigerated, take the meat out about 30 minutes to an hour before you plan on cooking.

Before searing, ensure that the rendered fat is heated hot over medium heat. This will take about 8 – 10 minutes or more for a hotter sear. Searing begins at 300 F and upwards to 450 F.

When placing the meat into the pan, leave it be, don’t move it around.

Thin Pork Chops

Thin Pork Chops at about 1/2 ” will only need to be seared in the hot rendered fat for about 2-3 minutes per side, depending on thickness and how done you prefer your pork chops. Whether they are seasoned or not.

A 3/4 inch Seasoned Pork Chop you can push to a 4 minute sear, but you do risk burning the spices up. Unless you are seasoning afterwards, in which case you can sear until the desired level of doneness. If already seasoned before cooking, then limit the sear to 3 minutes as to not burn the spices and finish in the oven.

Thick Pork Chops

With thicker cuts, either Pan Sear for the desired time and Season afterwards or Pan sear for 3 minutes per side and finish in the oven or Reverse sear them. The reverse sear is my favorite way and I use this method with about 1 inch thick Bone in Pork Chops.

If only searing and seasoning afterwards, 1 inch boneless Pork Chops will take about 5 minutes per side. Add about 1 minute or so per side for Bone in.

How to reverse sear pork chops

Brush the Pork Chops with Oil and Season with Montreal Steak Spice. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.  Place Seasoned Pork Chops on a broiler pan and into a preheated oven at 300 F. Let cook for 30 minutes or until the internal temperature is 15 degrees below your target internal temp.

Times will vary depending on the thickness of your Pork Chops. For best results use a thermometer.

When 8 – 10 minutes of cook time remain, start heating up the skillet with the rendered fat over medium heat.

Remove the Pork Chops from the oven when done, and go directly to searing for 3 minutes per side. Sprinkle more Montreal Steak Spice and let rest.

This will bring a 1 inch – 1 1/2 inch bone in Pork Chop to an internal temp of about 130 F and the searing will take it up to about 147 F internal temp before being rested. Use an oven thermometer for better accuracy and adjust the times based on thickness and desired internal temp.

With thicker cuts of meat, leave them in the oven until they are about 15 degrees away from the desired internal temperature. Then Sear the Meat for 3 minutes per side.

Montreal Pork Chops Sauces

Serve Montreal Pork Chops with a variety of Sauces/Pan Sauces or Gravies. I do love these with HP Steak Sauce. But there are a bunch of pan sauces that can be made up or the Pork Chops basted in added Butter, Garlic Clove and fresh herbs.

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