How to Make Pork Chops That Are Actually Good

Pork chops are a classic dinner, in the Norman Rockwell Americana imagination of dinner. They're what you might prepare on a Wednesday night for your family, or receive, after a well-mixed martini, on a plate with mashed potatoes, when you visit a friend for dinner. Prepared well, they can be absolutely delicious.

But let's be honest: pork chops are often undelicious. They can be overcooked and dry, with nary a splash of sauce or marinade to resuscitate them into something that won't leave your mouth feeling like it was scraped by sandpaper.

The solution, as with many dinner problems, is a sauce. Cooking the chop well will also help a great deal, which mostly means being careful not to overcook it. Remember that no matter how you cook the chop, whether it's in a pan, in the oven, or on the grill, you want to take it out when the temperature is a little bit lower than what's optimal. That's because the chop will continue to cook after you take it off the heated surface—unless you do something like plunge it into ice water, which we don't recommend.

Watch: How to Make Pan-Seared Pork Chops

With this recipe, you'll avoid the standing-over-the-stove fatigue that can set in when you cook chops on the grill. It also enures that they won't be flavorless and dry thanks to the addition of fresh herbs and a kicky sauce. The sauce, made from a chili-garlic sauce that's usually sold in the same aisle as the Sriracha, has a balance of sweet, tangy, and salty. You could also use it on chicken or beef, but it's particularly nice with pork, and easy enough to pull together that you can have the ingredient on hand in your pantry for whenever you need it. Don't let dry pork chops happen to you, your friends, or your family. Believe in sauces.

Get the recipe for Grilled Pork Chops and Peaches with Sweet Chile Sauce