Apple Brined Pork Chops W/ Sausage and Cornbread Stuffing

Ingredients

Chops

• 4 (14-16 ounce)  center-cut pork loin chops, 2 inches thick, with a pocket
• olive oil
• black pepper

Mutha Sauce

• your favorite barbecue sauce, for basting

Stuffing

• 2 cups cornbread, day old & crumbled
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup onion, chopped
• 1/4 cup red bell pepper, chopped
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 large garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 lb hot Italian sausage
• 2 tablespoons fresh Italian parsley, chopped
• 1/2 cup pecorino romano cheese, grated
• 2 eggs, slightly beaten
• 2 teaspoons dried thyme

Directions

1. 1

   Brine chops 8 - 24 hours before cooking using recipe #318423.

2. 2

   Fire up the grill and then make the stuffing. Dump the cornbread into a bowl and set aside. Grab a skillet and melt the butter in it over meduim-high heat. Toss in the onions and peppers and season with salt and pepper. Cook til soft, then toss in the garlic and cook for 1 minute more. Strip the casing off the sausage and crumble it into the skillet. Cook til it loses its pink color, chopping and stirring constantly to break up the pieces. Scrape it all into the corn bread. Mix in the parsley, pecorino romano cheese, and eggs and season it all with thyme, 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp pepper.

3. 3

   Take the chops out of the brine and dry them off. Push 2 large pinches of stuffing into the pocket of each chop. Really stuff it in there tightly, filling it nice and full. Brush the chops with olive oil and season both sides with pepper. See how the grill's doing. Pile the coals to one side. Sear the chops directly over the coals, 3 to 4 minutes per side. Be careful not to overcook them at this point, because it will make them curl up.

4. 4

   Slide the chops to the other side of the grill, away from the coals. Cover the grill and adjust the heat so that it's about 350 degrees inside. Cook the chops for 45 to 50 minutes. Take their temperature by inserting an instant-read thermometer horizontally into the meat, parallel to and close to the bone without touching it. When it reads 145 degrees, bast the chops with the Mutha Sauce, or your favorite bbq sauce. Cover the grill again and continue cooking for another 10 minutes, or til the internal meat temperature reaches 150 degrees.

5. 5

   Pull those plump babies off the grill and eat em' up without delay.