Brined Pork Chops With Fennel Recipe (2024)

Delicious! I went heavy on fennel and onion and roasted them till well caramelized. Pork was sliced and served over a pile of soft and sweet roasted fennel and onion. I also added lemon wedges to my pan and roasted them along with everything. An optional squeeze of lemon over individual plate was offered. I personally think it tasted much better with lemon. The brine solution is already salty, I did not add any salt to the fennel and onion. I served mine with mashed potato. ♥️

I'm thinking I'll try this with Sam Sifton's star anise brine, which has taken all of the pork recipes I make to a whole new level!

Noting the lemon wedges in the photo for this dish, were they added by food stylist for color contrast interest in the photo, or was there lemon used in recipe but omitted from the text when printed? A curious cook who plans to make this next week would find it helpful to know. ;-)

5% brine = 48g salt (1.7oz) assuming 4 cups liquid

Gorgeous brine! I made the recipe as directed, the sole exception being that I used some boneless pork chops I had on hand rather than the bone-in. I reduced the cooking time by 5 minutes and it was perfect!

Onions and Fennel came out great - pork chops came out dry - pan seared 3 minutes on each side and baked for 18 minutes - brined over night for 17 hours - thick cuts too - not sure how to get these tender - cut browning by a minute? Cut cooking time down to 12-15 minutes? Endlessly frustrated by pork.

I made this with a pork tenderloin. It was delish! That brine!!

I'm confused about slicing the chops at the end. Sliced vertically like a London broil or sliced horizontally, like when hamburgers are too thick for my kids?

Is the three or four fennel bulbs accurate, for two pork chops? Seems like one would be plenty.

Very good! Made as written. Next time I would rinse off the chops after they come out of the brine (rather than just pat dry). They were a little salty. You could also de-glaze the pan with a little white wine or chicken broth. And you could add some potato chunks when sautéing the onions and fennel.

this sounds like it would benefit from adding capers in the mix. not that there's anything that I can think of right now that would not benefit from capers.

Try brineing over night to keep the chops moist especially if they are thick

Why are people copying others’ reviews and re-inserting them as if they were new? This is Pat J.’s write-up.

I made this in Rock non stick pan . Taste was great but would caramelize better in black iron fry pan.

I brined the chops for 12 hours and found they were still rough. It's true that slicing them for serving mitigated this somewhat. But if you are going to slice them, wouldn't it make more sense to use boneless pork chops? I did enjoy the onion/fennel mix, but I'm a fennel-lover to begin with. Served with mashed potato for my grandson and baked sweet potato for me. I just wish they made pork chops the way they used to. Not so tough!

The reason that the chops are tough here is simple. Too much heat! I learned that to produce tender meat you can cook it at high heat for a short time as one does for a steak or braise it in liquid for a long time at low heat. No way do you “braise” it in a 400 degree oven! You could add more vegetables, more liquid, lower the temperature, do it on the stove top, etc. but not a 400 degree oven. Sam Sifton’s smothered pork chops (braised with sliced onions) is a favorite of mine.

The problem with this recipe is that if you sear the chops on high heat for 3 minutes a side they are going into the oven at 130-140. 25 minutes at 400f will have them well above 175

I’ve been making this recipe for years now, and I’ve made it enough times to know that the listed searing time is too short and the cooking time is too long. Other than that this wins every time.

Delicious I made this as written. I used bone in thick cut pork chops, convection oven 400. Next time 375 degrees Delicious with baked Granny Smith apples.

Everybody loved this recipe! I used a pork loin and marinated it overnight for approximately 20 hoursIt was moist and tender, and absolutely delicious!

This is delicious. I followed instructions re brining and searing. But to get to the recommended temperature of 140 degrees, I cooked it (in 400 degree oven) for only about 12 minutes. I recommend checking temperature well before the 20 minutes in recipe

For a very thick chop, cook to 140, takes about 25 minutes at 375. Try deglazing fennel onion with wine before putting into onion…

Okay, so I'll admit I used thick-cut boneless pork chops rather than bone in bc that's what was available and looked good at the store. Followed the rest of the instructions from there. I let them sit in the brine for the recommended 24 hours. They were the juiciest most flavorful pork chops we've ever eaten. Served with roasted potatoes. Perfect.

I don’t care for fennel so I substituted sliced apple and celeryI will also check my temps a bit earlier, at 20 min they were at 160. Still tender and tasty but would like to see 140

I cooked this recipe yesterday and it was very good, but the times need to be modified. I had to double the time (10 minutes) in order to get the fennel and onions somewhat soft. After the pork chops have been browned three minutes per side, cooking the entire dish in the 400 degree oven for 20 to 25 minutes was way too long for my pork chops. I checked my pork after 18 minutes and it was already up to 155 degrees.

If you have pork chops that are thinner than the picture then the brine will make the pork chops borderline too salty. A little lemon over the pan at the end of cooking helped though. Overall good dish! Even my partner that doesn't like fennel liked it in this.

Wish I'd read the comments before trying: the brine is plenty salty without adding any more salt during cooking. The dish overall was a bit too salty, but it was the most tender, flavourful pork I've ever made. Brined for ~36 hrs and dried very well before browning. Done to perfection at 12 min in a 350 F convection oven.

Delicious. For boneless chops check temp after 15” but let the fennel/onion stay in the oven for more caramelization. Wonderful with generous handfuls of HH parsley, fennel fronds, and lemon garnish.

This is a really nice recipe overall. The brine is great, the components are tasty, but the cook time on the pork is nuts. It would be appropriate for my grandparents because they’re of a generation that believed pork needed to be cooked to 170° meat dust. I’ve cooked this a few times and 13 minutes in oven was perfect for getting the chops (bone in, 1.5” thick) to a hair over 140°. I suggest taking the chops out at the ten minute mark and testing the temp. Roast the veggies for longer.

Just lovely! Followed recipe to a T except added a sliced apple to the onions/fennel. And as others suggested, added lemon to the roasting pan…luscious! Roasted for 12 minutes…perfectly juicy and flavorful chops!