My obsession with the sous vide cooking process continues. One of my favorite things to cook this way has been thick-cut pork chops. I picked up a pork loin on sale, close to 4 pounds for just over $6 — a great buy, but even at full price, a pork loin is an inexpensive way to get a great meal.

 I then sliced the loin into 8 thick cut chops.

 

I kept it simple — salt and pepper on both sides.

 The chops are then vacuum sealed before cooking.

 

 Sous vide cooks food at a precise temperature in water — the Anova device heats, holds, and circulates the water for you. This was a short cook by sous vide standards, only 2 hours (I’ve done other cuts for up to 48 hours in the past). I set the water bath to 139°F and let the chops go for 2 hours.

The advantage of the method is that it cooks the meat to the exact target temperature edge to edge — no gradient from surface to center like you’d get with conventional cooking.

 Searing

Once they came out, I patted them dry with paper towel and heated up a cast iron skillet. Getting a good sear means the pan needs to be very hot and the meat needs to be dry.

I’ve seared indoors before, but the smoke it puts off is intense — so since the weather was decent, I heated the cast iron on the side burner of my propane grill instead. I added a small amount of butter to the pan before adding the chops, then seared on all sides for about 5 minutes total. Fitting all 8 chops in the pan was the real challenge.

Result

The real benefit of this method is consistency — every chop comes out the same, with no risk of over- or under-cooking any of them, even cooking 8 at once.