# SMOKED PORK CHOPS & POTATOES, ONION with BACON - Q-VIEW



## callahan4life (Nov 3, 2011)

*SMOKED PORK CHOPS & POTATOES, ONION with BACON*

*DATE:* Tuesday, November 1, 2011

*LOCATION & WEATHER CONDITIONS:*









*EQUIPMENT:* Masterbuilt Electric 40” Smoker; Two Maverick ET-732 Thermometers; One Baking-Cooling Racks; A-Maze-N-Pellet-Smoker (Fully Loaded); Wood Pellets (Mixture of Maple and Cherry).

*MEAT:* Three Winn Dixie Brand 1 inch thick Pork Center Cut Bone-In Pork Chops, two strips of bacon. 

*VEGETABLES:* ½ Large Sweet Onion, sliced.

*SPICES:* Lawry’s Hawaiian Marinade, Tony Chachere’s Creole Seasoning, Dark Brown Sugar, Parkay Squeeze Margarine, Apple Juice, Kosher salt, fresh course ground black pepper, and paprika.

*SMOKE REPORT:* This is the second cooking in this Masterbuilt Smoker. This is the first time I have ever smoked Pork Chops. My son gets home from work at around midnight and I want to have dinner ready when he gets here. I am concerned that I am starting too early and liable to overcook and dry out the chops. I had the chops marinating in a zip-lock bag for 3 days. 

At 5:20 p.m. I took the chops out of the marinade and blotted them dry with a paper towel; placed them on a baking-cooling rack and put them on the 3[sup]rd[/sup] shelf (from top) of smoker. I reserved the used marinade to make a BBQ sauce. I set the smoker temperature to 225*F with the AMZNPS giving off good TBS. Had to lower the MES at 200*F to maintain the 3[sup]rd[/sup] shelf Maverick BBQ Probe between 230*F and 240*F. I also had a Maverick BBQ Probe on the top shelf and it stayed between 217*F and 240*F. I used the MES Meat Probe in one chop and a Maverick Food Probe in another.















At 8:15 p.m. I placed a small loaf pan containing potatoes with margarine liberally covering them, salt, fresh course ground black pepper, paprika, sliced onion and bacon strips on top, into the smoker on the 2[sup]nd[/sup] shelf.

At 8:20 p.m. I was 3 hours in, the Internal Temperature (IT) of the chops was 145*F. 















Worried that I am going to dry them out, I pulled the chops and placed them in a small foil pan; lightly seasoned them on both sides with Creole seasoning, margarine and brown sugar; added about 6 ounces of apple juice to the pan and sealed the pan up with foil.

At 8:45 p.m. I returned the panned chops to the smoker. Due to reaching the IT of 145*F no meat probe was used from this point forward.

At 9:55 p.m. the MES was still set at 200*F. Top shelf Maverick BBQ Probe reading 216*F and 3[sup]rd[/sup] shelf Maverick BBQ Probe reading 235*F, so I bumped the MES Temperature up to 230*F.

At 10:30 p.m. the top shelf Maverick BBQ Probe was reading 248*F and 3[sup]rd[/sup] shelf Maverick BBQ Probe reading 267*F.

At 11:15 p.m. I foiled the potatoes/onion/bacon pan and moved it to top shelf.

At 11:20 p.m. I removed the panned chops and transferred them to a baking-cooling rack. I bumped up the MES Temperature to MAX setting of 275*F.








At 11:35 p.m. I lightly re-seasoned chops on both sides with salt, fresh ground black pepper and Creole seasoning.








At 11:55 a.m. I had boiled the reserved marinade and added brown sugar, honey and 3 shakes of Tabasco Chipotle Hot Sauce. I continued to boil and reduce marinade until it thickened into a BBQ Sauce. I painted both sides of the chops with the sauce and returned the chops back to the 3[sup]rd[/sup] shelf in the smoker (at 12:05 a.m.) the 3[sup]rd[/sup] shelf Maverick BBQ Probe was reading 311*F.








At 12:30 p.m. I removed chops and potatoes/onion/bacon pan. Tented chops with foil and let rest for 5 minutes before serving.















*EVALUATION AND SUMMARY: *  The potatoes and onions came out great. They had a light, but great smoked flavor. The only thing I believe I would change would be the foil pan I cooked in. I think next time I will use a wider pan so the potatoes will be in a single layer. This will also allow me to add a whole onion.

As I was afraid, the Pork Chops were over cooked and a little dry. They were still edible, just not juicy like I prefer.  The next ones will be better now that I have done it once. I believe next time I will smoke to an IT of 125*F then do my foil process for 1 hour, then 10 minutes out of the foil with the BBQ Sauce.















I also deep fried a turkey this same night in my new Masterbuilt Indoor Fryer. You can find that Q-view and report here:

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/112693/indoor-deep-fried-turkey#post_708700


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## mballi3011 (Nov 3, 2011)

Nice looking chops. I would like to be sitting at the table when they came out thou.


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## jrod62 (Nov 3, 2011)

Looks great from here!


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## SmokinAl (Nov 4, 2011)

Great looking meal. You could have just pulled them at 135, covered them in foil & they would coast up to 145 in about 20-25 minutes just sitting on the counter. At that point they would be very juicy!


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## realtorterry (Nov 4, 2011)

SmokinAl said:


> Great looking meal. You could have just pulled them at 135, covered them in foil & they would coast up to 145 in about 20-25 minutes just sitting on the counter. At that point they would be very juicy!




X2


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## bluebombersfan (Nov 4, 2011)

yum they look great!


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## chef willie (Nov 4, 2011)

sorry about the chops..live and learn....taters look great....


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## woundedyak (Nov 4, 2011)

Hey, you can't win them all, but I'm sure it was fun! Nice blog entry


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## callahan4life (Nov 4, 2011)

SmokinAl said:


> Great looking meal. You could have just pulled them at 135, covered them in foil & they would coast up to 145 in about 20-25 minutes just sitting on the counter. At that point they would be very juicy!





realtorterry said:


> X2


Thanks, I do that next time, but like I said in the post I went into this knowing that I was probably starting the cook too early. That's why I experimented with the foil pan. And they were still good. I love getting to eat your mistakes. :)




BlueBombersfan said:


> yum they look great!


They tasted great, got to pull them off sooner next time just to increase the juciness more to my liking.




Chef Willie said:


> sorry about the chops..live and learn....taters look great....


They still tasted good. I'm not disappointed and looking forward to doing it again.




Woundedyak said:


> Hey, you can't win them all, but I'm sure it was fun! Nice blog entry


It was fun! I love to BBQ/Smoke/Grill!


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