Nicholas Gavin is the Culinary Creative Director of ChefSteps, where he develops recipes and is responsible for making all the food look beautiful. Nick has worked at ChefSteps for over a decade; he and ChefSteps co-founder Grant Crilly worked together at Modernist Cuisine. Nick has worked in professional kitchens both in the United States and abroad, most notably at Mugaritz in San Sebastian, Spain.

Nicholas Gavin

A nicely seared pork chop, with a deeply browned crust and a rosy and juicy interior with a minimal temperature gradient, is a deceptively simple preparation. Unlike <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/ultimate-guide-to-steak">well-marbled steak cuts</a>, pork loin chops are lean, which means they’re easy to overcook, especially with a high-heat method like searing.The challenge searing presents is you’re juggling two goals with only one source of direct heat: getting the deeply browned crust and gently bringing the inside of the chop to the perfect serving temperature. Focus too much on that crust, and you’ll overcook the inside; focus on gently bringing up the internal temperature, and you’ll sacrifice on browning. Our solution is to use a two-stage sear with two resting periods to account for <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/carryover-cooking-why-you-should-let-meat-rest">carryover cooking</a>. By using a very high pan temperature ([f 420]) for the first stage, we kickstart <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/mastering-the-maillard-reaction">Maillard browning</a>, giving both sides of the chop a nice, base golden crust. To even out the temperature on the inside and prevent ugly gray bands of meat forming just under the crust, we rest the chop and let the pan cool down. We lower the pan temperature to ([f 350]) and add butter, return the chop to the pan, and baste it with the foaming butter to gently bring up the internal temperature—so gently that it gives you ample opportunity to temp the interior and monitor its progress—and build on the crust we started building with the initial sear. Well before the chop hits its serving temperature, we pull it out of the pan again, so that carryover cooking can take it up to whatever your target serving temperature is.

Precision Pan-Seared Pork Chops