Grillin’ Temperatures for Chops

Video

Chops are great for grillin’. Cooked properly, they’re moist and delicious. In this video, you’ll learn how to carefully grill a chop to perfection, and know with certainty when it’s done.

Lesson

In the spirit of true barbecue, the “low and slow” cooking philosophy works extremely well with chops. Cooking meat at low temperatures (220°F to 240°F) over several hours keeps the juices bubbling inside the meat and produces the best results.

Taking the chops’ temperature

The best way to know when chops are done is to gauge their temperature using a meat thermometer. It is generally accepted that all pork should be cooked to an internal temperature of 160°F. This is true for most cuts, including shoulder, butt, tenderloin, loin chops (bone-in or boneless), pork patties, cutlets, tenderloin medallions, and leg of pork. But certain cuts can be cooked to a lower temperature and remain safe to eat. Loin roasts, crown roasts, and uncured fresh hams can be cooked to 160°F. And a fully cooked ham, which only needs to be warmed up, can be heated to 140°F.

But you don’t necessarily have to leave pork on the grill until it reaches 160°F. Instead, you can remove a pork roast, butt, or loin from the heat when it reaches 150°F, place it on a platter, cover it with foil, and let it rest for 10 minutes. Like chicken, the temperature of pork will rise the last 10°F while it’s resting. The result: a tender, moist, and flavorful meat, especially if you’ve brined it.

Chops are the exception to this rule: they need to be cooked to 160°F, as they are too thin to increase in temperature when off the grill.

Testing doneness

If you cut into the center of the chop and the meat is slightly pink and juicy, you don’t necessarily have to throw it back over the flames. As long as the meat thermometer reads 160°F, it’s perfectly safe to eat, and much more flavorful than if you cooked it to a higher temperature.

For more info on this topic, see our lesson on Cook Temperature vs. Cook Time.