BEST AIR-FRYER PORK CHOPS

 

Normally when Fall or Autumn, whichever one you call it, comes, we still are using our outdoor grill a lot. This Fall though we aren't since the grill needs a new element. That means I have to start thinking of different ways to cook meats. 

We have used our air fryer to cook a few things, but usually it is used to cook frozen meats and sweet potato fries. I did cook pork chops in it a few years ago and they really tasted good. So when I was wanting to cook some again for lunch, I thought of the air fryer.

I had no idea how I made them before, but I found a recipe online that sounded good so I didn't take the time to check to see if it was the same recipe. (It wasn't since I did check later.)

This recipe isn't anything like the other air-fryer pork chop recipe (check it out HERE.) which is good for variety. Next time I make the recipe I will reverse the measurements for the salt and pepper. Wayne and I don't like our food real salty and I recognized it immediately with the first bite. The pork chop was perfectly cooked and not dry at all. So tender, also. I only cooked two porkchops and was not sure I would have had enough rub for four porkchops as the recipe called for. Since you can only cook two porkchops at a time, we will borrow an air fryer if we make these for guests so the first two won't be cold. I did have to cook the chops 3 extra minutes because they were 1/2" to 1 " thick. They were French cut porkchops. But I checked the temperature to make sure it was 145 degrees F.

PRINT recipe.

BEST AIR-FRYER PORK CHOPS

1/2     cup grated Parmesan cheese

1        teaspoon paprika

1        teaspoon garlic powder

1/2     teaspoon salt

1        teaspoon dried parsley

1        teaspoon ground black pepper

2 to 4 boneless pork chops

extra virgin olive oil

Preheat air fryer for 3 minutes at 380 degrees F.

Coat each pork chop with olive oil. Set aside.

Combine the dry ingredients in a flat shallow dish like a pie plate with a fork to distribute/blend all the ingredients.

 

Dredge both sides of each chop

in the mixture and

set on a plate.

Place chops in the basket of the air fryer making sure they do not touch. Cook at 380 degrees F. for 10 to 13 minutes depending on the thickness of the chops.

Flip the chops halfway through the cooking time.

Check doneness with a meat thermometer (at least 145 degrees F.) Remove from air fryer.

Allow chops to rest on a plate for 5 minutes before serving. This is the other pork chop. It was smaller than the other one. I ate it and Wayne ate the bigger one.

AIR FRYER PORK CHOPS

 It's always fun to turn the kitchen over to Hubby Wayne...well usually it is. No seriously, he's not a bad cook at all. He always cooks fish if we have fish and he likes to grill. He is quickly becoming a fast fan of the Air Fryer. 

He tried this recipe for cooking pork chops in the Air Fryer and thinks it is the only way to pork chops now. They are so juicy cooked in the Air Fryer. The recipe if for two pork chops but because our porkchops are so thick, he cooked one and we halved it. He used half of the rub and we saved the other half in a ziplock bag to use at a later date.

AIR FRYER PORK CHOPS

2       center-cut, bone - in or boneless, 1-1/2 to 2 - inches thick

2       tablespoons brown sugar

1       tablespoon paprika

1-1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1       teaspoon ground mustard

1/2    teaspoon onion powder

1/4    teaspoon garlic powder

1-2    tablespoons olive oil

Preheat air fryer to 400 degrees for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile rinse pork chops with cool water and pat dry completely with a paper towel.

In a small bowl, mix together all of the dry ingredients.

He only used half of the rub and we saved the rest for another time.

Pour the olive oil in a small bowl and

coat both sides of the pork chops with olive oil.

Rub in the mix, rubbing in well and liberally.

Use most of the rub mix for the two pork chops.

Wayne rubbed it even on the sides of the pork chops.

When he was finished, he coated the top and bottom with the rest of the olive oil.

Spray the bottom of the air fryer's basket with non-stick cooking spray. 

Place the chops in the air fryer basket and cook for 12 minutes at 400 degrees F,

flipping the chops at 6 minutes. Temperature should be 160 degrees F.

Serve immediately. 

EASY ZESTY PARMESAN CHICKEN

We enjoyed the Air Fryer Salmon Steaks so much that it made us rediscover our Air Fryer. We use the Air Fryer often. It does a super job on frozen sweet potato fries and frozen chicken patties or nuggets, but it has been a while since I used it for anything else. 

I had this recipe in my Blue Binder for Easy Parmesan Garlic Chicken that I had never actually made. I wondered how to alter the cooking instructions for an oven baked item to cooking it in the Air Fryer. After doing a search, it appears that you lower the cooking temperature by 20%. The cooking time seems to be about the same. I used foil in the bottom of the basket when I cooked the salmon but not the pork chop a while back. I decided to use the foil this time, but as long as you spray the wire screen, I think it would be fine with no foil.

I didn't have any Italian Salad Dressing Mix and had to go to the store to buy some. They had the "plain", but I decided I would get the "zesty" one for more flavor since Wayne likes things "zesty". Since it had so many spices in it, I decided to omit the garlic. I could have easily included it since it was only a half a teaspoon but I didn't. I couldn't get all of my tenders in the basket at one time so I cooked them in two shifts. We didn't want anymore than the first basket though so I just put them in a plastic container to eat at another time.

We were very satisfied with them and I will be more willing to convert some of my recipes to the Air Fryer instead of using the oven. Especially in the summer when I would prefer not to heat up the kitchen using the oven. I did include the oven cooking directions in case you don't have an Air Fryer even though I obviously don't have pictures. 

EASY ZESTY ITALIAN PARMESAN CHICKEN

 1/2     cup grated Parmesan cheese

1         envelope Zesty Italian Salad Dressing Mix (can use plain Italian Salad Dressing  Mix)

Boneless chicken breast halves or chicken tenders

1/2      teaspoon garlic powder (optional if using Zesty Italian Mix)

Combine cheese, salad dressing mix, and garlic powder, if using.

Moisten chicken with water;

coat both sides with cheese mixture. 

For Air Fryer:

Line bottom of air fryer basket with foil. Not required to come up the sides as far as mine did. Spray foil.

Place coated chicken tenders or breast halves on foil. Set temperature to 370 degrees F and time to cook for 15 minutes for tenders; 20  to 25 minutes for breast halves. (check temperature of chicken after 20 for breast halves.)

For Oven:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place coated chicken pieces in a shallow baking dish. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.

AIR FRYER SALMON STEAKS

 Restaurant Quality! That's the rating Wayne gave this Air Fryer Salmon Steaks. He couldn't quit raving about them as he ate his. He loves salmon and cooks it different ways. This was my first time to eat salmon that wasn't in a salmon croquettes.

Friend Julie shared her delight with the steaks on Facebook so I asked her for the recipe since I knew Wayne would probably enjoy them. The recipe calls for 2 salmon filets that are 6 ounces each. Ours were about 4 ounces each. I know one looked half the size, but Wayne said the larger one was thinner. Depending on the size of yours, you may want to adjust the cooking time. We did test the steaks after 6 minutes and they both registered 145 degrees each which if the desired temperature.

Thanks Julie for sharing your recipe with us. Wayne is already talking about trying other kinds of fish in the air fryer.

AIR FRYER SALMON STEAKS

2    salmon steaks, 4 - 6 ounces each

1    tablespoon butter, melted

1    teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1/2 teaspoon lemon pepper

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Lemon slices, fresh dill, or parsley for garnish (optional)

Line the air fryer basket with foil that will go up the sides for easy removal. Spray the foil with nonstick cooking spray.

Combine the garlic powder, paprika, lemon pepper, and sea salt in a small bowl.

Brush the butter on top of the two steaks.

Sprinkle the mixture over the top of the steak.

Pat down if you like.

Using a spatula, place steaks on foil skin side down. and set temperature on air fryer to 400 degrees and set time for 6 - 7 minutes. I would recommend pausing at 6 minutes to check doneness. Temperature should be 145 degrees with meat thermometer.

Hold onto the sides of the foil to lift out.

Serve immediately.

BREADED PORK CHOPS (AIR FRYER)

Our younger son Patrick is always raving about his air fryer. When I checked them out, I hated to pay that much money for something I wasn't sure we would use that much. I have looked at estate sales hoping to find one cheaper, but no luck. 

A couple of weeks ago our neighborhood had garage sales. We never have much luck selling our "stuff" at garage sales, but we do like to support our neighbors. We had been to several sales and was on our way home when we decided to stop at one more sale. Imagine my surprise when I saw they had one for sale. The piece of blue tape on it said 15. I asked the man if it worked? (Thinking for that little amount, something had to be wrong with it.) He said it did. Then I asked him why they were selling it. He said, "Well, we decided we wanted to eat more healthy." I was really proud of myself that I didn't have any response to him. I noticed there was no paperwork with it so I asked him if he had the manual. He said he didn't but I knew I could go online and copy one off. 

Well, we have used it for several things. It took us a bit to figure how how to use it, but we didn't give up. I copied a couple of recipe from the online manual, but this recipe for the breaded pork chops, I found online from Ronda Eagle at Kitchen Dreaming. 

They were so delicious and moist. We have made them twice. The first time I didn't spray the basket of the fryer with nonstick cooking spray and when I turned the chops half way through cooking time, some of the crumb mixture stuck to the basket. When I turned the chop over, to cook the last 6 minutes, they didn't stick. So the second time we tried it, we sprayed the bottom of the basket lightly and the chop didn't stick to it. The recipe says you can do four pork chops, but our pork chops are so big, only two could cook at a time.

Click here for a printable version of just the recipe.

BREADED PORK CHOPS (AIR FRYER)

2     center-cut pork chops, 1/2 inch thick
1     egg white, beaten
1/4  cup water
1/2  cup Panko breadcrumbs (I make my own breadcrumbs)
2     teaspoons paprika
1     teaspoon oregano
1/4  teaspoon garlic powder
1/4  teaspoon black pepper
1/8  teaspoon dry mustard
1/4  teaspoon salt
non-stick cooking spray

Remove the fry pan basket from the fryer and lightly spray the basket net. Place basket back into the base tray.

Beat egg white with water with a fork in a shallow bowl big enough to dip pork chop in.

Mix together the breadcrumbs with the spices in another shallow bowl (a pie plate is good for this).

Place pork chop first in the egg white/water mixture and turn to coat both sides.

Then place chop in breadcrumb mixture.

Turn to cover both sides. Make sure you also cover the edges.

Place chops in basket making sure they don't touch. Lightly spray the chops with cooking spray.

Place base tray in air fryer.









Change the temperature to 380 degrees F. Set timer for 12 minutes. 

Cook the chops for 6 minutes and then turn the chops over and lightly spray the chops. Cook for 6 more minutes. 

Allow the chops to rest for 3 minutes before serving. (We leave them in the fryer for the 3 minutes.)

There is enough crumb mixture to cook two more chops. I just put the mixture in the refrigerator and saved it until we were ready to cook two more. Since I am new at this, I am interested in your feedback re how you would keep the first two warm while you cooked two more.