Pellet Smoker Cooking: Pork Chops W/ Pierogies, Bacon, Onions and Cabbage

May 03 2015

I bought some pork chops from my butchers Kah’s. We had been eating a lot of beef so needed a change. We like them with fried cabbage and pierogies makes it better yet. I had some store bought vacuum sealed thawed out to use.

For the chops I used and idea I borrowed from Jeannie at Cowgirl’s Country Life blog. You sprinkle on some Morton’s tender quick and in the fridge on a wire rack; an hour for thin chops and 2 hours for thick, then rinse off well and dry. For these I let them in for 1 ½ hours. When fried or grilled they will be tender and juicy.

I wanted to do the chops on my Weber Spirit grill on the back side of Grillen Grates. I did not want to be running back in the house to do the pierogies; there was just enough room on the grill for my Lodge CI skillet so I could do it all outdoors. My grill is just a step down from my smoking deck so I fired up my Traeger at 185 deg. I could throw the chops on there for a little smoke and they would be handy when I was ready for them. I seasoned them with a little Penzey’s 4S salt and fresh ground pepper.

I cut 3 slices of Kah’s bacon in a large dice, sliced a sweet onion and some cabbage in 1 inch dice. I had that ready a little before 5:00 and I had forgotten to bake my take home and bake bread. I got the oven heated up and baked it for 11 minutes. I had water ready to boil the pierogies for a couple of minutes.

I fired up my smoker then boiled the pierogies and drained then added a couple pats of butter to keep them from sticking. I fired up my Weber on med. high and had the Grillen grate and skillet in. I put the chops in my smoker. My grill was just over 400 deg. when I started frying the bacon and had the skillet a little too hot so turned that burner to med. low. I removed the bacon when it was brown and added the onion.

When the onion was starting to brown I added the cabbage in and a little salt. When the cabbage was cooked down some I added the bacon back in. I browned the pierogies 2 or 3 minutes on each side and added them on top of the cabbage. It was time to do the chops, that were close by in my smoker. I did them about 6 to 7 minutes per side. I added them to the top of the skillet and let get happy a few minutes. I carried inside and served the wife and me. Total cook time on the grill was about 45 minutes.

That was good; chops were delicious, tender and juicy! Using the skillet on the Weber was a little harder to control the heat but went pretty well. My cabbage was a little more done than I like but still good! The only thing that would have made it better was homemade pierogies!

Pierogies and ingredients