Seared Pork Chops

So in that stack of magazines my sister gave me to read during my recovery, there were a bunch of People magazines. I will confess right now that I still enjoy reading People. I don't even know half of the people in there anymore, but I still like to read them. But I do not spend money on them. Sometimes they are in the break room at work and I read them on my supper break. Sometimes I get the head of my femur hacked off and replaced with metal, and my sister gives me a stack of them to read. However I get them, I still like to read them. In each issue there is a celebrity recipe, and this is People magazine's debut on New Recipe Night. I know that they are very excited about this. So this recipe is Joe Jonas's (of the Jonas Brothers, which is a band, but I have never heard any of their songs) favorite pork chops, from the April 26, 2010 issue of People. I have never made a recipe with this method. I am sure that food safety experts would think this wasn't the best way to prepare food. But I will tell you that it tasted yummy and moist. Just use a meat thermometer and make sure the pork chops get to 170 and it should be fine (you can't go by color on pork like you can with beef and chicken. That's a free tip hee hee).

Seared Pork Chops
4 pork chops, bone-in or boneless (we used boneless)
1 gallon warm water
1/4 cup chili flakes (according to Yahoo answers, you can use dried red pepper flakes as a substitute, which is what I did, but I only used half of what it called for in case it would be too spicy)
1/2 cup salt (that sounds like a lot, but salt isn't very expensive, so...it's fine)
6 cloves garlic, smashed
1/4 cup olive oil
salt and pepper to taste (I didn't add any, mostly because I forgot. They still tasted great)

In a large mixing bowl, mix water, chili flakes, salt, and garlic. Add pork chops and let sit for 1 hour in refrigerator. Remove chops from mixture and pat dry thoroughly. In a heavy cast-iron pan (which I do not have, I just used a skillet), heat olive oil. Season chops with salt and pepper. Place chops in pan and cook 3 to 4 minutes per side. Remove from pan and let rest 2 minutes before serving.

Mine took a bit longer than 3-4 minutes per side, I ended up turning them back over for 3 more minutes, so a total of like 9-12 minutes. These smelled fabulous cooking, and tasted really really good. The kids all liked them too. They ended up much moister than the pork recipes I've made in recent months. So another keeper. Thank you, Joe Jonas.