This recipe for the Best Damn Air Fryer Pork Chops is so juicy, tender and delicious, it’s sure to quickly become a favorite air fryer recipe. With a few simple ingredients, and only 12 minutes cook time, these air fryer pork chops are perfect for a tasty dinner any day of the week.
Let me start my saying how much i’m loving my air fryer. I’ve owned a lot of kitchen gadgets over the years and my two favorites are my air fryer and my Instant Pot. And honestly, not far behind is my George Foreman Grill – but that’s a discussion for another day. The thing about an air fryer, is that, well, you’re not really frying in the traditional sense. It’s honestly more like a rapid cook oven/broiler. And there’s plenty of times I don’t want to heat up the house by turning on the regular oven. Besides, for this pork chop recipe I get the best results in the air fryer anyways!
What are the best pork chops for the air fryer?
I’ve found that the very best pork chops for the air fryer are thick, center cut, bone-in chops. I try to get them as thick as possible – somewhere between 1 ½ inches to 2 inches thick. The reason I like the thick chops the best is that with the cooking time required, it’s gives the pork chops a beautiful char on all sides. Thin pork chops will cook too quickly and never get that nice char on them. Thick pork chops require a cooking time of about 12 minutes. And with our rub from this recipe, we get that beautiful char on them that’s delicious!
Make a rub for air fryer pork chops
For this recipe for air fryer pork chops, we will not be breading the pork chops. Rather, we will be making a rub seasoning mix which we are going to very liberally apply to the meat. The rub is very simple too. We’ll use brown sugar, paprika, ground mustard, onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper. We mix it together and rub it all in to pork chops that have been rinsed, dried, and coated with a little olive oil. Rinsing the pork chops and patting them dry with a paper towel is important so don’t skip that step.
Preheat your air fryer
Preheating your air fryer is an important step! You’ll want to preheat at 400 degrees for 5 minutes. Then when it’s ready, cook the pork chops in the air fryer for 12 minutes, flipping them over after 6 minutes.
When the pork chops are done, remove them from the air fryer and place them on a plate and let them rest for a couple of minutes. Then you’re ready to serve and enjoy! There will be a nice juice that will form from the seasonings and the natural juices of the pork. Slice the pork chops in thin slices, and get some of the seasoned juice on each bite. You’re gonna love it!
Best Damn Air Fryer Pork Chops
- Prep Time: 5 min
- Cook Time: 12 min
- Total Time: 17 minutes
- Yield: 2
Description
Juicy, tender and delicious air fryer pork chops.
Ingredients
- 2 center-cut, bone-in pork chops, 1 ½ – 2 inches thick
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon paprika
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- 1 ½ teaspoons fresh ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon ground mustard
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- 1–2 tablespoons olive oil
Instructions
- Preheat air fryer to 400 degrees for 5 minutes
- Rinse pork chops with cool water and pat dry completely with a paper towel.
- In a small bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients.
- Coat the pork chops with olive oil and rub in the mix. Rub it in well and liberally. Use almost all of the rub mix for the 2 pork chops.
- Cook pork chops in air fryer at 400 degrees for 12 minutes, flipping pork chops over after 6 minutes.
- Category: Pork chops
- Method: air fryer
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: air fryer, pork chops
Mary Ann V
Just made this tonight, it was so good. I had 1/2″ thick chops, cooked for close to the same amount of time, I had to substitute garlic powder for granules and minced onion instead of onion powder but it was basically the same. Chops were very juicy, which is something I have been having trouble with lately. Thanks you for this recipe, I will be making this again and again.
★★★★★
Jennifer E.
I didn’t have ground mustard, so I improvised with rubbing the chops with mustard before rubbing dry ingredients on them. I also added 1 tsp of Cumin to the mix. And after rubbing the dry mix on them I sprayed both sides with a little Grape seed spray. And they came out delish!!!
★★★★★
Theresa
Just made the air fryer best damn pork chops. Was delicious. I followed recipe to the letter except cooking time as mine were not 1 1/2” thick. Next time I’ll decrease the amount of brown sugar though, person choice, as I’m not big on sweet on my savory meat. My husband loved it! Thank for the step by step as this was only my 2nd time with using an air fryer
Louise
Made this recipe tonight and it was soooo good! Will definitely doing it again. Thank you for the recipe
★★★★★
Hunter
I was very surprised with how well this turned out. Very impressed. I will be making porkchops much more often
Ricky Stupar
These were super amazing. My husband and I have a smaller air fryer, so what I did was cut the pork chops into pieces/ debone them. I had them marinate for around 3 hours and placed them in the air fryer. They came out absolutely amazing.
★★★★★
RecipeTeacher
Thanks Ricky!
Heather Linteo
The only way I cook pork chops now
★★★★★
Amanda
What a great recipe! Nice and simple and very juicy chops! I paired ours with a side salad and some Mac & cheese. Will definitely make again! TY
★★★★★
Barbara Cody
This is the first recipe we tried in our new air fryer. AMAZING. I prepared it exactly as the “teacher” instructed. My husband’s comment was “I don’t think I have ever had a more tender, tastier pork chop”! This recipe is a keeper – just delicious!!
★★★★★
Jay S
WOW! I am normally potatoes and meat kind of guy, not meat and potatoes. since the potatoes always get finished first. Not this time so Tender and juicy and awesome flavor
★★★★★