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
- 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.
- Prep Time: 5 min
- Cook Time: 12 min
- Category: Pork chops
- Method: air fryer
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: air fryer, pork chops
Michelle
Delicious. I doubled the recipe and added a bit more to make a total of 5 porkchops. We had no leftovers and Ive already shared this recipe to my bestfriend. This was delicious.
★★★★★
janice r.
This was a delicious recipe. Wouldn’t change a thing! Did it in my Breville Smart Oven along with some street corn and parmesan crusted zucchini. Delish! Thanks!
★★★★★
Kat
These turned out so well, the flavour of the rub is delicious and the air fryer cooked the chops perfectly. I followed the recipe/directions exactly. I wished my air fryer had room for more than 2 chops because I would’ve eaten another one.
★★★★★
Angela
I didn’t have dry mustard so I used yellow mustard as the binder for the seasoning. Then just sprayed my racks with olive oil. Turned out so good!!
Donna
You are so Right this is the best Damn Air Fryer Pork Chops…..
Denise Fullford
I made this recipe for supper this evening, and both my husband and I loved it. The flavor is wonderful, and they did turn out very tender.
★★★★★
Chris
We make these chops once a month on the regular. Quick, easy, delicious…Boom! Dinner!
★★★★★
Julia Orlandi
So juicy and delicious! Thank you for the recipe!
★★★★★
Jill
I have a oven with a air fryer selection, how do I air fry pork chops in it, again its not a air fryer that sits on the counter, its in my oven
RecipeTeacher
Hi Jill. So the full sized oven with air fryer functionality have been a bit of a conundrum for traditional air fryer recipes. Generally speaking, the cooking times is usually a bit longer, simply because the amount of space is so much greater than a countertop air fryer. That said, Start with everything the recipes says, and check for doneness with an instant read thermometer.
Tracey
How long would you cook a 1-3/4 boneless cut?
RecipeTeacher
Really they key to that would be to keep an eye on that internal temp of 145°(F) of the pork chops. The total cooking time will probably be very similar to what’s on the recipe.