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.
Cooking
Preheating your air fryer is an important step! You’ll want to preheat at 400°F 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. Check for doneness with an instant-read food thermometer. We’re aiming for an internal temp of 140°F. If your pork chops are very thick, they may require an additional few 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!
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PrintRecipe
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°F 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 on the air fry setting at 400°F for 12-14 minutes or until internal temperature of 140°F. Flip pork chops over after 6 minutes.
Notes
Air fryer temperatures can vary. Remove pork chops when internal temperature reaches 140°F. The carryover cooking will bring the temp up to 145°F.
- Prep Time: 5 min
- Cook Time: 12 min
- Category: Pork chops
- Method: air fryer
- Cuisine: American
Maria
Found your recipe on Pinterest and used bone-in pork chops and they turned out absolutely AMAZING!! If I could have beaten the bone, I would have lol do you happen to have any kind of recipe for chicken legs in the air fryer without breading? I’m wondering if I could use the same spices that I used for the pork chops for the chicken legs…
Cheneen
Hi Maria
I love experimenting. Personally, those herbs and spices would work for chicken. I would use the same spicing and maybe just double check the temp and time for cooking chicken pieces in an airfryer.
Lisa
I made this again for Father’s Day today for a second time. Excellent! I don’t keep onion powder in the spice rack, so I just doubled the garlic powder. It was a hit once again. I took the advice and bought bone in, think pork chops.
Leslie
Absolutely tender and delicious. Cooked exactly per recipe and chops were cooked perfectly!
Connie
Second time making this recipe. I have a lg Power XL air fryer oven, and it has come out perfectly each time. Using the same directions.
Danna Guinn
I have the same air fryer and I love it
Melanie
Easy and delicious!
Erika Witt
Highly recommend this recipe! The only change I made is I added chili powder to rub mix. Gave it a little bit of a kick to the sweet flavor.
RecipeTeacher
Chili powder does indeed add a nice additional boldness and kick.
Dave
Love this recipe. I have made several times and always great. I didnt have ground mustard last time so subsitituted tumeric and it may have even been better 🙂 The 12 minutes is a perfect cooking time.
Iris Campbell
Second time making these! Love them! Love the sweet and salty taste.
Deb
I agree. I will only use about 3/4 tsp salt. Otherwise, DELICIOUS !,
Marcia McGavisk
I love love love this recipe. Just be aware to get 2 inch chops to a safe 145 temperature it takes longer than 12 minutes. Maybe it’s just my air fryer too. I have a Cosori. Either way, they are well worth the extra time! Delicious!😋
Tim Woodcock
Also loved this recipe super simple but had the same issue. I believe I ended up doing about 11-12 minutes per side rather than the six minutes that was suggested.