You’re spoiled for choice when it comes to delicious meat, but you’d be hard pressed to find one that’s more tender and juicy than a flavorful pork chop.
However, ensuring that your pork chops are cooked properly is always key, both for your health and so that you can get the very best taste and texture out of them.
A great way to cook pork chops is at a very high temperature, because it gives them the right tenderness. 400 degrees Fahrenheit is an ideal temperature, but how long should you bake the pork chops for at this temperature?
The short answer is that the cooking time all depends on various factors. For example, the variety of pan you’re using affects it, as does the thickness of the pork chop and its type.
On top of that, the question of whether your pork chop has bones or is boneless also affects it. On the whole, you can expect to cook the chop for 15 to 20 minutes at 400 degrees Fahrenheit, but this can vary based on the aforementioned factors.
In our tasty guide below, we’ve got all the information you need about how long to bake your pork chops for at 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
Pork Chop Varieties
When it comes to buying your pork chop, there are a few different varieties that you can get, which are all different cuts and have their own qualities.
Loin Pork Chops: these are lean and tasty, but they’ll go dry if you cook them for too long.
Sirloin Pork Chops: these are full of flavor.
Blade Or Shoulder Pork Chops: these are also packed with flavor, though they will often have high levels of fat, so watch out for your fat intake.
How To Bake Pork Chops At 400 Degrees Fahrenheit
Cooking your pork chops at 400 degrees Fahrenheit should give you perfectly juicy and tender meat, but you’ll need a few utensils and ingredients in order to do it well:
Ingredients
Pork chop – you choose the cut
Seasonings – you choose! For example, rosemary, peppercorn, etc.
Salt and pepper
Vegetable/olive oil
Utensils
Aluminum foil
Some paper towels
A meat thermometer – essential for knowing the internal temperature!
An oven-proof pan
Instructions
Step One: Brining Your Pork Chop
If you don’t know, brining is a process where you soak the meat in a salt water solution. You’ll want to do this at least an hour before you cook the pork chop, letting it properly brine then removing it from the solution.
After that, leave the chop out to reach room temperature.
Step Two: Preheating
Switch your oven on and set it to 400 degrees Fahrenheit, leaving iot to preheat while you prepare the pork chop for cooking.
Step Three: Seasonings
Next, add your chosen seasonings. Salt and pepper are always must-do seasonings, adding plenty of extra flavor, but you can also add things like rosemary or peppercorn.
Step Four: Preparing The Pan
After that, grab your oven-proof pan. Put it in the oven and wait for it to reach a relatively hot temperature, then allow it to go very hot. Carefully remove the pan without burning yourself, then spread your vegetable oil or olive oil around the pan.
Step Five: Searing The Pork
With your pan prepared, put the pork chop on it. The already-hot pan will begin to cook the pork chop, albeit at a lower heat than the oven. Leave it cooking that way for 3-4 minutes.
Step Six: Flipping The Pork
Once you see the pork chop is starting to turn brown, keep it cooking for a moment more and then flip it over carefully. This will allow the other side to sear, with you leaving it for another 3-4 minutes.
Step Seven: Cooking The Pork
Finally, once both sides of the pork chop have seared and started to go brown, you can put the pan into your preheated oven. Leave it there to cook. But how long for? Read on…
How Long Does A Pork Chop Cook For At 400 Degrees Fahrenheit?
When it comes to cooking a pork chop perfectly, so that it’s tender and juicy, the cooking time will depend on a range of factors. For one thing, the thickness and type of your pork will affect how long it takes to cook through.
On top of that, whether the pork is boned or boneless alters the cooking time too, as does the type of pan you’re using.
Strictly speaking, though, a general rule of thumb is that a pork chop cooking at 400 degrees Fahrenheit will take between 15 and 20 minutes to cook properly.
However, the aforementioned factors can change this. For example, it’s best to cook a boneless pork chop for a few minutes more. Additionally, you should turn the pork chop over around the halfway mark!
Cooking Different Pork Chop Thicknesses
We just mentioned that the thickness of your pork chop will affect its cooking time, changing the amount of time it takes to cook at 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Thankfully, we’ve got the info to help you out with whatever the thickness of your cut is!
1 Inch Thick Pork Chop
If you’ve got a pork chop that is 1 inch in thickness, then it’s going to take a lot less time to cook at 400 degrees Fahrenheit. After all, there’s less meat for the heat to get through, allowing it to fully cook through in a shorter amount of time!
Strictly speaking, a 1 inch thick pork chop will take about 8 minutes to cook in an oven that’s 400 degrees Fahrenheit. However, make sure you flip it over around 4 minutes in so that each side gets equal treatment and cooking.
2 Inch Thick Pork Chop
If you’ve got a pork chop that’s 2 inches thick, however, it’s going to take roughly more than double the amount of time. This makes sense, given that the thickness of the meat is double itself!
Strictly speaking, a pork chop that’s 2 inches thick will take around 20 minutes to properly cook at 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Not only is the cooking time longer, though, but you’ll want to spend longer searing each side beforehand too.
How Does A Meat Thermometer Help?
When you’re cooking a thinner pork chop, it’s unlikely you’re going to need a meat thermometer, because the chop should cook in a relatively short amount of time.
However, when the chop is thicker, such as a 2 inch thick one, it’s worth using a meat thermometer.
Why? Well, a meat thermometer is a utensil that’s inserted into your meat which then tells you the meat’s internal temperature.
It’s always essential that every piece of meat you cook is cooked through thoroughly, and a meat thermometer makes it a lot easier to tell if the meat is one – or whether it needs some more time in the oven.
If you insert your meat thermometer into thicker cuts of pork chop, then you can use it to ensure that the meat has reached an internal temperature of 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
If it hasn’t, then you need to continue cooking until it does, while also following the cooking time guidelines.
Cooking Boneless Pork Chops
As we’ve said before, you need to cook a boneless pork chop for slightly longer than one with a bone in it. This is because the bones conduct heat, allowing the meat to cook quicker!
If your boneless pork chop is 1 inch thick, it will take about 11-12 minutes at 400 degrees Fahrenheit. On the other hand, a boneless pork chop that’s 2 inches thick will need double that time at the same temperature: about 23-24 minutes.
Final Thoughts
It’s essential that you cook your pork chops thoroughly – follow our guide to learn cooking times for different cuts of pork!
Have you ever made something so delicious that you wished you could savor it forever?
Only to find that the recipe has now mysteriously vanished from your phone and the entirety of the internet. Yep, there’s not much more painful than that.
Hi, my name is Mark Williams and I have been infatuated with cooking since I was young. I would beg my mother to pull a chair up to the counter so I could watch what she was doing.
