Grilled Pork Chops with Wine Brown Butter Sauce and Prosecco Superiore wine pairing

The next time you think of pork chops, elevate them to the next level by making this super easy, yet elegant, Wine Brown Butter Sauce. Pair it with a bottle of delicious Prosecco Superiore, and you’ve got yourself an incredible meal for date night or entertaining guests.

We’re very passionate about our bubbly around here. And ever since traveling to the Conegliano Valdobbiadene region of Northeast Italy, home of the best Prosecco, I’ve been preaching my love non-stop for the sparkling wines from this region.

And one of the things I love most about sparkling wine, and Prosecco Superiore in particular, is how well it pairs with a diverse variety of foods.

Sparkling wines are typically stereotyped into those strictly for celebrations or as an aperitif. But few people realize that when paired with food, sparkling wines are THE most versatile food wines around. Period.

You give me anything from a salad to a steak and I’ll find you a sparkling wine to pair. So I was beyond thrilled to partner up with one of my favorite sparkling regions on the planet to pair some of our favorite grilled foods (meat included!) with the versatile wines from this region. And to start, we’re grilling some pork chops.

But first, what’s the difference between Prosecco and Prosecco Superiore DOCG?

Simply put, Prosecco often gets lumped into one category — fresh, fruity, and inexpensive sparkling wine made throughout the Veneto region of Italy. But if you’re willing to look a little deeper, there’s so much more to Prosecco than it gets credit for.

Prosecco Superiore comes specifically from the hilly area of Conegliano and Valdobbiadene, which includes 15 little towns located at the heart of the Veneto region, home of the highest quality DOCG wines of the region.

Why does this matter?

Because these wines are different than their better known counterparts, and are incredibly high quality for the price (you can find great examples from around $15-$25!). They are usually lower in sugar, so they don’t come across so sweet. Instead you get a great balance of fruit and floral flavors with fine, elegant bubbles.

And most of them are made by smaller, family-operated winemakers, with more attention given to the details. Essentially, you’re getting the highest quality product possible from the grapes of this stunning region.

And best of all, these wines are great with foods of all kinds.

We’ll go into more detail about what makes these wines unique in our next pairing post, but until then you can click here to learn more about the Conegliano Valdobbiadene region, where these wines are produced.

Now let’s talk Grilled Pork Chops with Wine Brown Butter Sauce

Grilled Pork Chops with Wine Brown Butter Sauce

There are a million pairing options for Prosecco Superiore, but one of my favorite things to debunk is the idea of pairing sparkling wine with meat. Most folks will default to red wine or a rich white wine for a meat pairing (especially grilled meat). But sparkling, and Prosecco Superiore in particular, have both the richness and acidity to handle so many cuts of meat. Pork chops have a great natural sweetness to them, and when grilled take on a fantastic smoky char. The brown butter sauce we use is finished off with some of the Prosecco Superiore giving it a depth of flavor and acidity to brighten up the grilled meat and bring everything together.

Basically this pairing was made for Prosecco Superiore!

How to pick out the best pork chops for this recipe?

Since we’re grilling this, and you want it to cook evenly, you want thick chops. I mean like 1 ½ – 2 inches thick. Having thicker chops helps prevent overcooking your pork. You can go bone-in or boneless.

Next we’re going to season it with our herbed dry rub.  This is going to add great flavor to that crust once we grill it.

How to Grill Pork Chops

We typically love to do a reverse sear on our pork chops, like this recipe. But for the wine we don’t want too much smoky flavor (this time). So we’re sticking to grilling hot and fast.

If you don’t have a grill you can mimic these same instructions over a searing hot cast iron pan on your stovetop.

Grill over direct heat on both sides for approximately 8 minutes per side, until internal temperature of 140 degrees Fahrenheit. After you pull the pork it will continue cooking another 5 degrees. The exact length of time will ultimately depend on the thickness of your pork chops. If you have too much flame under the pork, then set up the grill for direct and indirect cooking so you can move the pork chops over indirect heat.

Once they are finished, move to your brown butter sauce while the pork chops rest for a few minutes.

How to make the Wine Brown Butter Sauce

You can do this on a cast iron pan directly on your grill, or on the stovetop. Your choice. The grill will be a bit trickier to just make sure you don’t burn the butter.

Start by melting the butter in a pan (use a cast iron skillet if doing this directly on your grill). Let the butter slowly simmer for six minutes, until you start to see the butter start to turn a darker color. Then add your chopped shallots, garlic, sage, and salt. Let it mix until the vegetables soften and the sage starts to fry (about two minutes). Then pour in the wine and let it simmer one more minute. That’s it! So simple and it adds incredible flavor to your pork chops. Total time is about 9 minutes.

The last thing you need to do is to be sure to pour yourself a glass of Prosecco Superiore to pair with this simple, yet elegant dish to find out for yourself how great sparkling wines from this region can pair with grilled meat!

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This post was sponsored by Consorzio di Tutela Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG. As always, all opinions are my own and I only work with folks I love and support. And I will always have a warm place in my heart for the Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore growing region.