Brined Roast Rack of Pork with Apple Chutney and Sour Mash Sauce
6 cups water
1 container apple juice concentrate, thawed
1/2 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 onion, peeled and quartered
10 black peppercorns
10 mustard seeds
8 sprigs fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
1 (3 to 4-pound) center cut rack of pork, Frenched and fat removed (we used a pork loin instead of a rack)
2 Tbsps olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 cups whiskey (recommended: Jack Daniels)
5 cups chicken stock
2 Tbsps cold unsalted butter
Apple-Ginger Chutney, recipe follows

Bring the water, apple juice concentrate, salt, sugar, onion, peppercorns, mustard seeds, thyme and bay leaves to a simmer in a large stock pot and cook until the sugar and salt are dissolved. Let cool completely. Submerge the roast in the brine by placing a plate on top, then cover with plastic and refrigerate for at least 12 hours and up to 24 hours. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Remove the pork from the brine and pat dry with paper towels. Heat the oil in a large saute pan over high heat. Season the pork all over with salt and pepper and cook on both sides until golden brown, about 5 to 6 minutes. Transfer the pork to a baking sheet and finish cooking in the oven until cooked to an internal temperature of 150 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer, about 25 to 30 minutes (ours took about an hour). Remove from the oven and let rest, loosely tented with foil, for 10 minutes.

While the pork is roasting, add the whiskey to the saute pan that the pork was cooked in, scraping the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon, and cook until almost completely reduced. Add the chicken stock, bring to a boil, and cook until reduced to a sauce consistency. Whisk in the butter, season with salt and pepper.

Cut pork into chops, top each chop with some of the Apple-Ginger Chutney, and drizzle a little of the sauce around the pork chop and over the chutney.

Apple-Ginger Chutney:
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 cup orange juice
3 Tbsps light brown sugar
1 Tbsp honey
2 large Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced
3 large Gala apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp kosher salt
Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the onions and cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and ginger and cook for 1 minute. Increase the heat to high, then add the orange juice, brown sugar, and honey and bring to a simmer. Stir in the apples, allspice, and salt and pepper, cover, and cook for 5 minutes. Remove the lid and cook until the apples are soft and the liquid has evaporated, about 15 minutes. Serve with the pork.

My notes: We had the Kuhn Christmas at our house last weekend. I wanted to do something different than turkey (and Seth and I aren't big ham fans). So we went with a pork roast. Seth's best friend, Chris, is a meat cutter and he got us a great deal on a HUGE pork loin (close to 12lbs.). I cut a few chops out of the middle of it because it was too big to fit in the oven! We tried a brine for the first time. They say that pork is a lot leaner now-a-days and a brine helps keep it juicy...which it definitely was. I made some changes to the chutney recipe. It called for onions and garlic, which I left out. I also substituted cinnamon for allspice. I'd definitely do this recipe again.