Oink! Zesty Southwest BBQ Pork Chops

Zesty! Isn’t that a fun word? I challenge you to use the word “zesty” at least three times today. For example, “My you’re lookin’ mighty “zesty” today!” Yeah, yeah ... I've warned you before about my deficiencies in the joke department. :-)

I found this recipe on-line at the Allrecipes website. It had favorable reviews, and so I thought I’d give it a whirl. I’m a big fan of pork, especially chops. In the past few years, however, the good old piggy population has been bred to crank out leaner and leaner oinkers. That equates to dryer, less flavorful meat. Think about it. The number one complaint about pork chops is that they turn out too dry. To combat this calamity, I’ve turned to brining the chops. It’s a very easy solution, but takes some time. All I do is make a salt water solution, sometimes adding sugar, and let the choppies soak in it for a couple of hours. The end result is always good. Still, I long for the chops of old ... pigs that were raised out in the barn yard with lots of good old fat marbling the meat. Back in my high school days, one of my good friends lived on a pig farm. Oh, the little piglets were sooo cute! Was it messy? Yes. Did it smell to high Heaven? Kinda. Did they taste good? Oooh yeah. Amazingly good! Come on folks, let's band together and demand pork to be raised in the same manner as from era's gone by.

Today’s recipe, does not involving banding together or brining, but it does involve marinating. It looked spectacular, smelled to high Heaven (in a good way this time), but the pork favor was just average. Not bad, not outstanding, just average. Why am I showing you average stuff? Well, first of all, we’ve all been there, and second of all, the rub and sauce that accompanies this really is very, very good. I suspect that I’ve love this on chicken, particularly boneless breasts (another meat that has become less and less flavorful).I served this with a wonderful whipped cauliflower. I don’t know whether to call it just whipped cauliflower or cauliflower gratin. It needs a really zesty name (did you catch that I used “zesty”) because it was absolutely wonderful. South Beach Dieters and Atkins dieters (I think) brought this dish to popularity as a substitute for mashed potatoes. I loved it! Look for it in the next post.

Onward, now, with today’s recipe. Here it is as adapted from Allrecipies. I’ve noted where I modified the ingredients.

Ingredients:

4 teaspoons dried minced onion (I used 3)
2 teaspoons ground cumin (I used 1)
1 teaspoon cornstarch (I totally forgot to add it)
1 teaspoon chili power
1 teaspoon dried minced garlic (I used powder)
½ teaspoon dried oregano (I didn’t use this)
½ teaspoon paprika (I used smoked paprika, yum!)
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
6 bone-in pork chops (about 3/4” thick or so)
¼ cup barbecue sauce
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Directions:

In a small bowl, combine the first eight ingredients, and rub over both sides of the pork chops. Place the pork chops in a large resealable plastic bag. Pour the barbeque sauce and lemon juice over the chops. Gently rub bag to distribute the sauce. (Note: One of the bones pierced my bag, so I simply double bagged it) Refrigerate 1-2 hours (I did about 4 hours.)

Grill the cops, covered, over medium heat or broil 6 in. from the heat for 6-8 minutes on each side or until a meat thermometer read 160 degrees F.NOTE: I grilled mine differently than suggested. If I’d have left these on for 6-8 minutes per side, they’d have turned to cardboard. Instead, I grilled mine, covered, on medium heat (about 400 degrees) for 5 minutes per side. Then I placed them in a baking pan, covered them with foil, and let them sit for about not quite 10 minutes.They cooked perfectly.See how tender they are cooked that way? Also, because the marinade contains bbq sauce, which has sugar in it, watch carefully to prevent burning.

And there you have it. The sauce was really good. Sweet and spicy, and it really “clung” to the meat. The minced onion completely rehydrated, and despite the large amount of it, it did not overpower the other ingredients. Next time, I’ll make extra sauce to serve on the side. Actually, next time I think I’ll brine the meat as I always do, whip up a zesty sauce using all of the other ingredients listed, and then baste the zesty goodness on top.How do you keep your pork chops tender and juicy? (and zesty??? hehe) Speaking of zesty, I had asked my littlest pork chop to go out to the garden and bring me in a couple small leaves of basil for our tomato salad.Here’s what the imp brought me. Little stinker.

(One more thing, this is gluten free, too, as is the cauliflower recipe soon to come!)

The Triple P - Paula's Pork and Potatoes

Do you ever look in your fridge and just, well, let out a ho-hum sigh? I do. Like a wind-up toy, I make the trek from the fridge to the cupboard, back to the fridge, back to the cupboard multiple times before finally acknowledging that I’m just not in the mood to whip up a masterpiece meal. It really has nothing to do with the contents of my larder; it’s usually fully stocked. I think it’s more along the lines of just being plain, old tuckered out.

As I wore out a track on the floorboards today going from fridge to cupboard and back again, I gave myself a pep talk. “Making something quick and easy could be good,” I silently murmured within my own thoughts. (Picture me tapping my finger on the side of my mouth.) “Hmm, that pork should be eaten today, and then there are potatoes just waiting to be eaten.” Ah, my inner psyche knows how to get attention. Potatoes usually make the picky eaters happy. Pork usually makes me happy. The other white meat is actually my preferred white meat.

So .... after much sighing and facial gesturing and finger-to-face tapping, I decided on a simple but flavorful BBQ pork and potato dish. This ended up being a saving-grace decision as my hubby and daughter made their own trek to the neighbors for some extended super bowl fun, thereby causing me to hold a completely cooked meal for over an hour. An hour, people! So much for just popping over for a to say hi. Be gone 45 minutes at the most. Yeah, right. They were gone almost 3 hours! That must have been one loooong helloooooo. (Actually, the neighbors are very, very nice. I was just tuckered out. And grumpy. I'm better now.)

Ahem. Anyway. This pork was very forgiving, and the sitting time actually made it more the texture of smoked pork or even a carnitas, if carnitas were served whole instead of shredded, that is. It’s hard to describe, it wasn’t dry but it wasn’t really juicy either. What is was, though, was tender and excellent. I mean really, really good. The picky eater charter club members liked it, especially my carnivore son who was displeased that I did not have enough for him to have seconds. He covertly faked like he was going to snatch his twin sister’s portion, which resulted in a loud protesting outburst by said sibling. I gave him some of mine, restored peace, and you’d have thought I just provided manna from Heaven judging by the way he ate it. The next time I make this, I’m not sure if I should serve it right away or hold it for an hour!! Here’s what I did.

6 boneless pork tenderloin chops (I prefer bone in, but hubby likes boneless)
Lawry’s Season Salt
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 cup – give or take – of your favorite thick BBQ sauce (mine is gluten free)
8 large red potatoes
½ cup butter – sliced into pats
½ cup heavy cream – generous ½ cup
Sea Salt
White pepper

Season the chops liberally with Lawry’s Seasoned Salt. Rub the oil over the seasoned chops and set aside. Heat up your grill (I grill year round on our gas grill), and when it reaches about 400 degrees, place the chops on the super hot grill. Close the lid, lower the temp just a bit, and grill for 5 minutes. Flip the chops, close the lid, and grill the other side for another 5 minutes. Remove from the grill and place right into a baking dish. Pour BBQ sauce over the chops and place uncovered in a preheated 350 oven for 20 minutes.

While the chops bake, make your potatoes. Select 8 large red potatoes (not the baby variety). Wash, do NOT peel, and cube into large chunks. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add salt if desired. I desired. Add potatoes to the boiling water. Here’s a tip for you. Are you tired of avoiding the scalding splashes when adding veggies to boiling water. Give this a try. Put the veggies, in this case potatoes, into your strainer.Simply lower the stainer into the water, and let the veggies slide out. Easy peasy. Then save the strainer to use when it comes time to, you know, strain the cooked veggies. Boil for about 12 minutes or until cooked. Turn off the burner.

Drain thorough and put back into the hot pot. Place back on burner; the residual heat from the coils/grate will help somehow with the starches. Immediately add the butter and the heavy cream. Stir to coat. Season with sea salt and white pepper. Mash. Leave alone. Over mashing makes them wall paper paste.

Now here is where I would plate and serve them right away.In our case, however, we waited an hour for hubbyman and football fan #3 to return home, with everything staying warm in the oven. They still turned out fabulous.See what I mean? Not dry, not juicy, but oh so tender and all gooooood. The sauce really thickened up during the waiting period. Mmmmmm ... yummilicious. Oh, one more thing. This was gluten free, all the way, baby!

So, I have two questions for you. Well, it’s more than two, but, you know, some of them go together.

1) Have you ever had to hold a meal? How’d it turn out? Good? Flop?
2) What do you like to cook when you are just uninspired?