Grilled Pork Chop Marinade

Okay, so this isn't really a recipe, but I wanted to share a picture of our first grilling attempt of the season. It was finally warm enough out that I ventured to cook outside. I love the way grilled food tastes, so I was super excited.

Pork Marinade
Kitchen Canister original

Ingredients
1 ounce of dark rum
1/4 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons of McCormick Grillmates for Pork
4 boneless pork chops
1 gallon sized plastic bag that seals

Directions
Combine all ingredients in plastic bag and seal. Shake it around and then let it marinate for no longer than a half hour. (I've noticed pork tends to fall apart if you marinate it any longer)

I'd suggest brushing each side of your chops with a little oil before putting them on the grill. Mine stuck a little bit and it was a pain to clean up. Grill your porkchops to desired doneness and this is what you're finished product will look like.

Boneless Cran-Apple Pork Chops

Every Friday night is pizza night here at the Canister. This past Friday night, we changed that tradition. Instead of throwing away $15 on a pizza that we would eat Friday night for dinner, Saturday and Sunday for lunch, we decided we would actually cook. GASP! This is a big step toward our goal of saving a little more money each week. Now that we have a house, little expenses keep creeping up and surprising us. Last week it was a blown light bulb, the week before, the garage door stopped opening, and so on and so on. Thankfully, that last one happened after we already freed our cars from the garage. As a result of this, I've found that I spend more time in line at Home Depot than I do in the kitchen! Anyway, since we had some free time Friday night, I thought it would be a perfect night to cook. Enter: the best pork chops I've had in a really long time.

Boneless Cran-Apple Pork Chops
Kitchen Canister original

Ingredients
4 boneless pork chops, fat trimmed
1/2 cup cranberry juice
1/2 cup apple cider
1/4 cup apple sauce, unsweetened
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
fresh ground black pepper
1 tablespoon dried sage
1/2 cup water
1/4 of a sweet spanish onion, cut into slices

Directions
Combine all ingredients except water and onions into a large bowl. Pour water over top and stir so each pork chop is coated with marinade. Let chops soak for 15 minutes Coat a pan with olive oil and heat until smoking. Add onions and let carmelize. When pork chops are done marinading, add to pan with onions. Cook each pork chop 3 minutes per side, or until desired doneness. Serve with jasmine rice and broccoli. Top with onions.

Servings: 4




Chef's Notes
These pork chops were so delicious. The spiciness of the chili powder balanced the sweetness of the apple and cranberry juices perfectly. By adding the pork chops to the same pan as the onions, the onions absorbed some of the pork marinade and came out super sweet. Overall, this was a very tasy meal.

Grilled Pork Chops with Pineapple Salsa

Now that my housewarming is behind us, I can get back to what's really important: posting recipes!

Last month we had a few days that were pretty warm. I think one day we even got into the 70's. Since that's almost unheard of this time of year, we fired up the grill for one last meal before it starts getting too cold to cook outside.

Grilled Pork Chops with Pineapple Salsa
courtesy The Neelys of Food Network

Ingredients

Marinade:
1/4 teaspoon lime zest
2 limes, juiced
1 tablespoon honey
1 small shallot, chopped
1 jalapeno, chopped and seeds removed
1 garlic clove, chopped
1/2 cup olive oil
Salt
4 bone-in, center-cut pork chops

Pineapple Salsa:
1/2 pineapple, diced and cored, juices reserved
1 tomato, diced
1/2 red onion, minced
1/2 small jalapeno, diced
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro leaves
1 lime, juiced
Salt and pepper

Directions

For the marinade:
Blend all the ingredients in a large bowl. Place in a resealable plastic bag and add the pork chops. Marinate in the refrigerator for up to 3 hours.

For the salsa:
Mix all the salsa ingredients in a medium bowl. Taste for seasoning. Set aside for 10 minutes for flavors to meld.

Preheat grill to medium heat.

Remove chops from marinade. Grill for 5 minutes per side for a medium rare and 8 minutes for medium. Remove chops from grill and let rest 10 minutes before slicing. Spoon the salsa on top.



Recipe Notes

First, I will talk about the salsa. I only used 1/4 of a red onion and I think it still had way too much onion compared to the other ingredients. Next time, I'll double up on the tomato to balance it out. The pineapple and jalapeno gave it the perfect balance between sweet and spicy though. The salsa was excellent with the pork chops.

Now, onto the pork. Marinading the pork chops really made a difference. Though the recipe recommends marinading for up to 3 hours, my chops soaked it up for only an hour and I think they were perfect. They were so moist, I wanted to eat two!!

The recipe reheated nicely the next night and the salsa got pretty spicy as the flavors sat and melding together. I served this with black beans, which complimented the pork perfectly.

Pesto Stuffed Pork Chops

Every once in awhile, I give up my kitchen duties and let my husband take over. Sometimes the result is not so great, and other times, it's simply fantastic. Tonight was one of those nights. A little stressed out from working late and taking a night class, my husband offered to cook on Sunday. He picked two recipes, one we had almost all the ingredients for, and the other, next to none. I had to choose between these two, so I chose the easier one, since he's not good with multi tasking in the kitchen.

I left him completely alone for 1 hour to prepare the meal. When he emerged from the kitchen, four lovely pesto stuffed pork chops came with him. Overall, this was a great meal.

Pesto Stuffed Pork Chops
from Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook, Bridal Edition

Ingredients
3 tablespoons crumbled feta cheese
2 tablespoons refrigerated basil pesto
1 tablespoon pine nuts, toasted
4 pork loin chops or boneless pork loin chops, cut 1-1/4 inches thick - TIP: since we were going to stuff the pork chops, we purchased butterfly cut chops at the stores instead. This made stuffing them much easier.
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon dried oregano, crushed
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme, crushed
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

Directions
For filling, in a small bowl stir together feta cheese, pesto, and pine nuts. Set aside.

Trim fat from meat. Make a pocket in each chop by cutting horizontally from the fat side almost to the bone or the opposite side. Divide filling among pockets in chops , placing the filling on one side of the chop. Fold over the other half of the chop(when they bake, the two "flaps" will sear together). If necessary, secure the opening with a wooden toothpick.

For rub, in a small bowl combine black pepper, oregano, garlic, red pepper, and thyme. Rub evenly onto all sides of meat. Place chops on a rack in a shallow roasting pan. Bake in a 375 degree F oven for 35 to 45 minutes or until done (160 degrees F) and juices run clear. Brush vinegar onto chops the last 5 minutes of baking. Before serving, discard toothpicks.

Servings: 4




I don't normally post this, but since they had them listed on the site, I thought I would add them. Of course, the facts below would be for the meal prepared exactly as printed on the BHG website.

Nutrition Facts
Calories 358, Total Fat (g) 18, Saturated Fat (g) 5, Monounsaturated Fat (g) 6, Polyunsaturated Fat (g) 2, Cholesterol (mg) 104, Sodium (mg) 201, Carbohydrate (g) 4, Total Sugar (g) 1, Fiber (g) 0, Protein (g) 41, Vitamin A (DV%) 0, Vitamin C (DV%) 2, Calcium (DV%) 6, Iron (DV%) 11, Lean Meat (d.e.) 6, Fat (d.e.) .5, Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet



My husband paired this with corn on the cob and broccoli and carrots with walnuts.(Stay tuned later this week for that recipe). The whole meal was really delicious. The only thing we would do differently if we re-made this, was to go a little lighter on the rub. Rubbing both sides of the chops may have been overkill because the spiciness of it completely overtook the taste of the pesto stuffing.

For the corn, instead of using butter, we topped it with lime juice and chili powder. This was a great healthy alternative to butter!

Easy Pork Chops and Asparagus

I got home from work late tonight after a pretty stressful day and didn't feel like making anything fancy, but was really not in the mood for a fourth night of leftovers from this weekend's 50th birthday bash. My husband went to the store this morning and picked up some pork and asparagus. To keep it simple, I did the following, and we were eating in a half hour.

Easy Pork and Asparagus
No Source

Ingredients
4 boneless pork chops (about 1/4 inch thick)
1 bunch of asparagus
olive oil
dash of salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon rosemary
dash of lemon juice
McCormick Grill Mates for Pork spice rub

Directions
Preheat oven to 350. Add about a tablespoon of oil to a pan and heat until smoking. While the oil is heating prep the pork chops by rubbing both sides with a generous amount of grill mates spice rub.

Break the asparagus stalks into pieces about 1-2 inches long and put into a medium sized mixing bowl. Pour one tablespoon of oil over the asparagus and add all spices above except spice rub. Mix with a spoon and squirt with a dash of lemon juice.

When the oil in the pan is smoking, add the pork chops and cook for 2 minutes on the first side. Flip the pork chops and cook for one minute. Transfer the pork chops to an oven safe pan and pour the juices from the frying pan over them.




Spread the asparagus on a non-stick cookie sheet. Put both the cookie sheet and the pork chop pan in the oven. Let bake for 15-20 minutes, depending on desired level of doneness. (I let mine cook for almost 20 and one of the chops that was a little thinner was just a tad overcooked - still enjoyable though!)



Remove from oven and enjoy!

Servings: 4

Beer BBQ'd Pulled Pork

One of the first recipes I posted on this blog was for pulled pork. I got the recipe from Big City Cooking and my husband and I absolutely loved it. The rootbeer gave the pork a really nice taste.

Now that I have been cooking more and more these past couple months, I decided to put a twist on that recipe. We had some extra beer hanging around the refrigerator, so I thought I would give this a try.

Beer BBQ'd Pulled Pork

see this recipe
instead of root beer, I used a bottle of this:


picture taken from the blog A Roughneck's Take on Beer

Review

This ended up being much more delicious than I could have imagined. The beer really permeated the pork and made it really moist. Even after mixing it with the BBQ sauce, the pork retained a slight flavor of the beer, which mixed well with the taste of the BBQ sauce. A+!

Thick Pork Chops with Spiced Apples and Raisins

I received a bunch of cookbooks for Christmas. Feeling overloaded on sweets, I decided this meal would be a great way to get back into eating better. As it says in the cookbook, the key to this recipe seems to be brining the pork chops before cooking them - it makes the meat very tender. When preparing the brining liquid, please remember to add the gallon of water last. Like an idiot, I filled the bag with water first, and it ended up all over the kitchen (and my new cookbook!). Luckily, there wasn't anything sticky in the solution yet, like the brown sugar, and it was pretty easy to clean up.

Thick Pork Chops with Spiced Apples and Raisins
adapted from Tyler Florence's Real Kitchen

Ingredients

Pork Chops:



1 gallon water
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup sea salt
1 cup frozen apple juice concentrate, thawed (I used regular apple juice, since we had it on hand)
1 1/2 teaspoons whole black peppercorns
2 fresh thyme sprigs (I used dried thyme)
4 double-cut bone-in loin pork chops, 1 pound each (the only meat I could find totaled to about 3 lbs, so mine were slightly smaller than suggested)
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Extra-virgin olive oil

Spiced Apples and Raisins:



2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and sliced in 1/2-inch-thick wedges
Leaves from 2 fresh thyme sprigs (see above re: thyme)
1/4 cup raisins
3/4 cup frozen apple juice concentrate, thawed (see above re: apple juice)
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
Pinch of cardamom
Pinch dry mustard
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Juice of 1/2 lemon (I used store bought lemon juice)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a mixing bowl combine the water, brown sugar, sea salt, apple juice concentrate, peppercorns, and thyme. Give it a good stir to dissolve the sugar and salt. Transfer the mixture to an extra-large re-sealable plastic bag. Submerge the pork chops in the brine, seal up the bag, and put it in the refrigerator for 2 hours to tenderize the meat. Do not brine longer than that or the meat will break down too much and get mushy.

Remove the pork chops from the brine and pat them dry with paper towels. Sprinkle both sides of the meat with salt and pepper. Put a heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Add a 3-count drizzle of olive oil and get it hot. Lay 2 pork chops in the pan (most likely only 2 of these massive pork chops will fit comfortably) and brown 4 minutes per side. Remove the pork chops to a large baking pan; brown the remaining 2 chops and add them to the others in the pan. Put the baking pan in the oven and roast the chops for 30 minutes. The pork is done when the center is still rosy and the internal temperature reads 140 to 145 degrees F when tested with an instant-read thermometer.

While the chops cook, melt the butter in a clean skillet over medium-low heat. Add the apples and thyme and coat in the butter; cook and stir for 8 minutes to give them some color. Toss in the raisins and add the apple juice, stirring to scrape up the brown bits. Stir in the brown sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and dry mustard; season with salt and pepper. Squeeze in the juice from the lemon to wake up the flavor and simmer for 10 minutes or until the apples break down and soften. Spoon the spiced apples over the pork chops.

Servings: 4

Review:
This recipe was really good. Although it says to bake the meat for 30 minutes, my pork chops were a little more done than I would like. I think it was because the meat I bought wasn't super thick like the picture in the book shows. I was planning on checking them at 20 minutes to see how they were cooking, but I got distracted making the spiced apples. The next time I can get my hands on some affordable spices, I'd like to try this recipe out using all the ingredients. I didn't have cardamom, cloves or dry mustard on hand, and each spice would have run me about $10 at the store. I thought that was a little much, so I opted not to use them - especially since I don't have many recipes that call for those spices.

I served this with Vanilla-Honey Glazed Carrots, but the book suggests to serve it with Tyler's corn pudding. (NOTE: this isn't the recipe in his book, but it's the closest I could find online.)

Sage Pork Roast with Apple Pork Gravy

This pork recipe is another one of my stand-by favorites. It comes in especially handy when you want to impress guests, but don't really feel like doing any work. I found this about 2 years ago, but unfortunately, I never wrote down the source, so I have no idea where I got it from.

Tonight, it was just me and the husband, so I halved the recipe and prepared it for 1.5 lbs of pork, instead of 3. Even though it was a smaller size, it still fed us for three meals.

Sage Pork Roast with Apple Pork Gravy

Ingredients:
2 1/2 teaspoons sage
2 cups apple juice
1 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 packets of pork gravy mix
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 apples - cored and chopped into edible size pieces
1.5 cups fresh cranberries
3 lb pork loin

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Mix spices in a small bowl.



Place pork fat side down in a pan and rub with oil.



Sprinkle seasoning mixture generously over roast. Pour apple juice over roast. Garnish with apples and cranberries.



Roast for 1 1/4 hours, basting every 20 minutes. Mix the juices from the pan with the gravy mix. Slice and serve.



Servings: about 12

Review:
As I said above, this recipe is delicious. It takes a while to cook the roast, but the prep work is relatively easy. It is a great meal to cook and impress a large group of people. I served it with steamed carrots and mashed potatoes, with a side salad.

BBQ Pulled Pork

I've been wanting to try a crockpot recipe but too scared to do it while I was at work. Sunday was the perfect day to try since we were home all day. I found this recipe on the Big City Cooking blog. As I was cooking, I wasn't able to smell anything, so I was nervous that I did it wrong. The recipe came out great, though! 

Slow Cooker BBQ Pulled Pork

taken from Big City Cooking

Ingredients:

2 lb pork tenderloin

12 oz can of Dr. Pepper

18 oz bottle of BBQ Sauce

8 hamburger buns

Directions:

Poke holes in the tenderloin with a fork and season with salt and pepper. Place the pork in a slow cooker and pour the Dr. Pepper over it. Cover and cook on low for 7 hours or until well cooked and pork shreds easily.  Drain well. Shred the chicken with two forks. Stir in BBQ sauce. Serve on hamburger buns. 

Servings: Makes 8-10 sandwiches

Modifications:

1. We like stuff spicy so i seasoned the pork with some cayenne, and garlic and onion powder.

2. My pork loin was slightly bigger, so we used extra BBQ sauce and extra Dr. Pepper.

Review:

This recipe was so easy and so good, I almost didn't believe it! The pork came out so juicy and tender, I didn't think I was the one who made it. I will definitely be making this again.