First, let me state up front, I'm not a huge pork chop fan. My mom loves them and use to cook them often when I was a kid. She fried them. And some times do the Shake 'N Bake thing. I preferred baked to fried, but still pretty blah. Then one day while watching Good Eats, AB did show on pork chops. And, of course, I learned why the chops are so bland. Modern pigs are bred to be lean not for lard and that effects the meat making it less fatty and flavorful.
Okay, knowing this I had planned to brine some chops and see if that helped. I still have done that.
In fact, mom the pork chop lover turned hater after years of blah chops. So the molasses coffee marinade grabbed my attention and I figured it would be worth giving a whirl... for the sake of the Recipe of the Week post if nothing else. But I wanted to reclaim the pig as a dining option.
What luck, Kroger was running a sale on pork chops. It was a sign.
First of all, I'm not a big coffee drinker so having old coffee hanging around wasn't an option. Instead, I brewed some fresh in my French press then parked it in the freezer to chill. While the coffee cooled down, the mise en place was assembled.
It was also destined I make this recipe because everything was on hand--well, not Dijon mustard. I subbed it with spicy brown mustard. I also decided against making the glaze from the leftover marinade. There's just something I don't like about using a liquid that soaked raw meat. It's probably just something in my brain that I need to make peace with since AB used it and he's okay with it.
Another change was using my cast iron griddle instead of the outside grill. It is still winter here after all, in fact Sunday brought an inch or so of snow! But I got the all important diamond pattern marks from the grill side of the griddle. :)
The chops stayed in the marinade for about 12 hours.
From this admitted non-pork chop fan, these are fantastic! As I was chomping down on them, thoughts about how they would taste on the grill ran through my head. So they are in the rotation for future dinner plans. The molasses added sweetness, obviously, I'm not certain what the coffee did because there wasn't a coffee taste. The garlic provided a nice punch rounded out with some spice from the ginger and pepper (and maybe that spicy brown mustard).
Overall, an excellent recipe. Juicy chops and a little sweet, little garlicky and little spice. Very nice and a keeper in the rotation.
The recipe:
Molasses Coffee Marinated Pork Chops
7 comments:
I made these last week and they were AMAZING! I did make the sauce, it was fantastic. I did it on the grill even though we were buried under snow; my husband and I have a tradition of grilling in blizzards which is good because we live in Cleveland. The chops were crazy good. And...I pretty much always have coffee around! I want to make the shoo-fly pie next. I think I might be the first Yankee to ever make it.
I want to try this on some babyback ribs. I'm not a coffee drinker, but I do keep a wee jar of the instant in my pantry for use in recipes.
If you can ever get some pig that has been raised the ol' fashion way, do so! So much more flavor! The modern pig that you get from the local mega-mart is just blah.
I'm not much of a pork chop fan myself, but those look darned tasty.
They are awesome. The marinade is amazingly good. I will try the dipping sauce next time. Already planning my next dinner with these.
The food p o r n shot does capture the tastiness of them ;) LOL
I can't choke down pork in any form, especially chops. Maybe pluff mudder is on to something with the fact that mass-produced pigs that live in and eat their own slop are bound to not taste as good as a pig you raise yourself with a good diet.. but I'm kinda glad I hate the taste of pork. Because I feel bad for the piggies anyway, hehe.
I almost want to just make the marinade for that cooked down BBQ sauce though.. Alton's on to something there.
Luke... if you don't like pork, I bet this glaze would be just as good on steak. I did a glaze once for steak that was close to AB's recipe, but instead of coffee it had bourbon. That was one happy cow! :)
As for the pork, I'm lucky to have a pig farmer here in SC that's not too far from me that raises hogs the ol' fashion way. It's a world of different than the bland cardboard-tasting stuff you find at a lot of mega-marts.
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