Sunday, April 18, 2010

The Good Doctor's Pork Chop Glaze

Ugh! Are you kidding me? It's time for football practices already?

Spring practice started for Trev's Pee Wee football team tonight at 6pm so I planned a hearty late lunch that would fuel him through the hour and 1/2 workout: Grilled pork chops, grits, and sugar snap peas.


Start by soaking 4 one inch thick pork chops in a brine for 2-3 hours. The one I made today was water, kosher salt, turbinado sugar, a dried red chili and black peppercorns.

Then rinse and dry the chops. Rub them with your favorite pork rub (make your own like my pork chop rub or use a commercial one).

Grill the chops over a 375f fire for 2 minutes and then flip. Cook for another two minutes and then flip.

Brush them with this glaze that I adapted twice from Dr. Howard Taylor (Dallas, Tx) published in the December 2007 issue of the National BBQ News. Since I have adapted my original adaptation, I wonder if I have totally departed from his recipe or ended up right back at it. Either way, I now call it:

The Good Doctor's Pork Chop Glaze
Source: Adapted from Dr. Howard Taylor
enough for about 8 chops

1/2 cup beer
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 Tbsp lime juice
3/4 tsp allspice
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp red pepper, ground
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes (omit if you're heat sensitive)

Whisk all ingredients together in a small sauce pan, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
Brush the glaze on and cook for another 2 minutes per side (That would be a total of 8 minutes cooking time and the chops should be at an internal temp of 145f. Remove and let rest for 10 minutes.

I know what you're thinking, "Grits? For a lunch side dish?"

But you wouldn't say that about polenta, would you? The key is to get good quality, coarse stone ground grits. Don't use the instant or quick cooking kind. Two totally different products. Alexis bought this bag from Earth Fare and we loved them, some of the best I've ever had. Everyone had seconds at lunch.


The funny thing was, while the grits were cooking, they absorbed all of the liquid (chicken stock/water) when only halfway through cooking so I started to ladle & stir in warm stock throughout the last 15 minutes. Therefore I dubbed this "gritsotto".

I originally planned on adding some cheese to the grits or maybe topping with a sauce, but they didn't need it. The texture and flavor of these grits played an outstanding supporting role to the pork chops.


Quick game of Versus for the comment section:
Flo from Mel's Diner ("Kiss my grits!")
vs.
Flo from the Progressive commercials?