Recipe: Grilled or Baked Pork Chops

My mom emailed me a highly rated AllRecipes.com pork chop recipe a while back, which, given my habit of defaulting towards the chicken-and-fish end of the meat spectrum when cooking for myself, got bookmarked for another time. With a four-pack of pork chops in our fridge and a day off yesterday, it was the opportune time to pull it out. I followed the recipe closely, though substituted pancake syrup for honey (didn't have any!).

• 2 cloves garlic (minced)
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 3 tbsp honey (I used pancake syrup)
• 3 tbsp soy sauce
• 1.5 tbsp Worchestershire sauce
• 3 tsp ketchup
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
• 4 boneless (or not, in my case!) pork loin chops

Mix all of the ingredients, minus the pork chops, in a bowl.

Pour half of this marinade over the pork chops, ensuring that they are well coated, and refrigerate them for 4 to 8 hours to marinate (or marinate them in a sealed Ziploc bag!).

Next, the original recipe suggests grilling the pork chops for 8 to 10 minutes per side, until the meat is brown with grill marks and a meat thermometer reads at least 145 degrees F (63 degrees C). While grilling, baste periodically with the remaining half of the marinade. While that all sounds very good (food tastes better with grill marks, right?), our BBQ propane tank was unfortunately empty. ...So into the oven the pork chops went.

I baked them at 350 degrees F for 15 minutes per side, basting with some of the remaining marinade halfway through. I thickened the leftover marinade in a saucepan by bringing it to a boil then reducing the heat to a simmer, while stirring constantly, for a few minutes.

These pork chops were simple and tasty -- in other words, the recipe's a keeper! Next time I might see how cooking goes on the George Foreman grill (though I envision a grilled-marinade-mess cleanup job will be the price to pay for nice grill marks...). I think I'll try the marinade on other kinds of meat (perhaps chicken or fish) that are bountiful in my freezer and that may just absorb the flavours a little better than pork.