Two weeks ago, I went to Rustic Road Farm and bought the most delicious pork chops. They raise their own pork on the farm and it is truly amazing. Typically, my go to recipe is seasoning the pork chops with salt, pepper and cumin and then either throwing them on the grill or starting with a quick sear in a saute pan and then finishing them in the oven. This specific day, I had been to Anderson Farms and had bought a mix of different peppers. I wanted to find a recipe that could incorporate what I had picked up from the farm.

I found a recipe for Adobo Pork Chops, originally from Food and Wine in June 2014. I modified the recipe a bit based on what I had available. Tonight’s recipe was much closer to the original Food and Wine recipe, but to be honest, the recipe from a couple of weeks ago was much more flavorful. Here are both recipes for you.

Original Marinade

• 1 white onion, chopped 
• 2-3 garlic gloves, chopped 
• 2 dried Guajillo chiles, seeded and shredded into ½ inch pieces 
• 1 ½ cups chicken stock 
• Salt and pepper to taste 
• Canola oil

My Version of the Marinade

• 1 white onion, chopped 
• 2-3 garlic gloves, chopped 
• 4-5 dried Chile de Arbol, shredded into ½ inch pieces (I was too lazy to seed the chiles) 
• 2 fresh hot peppers (serrano, red fresno or anything fresh that is available), seeded and chopped into ½ inch pieces 
• 1 ½ cups chicken stock 
• Salt and pepper to taste 
• Canola oil

Cooking Process

Saute onions, garlic, dried chiles and fresh peppers in canola oil over medium heat. Once onions and chiles become soft, add chicken stock. Bring to a boil and cook for about 5 minutes. Taste broth and add salt and pepper to taste. Cool mixture.

Pour mixture into a blender and puree until smooth. Salt and pepper two bone-in pork chops and place into a Ziplock bag. Pour half of the marinade into the Ziplock bag and massage marinade into pork chops. Place on a plate and let sit in refrigerator for a minimum of four hours but up to 24 hours. Reserve the remaining marinade for basting.

Remove pork chops from marinade. Cook on indirect heat on a grill for approximately 20 minutes or until pork chops reach an internal temperature of 145 degrees. Throughout the cooking process, baste with remaining marinade. Once chops reach temperature, remove from heat, let sit for 5 minutes, then serve.

I have served the chops with risotto as well as lemon orzo. Both are pictured here, but the recipes will be posted later. My preference is still the Chile de Arbol version. The combination of Chile de Arbol and fresh hot peppers really bring a nice level of heat that you cannot get from the Guajillo chiles.

I also like to serve Sangria with this. My version of sangria is pretty simple: 1 bottle of Pinot Noir, 1 granny smith apple, 1 orange, 1 lime, 1 peach and 1 can of Sprite Zero. I know the Sprite sounds odd, but I read about the addition of Sprite somewhere (sorry I can’t cite the exact source) and it is the PERFECT addition. Give it a try!

Bon appetite!