Grilled Pork

(This recipe was first posted in conjunction with Meijer Ad Week of 4/8/12 - 4/14/12)

Grilled pork chops have a bad reputation for being dry and tasteless.  There are two easy ways to fix that problem:  use thick, center-cut, boneless chops, and marinate them all day.  The words "dry" and "tasteless" won't even cross your mind when you try these!

Ingredients:

about 2/3 of a center cut half boneless pork loin
1 1/3 C Sierra Mist, 7up, or any lemon-lime soda
1 C soy sauce
1/2 C honey
2 tsp dried thyme
1 1/2 tsp dried rosemary
1/2 tsp pepper

Directions:
Cut 6-10 one inch slices from pork loin.  Put all ingredients except pork chops into a gallon-size ziploc bag.  Seal the bag, and mix well by squeezing the bag.  Make sure the honey is mixed well with the other ingredients.  Add pork slices to bag.  Seal, and refrigerate at least 6 hours.  Remove pork slices from bag and discard marinade.  Grill over medium to high heat, about 5-7 minutes on each side.

Options and Tips

• After slicing your pork chops, you might have part of a pork loin left...depending on how thick you actually cut your slices, and how many slices you needed.  Freeze the leftover part as one large chunk (use for Orange-Glazed Pork Loin or Easy Pork Dinner), or slice up the rest of it and freeze the slices for future grilling.
• Grilling tips:  Pork chops should be turned after 5-7 minutes, but they might not need the full 5-7 minutes on the other side before they are cooked through.  For those of you with a meat thermometer, the recommended minimum internal temperature for grilled pork is 145-150 degrees.  Cooking to this temperature will yield a juicy, tender pork chop with some pink throughout.  If you like your pork with no pink, cook a little longer...but be careful not to overcook them (=dry and tasteless!).

You can find a similar recipe on page 256 of Taste of Home's 2007 Quick Cooking Annual Recipes.  I made adjustments to the measurements, ingredients, and instructions.