Recipe for Grilled Ginger-Soy Pork Chops

A Lake Powell client once called these the World's Best Pork Chops!

It's grilling season, and although I rarely cook pork chops on the stove, I love to cook them on the grill and this is one of my favorite pork chop recipes.  Back in the days when I used to cater houseboat trips at Lake Powell, I once I had a client call these "the best pork chops in the world." It's true, the ginger-soy marinade used here makes these pretty delicious. I posted this first back in 2005, and I'm happy it's finally getting updated with a decent photo.  In the Lake Powell days I used to make this with vermouth as the tenderizing ingredient in the marinade, but every time I gave someone the recipe they always told me they didn't have vermouth, so I've used rice vinegar in this recipe for the last few years.

If you like grilling but aren't particularly into pork, I just wrote a piece for Blogher called Beyond Burgers showing the amazing variety of foods that can be cooked on a grill, and there are some great recipe links. I love to cook on a grill outside, but if you don't have an outdoor grill, these pork chops or any of the recipes in that post can be cooked on a stove-top grill pan with ridges or a George Foreman Grill with good results.

The recipe is for 4-6 pork chops, but I just made two to take new photos.  Trim most of the visible fat from the pork chops.

Whisk together peanut oil, soy sauce, rice vinegar, hot pepper flakes, ginger puree, garlic puree, and dried mustard to make the marinade.

Put pork chops in a Ziploc bag, pour marinade over, and let them marinate for 6-8 hours or longer.

Grill the pork chops about 8 minutes per side, or until they are firm but not hard to the touch. 


Grilled Ginger-Soy Pork Chops
(4-6 servings, recipe created by Kalyn) 

Ingredients:
4-6 boneless pork chops

Marinade Ingredients:
1/4 cup peanut oil
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup rice vinegar (not seasoned rice vinegar, it contains sugar)
1 tsp. dried chili pepper flakes (I used Aleppo Pepper. You could use cayenne pepper, but reduce the amount by quite a bit.)
2 tsp. ginger puree (also called ground ginger)
2 tsp. garlic puree (also called ground garlic)
1 tsp. dried mustard

Instructions:

Trim all fat from pork chops and pound to slightly over 1/4 inch thick. (If you're using the very thick pork chops you might want to cut them in half crosswise.) Mix marinade ingredients. Put pork chops in zip-loc bag and pour marinade over. Marinate 6-8 hours or longer.

To cook, preheat grill to medium hot. To get those nice grill marks, rotate the pork chops after about 4 minutes on the first side. (I usually lift one up and check for the marks before I rotate them.) Cook about 8 minutes per side; total cooking time will depend on the temperature of your grill and the thickness of the pork chops. Pork chops should feel firm to the touch but not hard when they're done. Serve hot.

If you have a rotisserie, this recipe would be fantastic to marinate a pork roast overnight and then cook it on the rotisserie.

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South Beach Suggestions:
This is a great main dish for any phase of the South Beach Diet. For phase one, this would be great served with Roasted Spicy Cauliflower and Spinach Salad with Bacon and Feta. For phase two or three you could replace the cauliflower with Lake Powell Spicy Rice, which is something I often served with this at Lake Powell.

More Tasty Grilled Pork:
Cuban Pork Chops Mojo
Grilled Lime and Chipotle Pork Chops
Kalyn's Souvlaki
Grilled Pork Chops with Kumquat-Jalapeno Marinade from Well Fed
Vietnamese Pork Chops from The Food Section
Tea-Brined Grilled Pork Tenderloin from Stephen Cooks
Mustard-Garlic Glazed Grilled Pork Chops from Kirsten's Home Cooking Adventures