Grilled Pork Chops: Harissa Marinade

[ecowper]

This is what I cooked last night. Along with the pork chops, we had pearled cous cous (out of a box) and French style sautéed green beans (sautéed in butter with diced shallot and garlic, threw in some diced bacon for fun).

It's a really good recipe. The only major change I made is that I went with a reverse sear, not a direct cook. I only used two SRF Kurobuta chops, not a whole pork loin roast.

I made my own harissa, riffing off of @Meathead's harissa recipe (I used Chile de Arbol in place of the Ancho's and did not add any chipotle or jalapeño). It's brilliantly spicy and flavorful and worked really well in this recipe.

https://www.snakeriverfarms.com/recipes/post/spicy-harissa-pork-chops-with-tzatziki/

Marinade - combine all ingredients in a bowl, transfer to ziplock bag

• 3/4 cup harissa paste
• 2 garlic cloves, smashed
• 1 tablespoon plain Greek yogurt
• 1 teaspoon fresh dill, chopped
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Juice of 1/2 lemon

Tzatziki - combine all ingredients in a bowl one hour (or more) prior to serving

• 1 cup plain Greek yogurt
• 1 teaspoon fresh dill, chopped
• 1/4 cup cucumber, grated
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
• Juice of 1/2 lemon

Pork chops - Do this 45 minutes to cooking, then grill as desired

• Generously salt and pepper the pork chops and add to the marinade, shaking the bag until all chops are evenly coated. Let the chops marinade 45 minutes before grilling.
• Heat grill to medium high and grill chops about 6 minutes per side or until internal temperature reaches 140 degrees.
• Pull from heat and let chops rest 5-10 minutes. Top with tzatziki and serve.

[klflowers]

Wow. After my divorce is final can I just move in with you? Park the bus in your driveway?

[ecowper]

We didn't used to eat like this on weeknights. We had kids, my wife and I both went to offices to work. Then things changed over the last couple years. Kids grew up and left home. I transitioned to a job where I work in my home office about 90% of the time. And how we eat on weeknights changed, too. The bad part is now those Sunday dinners don't feel as special LOL

Come on over!

[Caffeine88]

Thanks for posting this. My wife has just about every spice known to man, but I don't think she's made harissa yet. It's excellent, and I love the idea of trying it on pork chops. We're definitely doing this one.

[Caffeine88]

🤣🤣 True! What next, berbere bacon?

[ecowper]

Lol good one

[fzxdoc]

I've made beef tikka masala before.

K.

[DavidNorcross]

Going to do this for sure!

[fzxdoc]

Nice dinner. I have all the stuff to exactly copy this tonight, if I sous vide the chops from frozen. Thanks!

Kathryn

[ecowper]

Very welcome .... hope you like it as much as we did!

[cgrover60]

Man that looks good.

[Wedunne]

Thanks for posting this recipe. I just made it for dinner tonight. The chops were very tasty. My wife made some amaranth polenta (using amaranth from Rancho Gordo) and fresh green beans with cranberries and truffle honey. Everything was delicious, and it was one of those meals where everything just really went together. (That's parsley/herb infused oil in the honey bear for the polenta )
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[ecowper]

Looks perfect!!!

[Strat50]

A great cook and a spot on recipe! I haven't yet tried harissa with pork, but now I will. I might add a bit of sumac for some complexity too. Cous cous, sounds good here. Mint, parsley and cilantro. Yummm...

[ecowper]

With Cous Cous would be very good.

[Sweaty Paul]

That looks spectacularly delicious!

[Richard Chrz]

This sounds pretty great, I’m not a pork chop fan,but, this harissa paste sounds awesome. I think I need to pick up or, get the ingredients and make one. I wish I had it already, I may stop at grocery store tomorrow to see if I can make this. I have the chops already out, and just hoping to find something to make them better. My wife loves them, to me, meh. fzxdoc any tips on the SV, mine are already thawed likely.

[ecowper]

Also, consider higher end than grocery store, if you can.

[Richard Chrz]

Thank you for the wet brine, I will do that for 24 hours. These chops game from a pretty decent butcher shop. I’ve had them in my freezer for awhile though.

[Backroadmeats]

Not a pork chop fan??? You need to get a comparts pig from me .. there is a huge difference in my opinion..

[klflowers]

Hey, I just got a couple of chops from Porter Road! This is the way I will go with them.

[fzxdoc]

Actually, Richard Chrz , I reverse seared them on my gasser without the final hard sear.

They were restaurant-grade heritage boneless pork chops purchased from a local high-end restaurant supplier.

I reserved about 1/4 cup of the marinade and was glad I did, because I ended up using it.

After about a 20 minute gasser heat up with half of the 6 burners on high, (400° on the dial thermometer), I put the chops on the "cool" side for 15 minutes. Grill Grates, flat side up. They immediately sizzled and by the time I was ready to flip them at the 15 minute mark, they were nicely browned but had lost almost all of the marinade.

So after flipping them and moving them just adjacent the hottest end of the grill, I added a generous tablespoon of the reserved marinade to the top of each chop while they cooked the remaining 5 minutes to bring them to 140°. Usually I take pork chops off at 135° and let carryover get them to 140°, but time got away from me. Even so, they were so juicy and tender that neither my husband or I could believe the were pork. But pork they were. Very tasty pork at that.

So I ended up not hard searing them but soft searing instead.

Thanks a bunch, Eric, ecowper , for the inspiration. BTW, the link in your OP is broken. Here's the link that works:

https://www.snakeriverfarms.com/reci...with-tzatziki/


Kathryn

[ecowper]

Thanks Kathryn! I updated the OP

[Baltimorelger]

Looks incredible! Will have to give it a try.

[Draznnl]

This one looks so good that I have an okay from the wife to do pork chops for the first time in at least ten years.

[ecowper]

That’s awesome to hear! I have converted my wife to pork chops, but it took a lot of work.

[fzxdoc]

Ditto for my husband, ecowper . He didn't eat pork until he married me. He still won't eat ham, but he loves ribs and chops.

Kathryn

[Draznnl]

Your husband sounds familiar, fzxdoc. I never ate pork growing up. Even today, you couldn’t get me to eat ham on a bet. My wife’s a different story. She’s just very picky. She’d be happy with pasta, shrimp, and/or sausage every night.

[Argoboy]

This looks good I bought some harissa spice this week and I am going to give this a try.