Yet Another Honey-Mustard Pork Chop

No, wait, don’t go!  This isn’t like all the others – it’s not your basic honey + mustard + pork chop – and, well, we can do so much better than that!

We dig this recipe out every summer – it was one we developed for our meal-prep business, and, as such, is perfectly suited for making a bunch and freezing (which we didn’t do this time).

You’re going to want to start with the basics – honey and mustard – as well as a bit of soy sauce (low sodium, of course), some canola oil, garlic, black pepper and tarragon.

Yes, tarragon.  It’s kind of the secret ingredient.

I told you it was different, didn’t I?

Since it’s still a little early in the season, we had to make do with dried, which is perfectly fine – but give me a month, and we’ll harvesting it fresh!  (Yay for the herb garden!)

And of course we’re going to want to mince the garlic – say about 4 cloves.  Don’t worry, most of it’s in the marinade and will ultimately get tossed anyway.

We’re going to take everything and just whisk it together:

• ½ c. soy sauce
• 1/3 c. oil
• 4 tsp. honey
• 3 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
• 2 tsp. dried tarragon (or 2 Tbsp. fresh), minced
• 4 cloves minced garlic
• 1½ tsp. black pepper

Oh, but wait, there’s more!

We’re going to make a sauce for serving – remember how we did that for the tandoori-style chicken a while back?  And the grilled chicken mole too?

We learned from the good people at Cook’s Illustrated that if we reserve some of the marinade – before it hits the raw meat! – and spike it with a bit of acidity, it’s the perfect finish to marinated-and-grilled meats.

And you know – they’re right!  So pull out 1/4 cup of the marinade (or 4 Tablespoons), add to it 1 teaspoon of vinegar (how’s that for acid?), and just set it aside.  Usually we use your basic cider vinegar, but this time, we used a teaspoon of balsamic – also quite nice!

And that’s it.  Reserve your sauce, either in a separate baggie, or in a covered bowl, or whatever, and dump the rest of the marinade in a bag with up to 6 or 8 boneless pork loin chops.  Or, I don’t know, chicken breasts. ( It’s your dinner – eat what you want!  There’s nothing that says you can’t have honey-mustard chicken, you know.)

At this point, you can shove everything in the freezer to be enjoyed another day, or just stick it in the fridge and let the meat marinate at least overnight.

Then just slap the meat on the grill and, you know, grill it.  Of course, be sure to discard the marinade that the chops were soaking in, but don’t forget the sauce! The sweet honey will help brown the meat, and the fresh flavor of the sauce (honey! mustard! tarragon!) will simply enhance the flavors at the table.

In fact, it was so good that I totally forgot to get pictures of the sauced pork chops with some basmati rice and a nice side salad . . . I was too busy enjoying it!

Here’s a printable version – just click on the link and you’re all set!

© Dark Side of the Fridge – 2010

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