After doing some produce shopping yesterday, I realized that not only had I not taken advantage of a, so far, plentiful crop of Hill Country peaches, but that the deadline for this post was looming. I didn’t want the SideDish editors to break my kneecaps, so I bought some peaches and got down to work.
Jump for more peach talk.
Luckily, I didn’t have to work very hard (phew!). I had some pork chops on hand, and peaches and pork are pretty, pretty fond of one another. Plus, pork chops are an ideal weekday summer grilling choice, if for no other reason than that they cook quickly*, leaving you more time to bask in the hum of your A/C unit.
Grilled Pork Chops with Peach Salsa
(serves three)
Ingredients:
Pork chops:
3 roughly 1″ thick pork chops
1/3 cup olive oil
tbsp soy sauce
1 1/2 tsp cumin
tsp chipotle powder (or chili powder)
Peach Salsa:
2 peaches, diced
1 jalapeno, finely diced
1/2 a small red onion, finely diced
1/3 cup chopped cilantro
juice of 1 or 2 limes
splash of olive oil
salt to taste
Instructions:
1. Make the pork chop marinade. Mix the olive oil, soy sauce, cumin and chipotle powder together. Pour mixture over the chops and marinate in the fridge for several hours to overnight, flipping occasionally, if you can. You want the chops nicely coated.
2. In a bowl, mix all the ingredients for the peach salsa together, except 1/2 cup of the diced peaches, the lime juice and olive oil.
3. In a food processor or blender, puree the reserved peaches with the lime juice and olive oil until smooth, then mix with the other ingredients in the bowl. The salsa can be made the night before.
4. Preheat grill to medium-high and grill chops, flipping once, until the internal temperature has come up to 145, probably about 10-12 minutes total; grills vary.
5. Let the chops rest a few minutes (it’s been a long day for them), then top with peach salsa and enjoy.
*Just don’t blow off the marinade. Not only does it help pork chops (which are super lean) in the flavor department, the oil in the marinade helps them brown and not stick to your grill.
