Honey Garlic Pork Chops

For some reason we don't eat a lot of pork in our house.  I love pork chops.  When I was young one of the first meals I learned to cook was pork chops cooked in French dressing with broccoli and cheese rice and creamed corn.  Yes, the meal was completely my creation (besides the French dressing, that was my Dad) and I chose the sides and everything.



About a year ago I found a recipe for Parmesan Crusted Pork Chops on Annie's Eats, but when I made them Aaron complained that he didn't really like pork chops.  I know he likes barbecue pork because that's what he orders when we go out for barbecue so I figured it was probably the way they were cooked.  (I thought they were fabulous by the way.  You should totally try them sometime.)

So I made those chops I was talking about with the French dressing and he said he didn't care for those either.  I was kind of disappointed because I can sometimes get pork for $1.99/lb.  I like to buy a whole pork loin and cut it into chops.  It's cheap and gives me plenty of meat in the freezer for the month.

I found this recipe on Pinterest and pinned it several months ago.  I thought I would probably never get to try it since Aaron has this issue with pork chops, but then last month my Dad gave me half of a pork loin he had bought.  I brought it home and sliced it and ended up with 9 chops so I went searching for pork chop recipes.

When I was mixing the marinade for these chops I was feeling nostalgic because the combination of honey, garlic, and soy sauce reminds me so much of some of the stuff my Dad used to cook.  It smelled heavenly and I couldn't wait to get cooking, but I decided to let them sit in the marinade for a few hours.  Aaron was working late and Bailey was napping late so those chops had about 4 hours in the fridge just soaking in the delicious marinade.

If you make these... Oh, who am I kidding?  When you make these... definitely give them some time to sit in the wonderful  mixture because when you do they are just packed with flavor.

Honey Garlic Pork Chops

4-6 pork chops (the original recipe said about 4 oz each), trimmed of fat
1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp honey
3 Tbsp soy sauce
6 cloves garlic, minced

In a liquid measuring cup combine the honey, soy sauce, and garlic.  Mix well as the honey will stick to the bottom.  Place the pork chops in a quart or gallon size freezer bag and pour the honey mixture over the pork chops.  Seal the bag and set aside in the fridge until  you are ready to cook them.

Heat a large skillet or grill pan over medium heat.  Spray with vegetable oil spray.  Once the pan is hot, place the pork chops in the pan.  Save the marinade for basting.  Cook for about 4-5 minutes per side (time will depend on how thick your chops are... Mine were about 3/4 inch thick so mine only needed 4 minutes per side) and baste them once on each side.

This serves 3-6 depending on how many pork chops you use and what size they are.  We ate one pork chop each and had 2 left over.

I'd like to make a note that if you can't handle or don't like to eat so many carbs, don't.  Honestly, I rarely actually eat both carbs.  I usually eat the vegetable and one carb.  I serve a plate with the whole meal for photograph purposes.  For some reason the plate looks more appealing when it's fully loaded.  If your family will all eat vegetables then by all means, skip a carb... or both.  The sides are just suggestions based on what our family likes to eat anyway.  These would be delicious with some rice or pasta or with a plate full of veggies.  Make it your own!