Spicy Sweet Southwestern Pork Chops

I have mentioned before that we love pork in our household. I’ve mentioned it more than once actually. because…well… we love pork. Or at least, I love pork and my family is forced to follow along in my cloven footprints because of it. I have posted quite a few porky recipes in here (especially when one considers that I am primarily a baking blog… pork cookies anyone? A nice baked pork and rice pudding perchance?) with one of my personal favorites being My ode to Anthony Bourdain . I’m still waiting for him to leave his wife and come find me and take us all (my husband and kids have to come too…) away to live in fatty pork sin.

Last night I was talking to my brother about my and Russ’s future plans for our land here. We hope to someday have animals, including raising a pig or two a year. The problem would arise at slaughter time. After I got the pig out of our bed where it would be ensconced watching old Porky Pig cartoons, took back the TV remote and box of Twinkies from it, I would be lost. I’d be sitting there with my knife…ax…machete…spoon (hell, I don’t know what I’d use to kill a poor innocent piggy!) bawling hysterically, asking the pig to please do me a favor and just fall on the knife…spork…spoon…ax… and make it easier. Truthfully though, when we get to the point of slaughter, we’d have to send them out to someone because unless it was a case of the poop hitting the fan world wide, and we HAD to do it, neither my husband nor I are the slaughtering types.

But…. back to loving pork. Lots. Fatty, lean, bacony, smoky… you name it, we eat it here. Yesterday my daughter and her family were over and I had sliced up and grilled two pork loins. In the end, two was….erhmmmm… a bit too much. I over estimated how much the hungry males would eat. Still, made two, have leftovers for tonight. I left some unseasoned for the little kids and then flavored the other 2 different ways. Today I’m sharing the one everyone else liked best (I preferred the other one which I’ll share at a later date). It’s extremely simple… just a spice rub and a squeeze of lime, then a quick foray onto the grill. So if you want something easy and extremely tasty for dinner, try this. It’s sweet, spicy, a bit tangy from the lime…all in all, quite good if I do say so myself.

Spicy Sweet Southwestern Pork Loin Chops

• 6 to 8 boneless pork loin chops, about 1 to 1 1/2 inches thick
• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons garlic powder
• 2 teaspoons onion powder
• 1/2 teaspoon  ground chipotle pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 3 to 4 tablespoons  Mrs. Dash Southwest Chipotle Spice Blend (I am a sad portrait of a Mrs Dash addict)
• salt to taste (I used none to be honest and this was still extremely flavorful.)
• zest and juice of one lime

1. Mix all the spices, lime zest and brown sugar in a wide shallow bowl. A salad bowl works well.
2. Coat the chops on both sides and the edges. Coat well.  Let them sit and soak up the yummy rub while you get the grill ready.
3. Brush your grill grates with some oil to prevent sticking.
4. When your grill is nice and hot (about 375 degrees), add your chops. Cook until they reach an internal temp of about 145, about 4 to 5 minutes on each side. Please don’t over cook them. Dry pork is the pits. Only turn them ONCE…. the worst thing you can do when grilling is that horrible turning them 45 times thing many people do.
5. Place on a platter and squeeze the lime juice over each chop.
6. Eat. Enjoy. Oink.