#1,268: Herb Marinated Grilled Pork Chops

I totally forgot to take a picture of this so I grabbed a shot at the very last second...with my phone.  It sure could have been a much better picture.  I was certain my kids would think this was pretty good but Brian would not like it.  I got that totally backwards!  Brian and I loved this, but the kids were not big fans. I would definitely make this again, especially if I was the one eating it for lunch or something.  I may need to go defrost some more pork chops since I have so many herbs left over!

In order to speed up the process of making these (and I was not going to use a mortar and pestle like instructed), I threw all of the ingredients except the pork chops into my mini food processor and ground it up as small as it would go.  That works for me! I didn’t pre-chop any of the ingredients…just throw it in and puree it together. 

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

10 medium cloves garlic, minced

¼ cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

1 Tablespoon finely chopped sage leaves (about 8 leaves)

¾ teaspoon finely chopped thyme

¾ teaspoon finely chopped rosemary

1½ teaspoons kosher salt

¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper

1½ teaspoons whole black peppercorns, crushed

4 Center Cut Pork Loin Chops, about 2" thick (I used thin cut pork chops…as you can tell from the photo)

Finely chop parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. Smash and finely chop garlic. Crush whole black peppercorns with heel of a small saucepan (alternately use a meat pounder, mortar and pestle or pulse a couple times in a spice grinder.)

In a small bowl, combine chopped herbs, garlic and cracked peppercorns with olive oil, salt and crushed red pepper.

Place pork chops in a casserole dish in one layer and spoon about 1 teaspoon of the marinade over each Pork Chop. Use your fingers to evenly spread distribute the marinade on the meat.  Flip pork chops over repeat with remaining marinade. Cover and refrigerate for 6 to 8 hours or overnight.

Preheat grill to between 350F and 400F. Place pork chops on grill, leave lid open and cook for 2 minutes.  Close and cook for 8 minutes. Open lid, turn Chops over and repeat (leave lid up for 2 minutes and then continue cooking with lid closed for 8 minutes.)

To finish, open lid, flip one more time, cook for an additional 1 to 2 minutes or until internal temperature of 145F is reached. Allow to rest for 10 minutes.