Peaches & Pork

The fruits that are in season this time of year are some of my favorites: peaches, nectarines, all types of berries. Since peaches are by far my favorite and I'm really into mixing sweet and savory flavors (see my blueberry steak post) I decided to do something with pork chops and peaches. Since I wasn't sure how out there this idea was, I did some research on the web and found quite a few recipes using both ingredients, I ended up not following any one recipe but taking inspiration from them to put together my dish.

My original idea was to do a Honey Mustard BBQ boneless pork chop with grilled yellow peaches. Well the grocery store that I stop at on my way home from work had no honey mustard BBQ sauce. There were plenty of Honey flavored sauces, but I felt that combined with the peaches the sweetness a Honey sauce would potentially be too much. So I decided to go with tried and true and something I had in my refrigerator, Stubbs Hickory Bourbon BBQ sauce. I know I could have made my own BBQ sauce and that's definitely on my list of things to do, but when it's already 7:30p and my tummy is grumbling the extra time needed to make the sauce just didn't work for me. Plus Stubbs is the best, so why mess with it. Onto produce for the yellow peaches, which were tremendously on sale and yet none were ripe enough. One thing I hate is a tough peach. That led me to the white peaches, which were perfectly ripe for cutting and a quick grill. With my ingredients in tow, I went home and threw together the recipe below.

BBQ Pork Chops & Grilled Peaches
serves 4

4 thick cut boneless pork chops
1/2 cup Stubbs Hickory Bourbon BBQ sauce
2 large ripe white peaches
1/4-1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tbsp molasses
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1. Heat the grill to Medium High heat.
2. Place the pork chops in a bowl with 1/4 cup of the BBQ sauce. Let marinate on the counter top as you prep the peaches
3. Cut the peaches into wedges (approximately 6-8 per peach).
4. Once the grill is heated, place the pork chops on one side and cook for approx 10 mins per side. Basting with remaining 1/4 cup of BBQ sauce
5. Oil the other side of the grill to grill the peaches. (I forgot to do this and almost had a mess on my hands!) Lay the peaches on the grill and cook for approx 4 mins per side or until nice grill marks appear and the peaches become tender.
6. When the peaches are done remove them from the grill to a bowl and toss with the cayenne pepper, balsamic vinegar. Finish by drizzling with the molasses.
7. When the pork chops are done remove from the grill and top each chop with 3-4 peach wedges and serve.

I have to admit I was nervous about how all the flavors of this would work, but ended up beiing really happy with the taste and got good reviews from my taste testers. The cayenne added really nice spice and balanced out the sweetness of the peaches, especially since white peaches tend to be much sweeter than yellow. Overall for a thrown together seasonally inspired meall I really enjoyed it. We had a salad with goat cheese and dreid cranberries, but I think it would also pair really well with a spinach salad with goat cheese and walnuts.

If anyone tries this I'd love to hear how it turns out as it was something I basically threw together on the fly. Enjoy!