Garlic Herb Marinated Pork Chops

Don’t you just hate it when a recipe looks really good, it sounds really good, and it looks delicious when it’s marinating, and even after it’s cooked it looks mouthwatering and then, after all that… it kinda sucks? Yeah, I hate that too. Unfortunately that’s the story with these pork chops. I mean, look at these puppies in the marinade.

I mean, that looks fantastic, doesn’t it? I was looking at this all day, just imagining how good it was going to taste. And then we grilled it and it looked unbelievable! I was all ready for some garlicky, herby goodness. But sadly the only flavor I really got was burnt garlic. No herb flavor came through at all. I don’t blame the grill master, because these are thick chops that need a lot of time on the grill, so I’m not sure there is any way around getting a little char from the bits of garlic. I have to assume that the problem is the marinade itself. We let it sit for a good eight hours, so there’s no reason why no flavor should have gotten into the pork. Maybe we left too much marinade on the pork when we grilled it, but I think scraping it away would have just gotten rid of what little taste it did have. Anyway, here’s the recipe if you’d like to try it yourself. I found it on a blog called Everyday Maven. Maybe you’ll have better luck.

2 Thick cut pork chops

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

Start by mixing up your marinade in a small bowl. Combine olive oil, garlic, all the herbs, salt and red pepper. I crushed my peppercorns with a meat hammer (which was fun!) but you can also use the bottom of a saucepan. Just be careful not to send peppercorns flying all over your kitchen! Add the crushed peppercorns into the marinade as well and mix. Then spoon your marinade on top of each chop, rubbing it in. Then flip and repeat on the other side.

To grill, start with two minutes with the lid open and eight closed, then flip and do another two minutes open, eight closed. Finish it off with another few minutes open until the meat is cooked through, then remove from the grill and let it rest for around ten minutes before serving.