Grilled Pork Chops with homemade Barbecue Sauce and Days of Thunder

The smell of the charcoal grill burning on a summer night never fails to take me back to my childhood. Add the smell of fresh barbecue cooking away and you've got one of the classic scents of summer. There are quite a few good quality BBQ sauces on the store shelves these days but I'm going to share my quick recipe to make your own. Sweetened with brown sugar, a splash of cola and spiced up with some chipotle peppers, it's the perfect balance of sweet and hot. Since the smell of charcoal brings me back to my days of summer as a kid, I wanted to pair this dinner with a movie that did the same. Few things capture the attention of a little boy than race cars and in the late 80s and early 90s, NASCAR was one of the hottest trends going.  Hollywood caught on fast and the movie Days of Thunder was released in the summer of 1990. Though I'm no longer the race fan I was a as a kid, I still love the watch this film every now and then to help me relive the excitement it brought me as a child. Here is how we'll make our dinner before we start with this weeks film.

2 thick cut boneless pork chops
For the BBQ Sauce
1 cup of Ketchup
½ cup of Apple Cider Vinegar
1 tablespoon of butter
1 shallot (minced or grated)
2 cloves of garlic (minced or grated) 
2 teaspoon of Dijon mustard
6 tablespoons of brown sugar
1 teaspoon of paprika
1 canned chipotle pepper chopped finely
¼ cup of Coca-cola
Freshly cracked black pepper and kosher salt

In a sauce pan, melt the butter and sweat the the shallot and the garlic together for about 2 minutes. Sweating is different than when we sauté because we aren't looking to achieve a browned color. All we are doing is heating them so that they literally sweat and release moisture. Next, add the ketchup, brown sugar, and the mustard to the pan and stir together until the brown sugar dissolves. Add the remaining ingredients to the sauce and bring to a low simmer. Simmer the sauce for about 30 minutes stirring occasionally. Season with salt and pepper.
 
Sprinkle a little paprika, salt, pepper, and garlic powder onto the pork chops and rub the spices into the meat. Spoon a bit of sauce on each pork chop but make sure you don't touch the pork chops with the spoon and then dip it back into the sauce, you don't want to contaminant the whole pot of sauce. Once seasoned and sauced, leave the chops sit in the refrigerator while you prepare your charcoal, or gas, grill. If you don't know how to prepare or cook with a charcoal grill, an entire post is coming either this week or next on how to do so.

Pour a bit of our homemade barbecue sauce into a separate bowl that you can take out to the grill with you. Add just enough for the amount of pork chops you are grilling because like before, once we spread the sauce onto the pork and dip our brush back into the sauce we won't be able to use the sauce at a later time. You can always pour more sauce into your dish if need be. If you don't have a BBQ brush, look for a heat resistant silicone one like mine. There are much more sanitary and easier to clean.

Once your grill is ready, place the chops on the grates and grill for about 6 to 8 minutes on each side. After you flip your chops the first time, spread a bit of your BBQ sauce on top. Continue grilling on the opposite side until done. The FDA recommends pork to be cooked to 145 degrees so if you're unsure you can always use a meat thermometer to see if your chops are cooked. Once your remove the pork chops from the grill, pour a bit more sauce over top and just like with steaks we want to let these rest for a few minutes before we cut into them. I know it's tempting to but slicing into the chops now will only allow all of our delicious juices to escape. Serve up your pork chops with any of your favorite summer sides and a nice cold coke and dinner is served.


Days of Thunder starring Tom Cruise, Robert Duvall, and Nicole Kidman was a film based in the fast and unpreditable world of stock car racing. Robert Duvall plays Harry Hogge, a sucsessful pit crew chief who left the world of racing when his driver died in a crash during the Daytona 500 the year prior. When car owner Tim Daland (Randy Quaid) comes to try and talk Harry into working for a new race team he's putting together, Tim guarantees that he'll get Harry a driver capable of driving their car to victory. They turn to the young hot headed driver named Cole Trickle (Tom Cruise).

While Cole has raced his way to the top in other forms of racing, he'll have to learn to trust Harry's knowledge to survive in the world of stock cars. Cole's level of talent only rivals his temper, and it's not long before her builds a strong rivalry with other racers on the track. Just as Cole and the team begin to hit their stride, an accident threatens to keep the young driver off the track for good. In the world of racing, Cole soon finds you are forgotten about faster than he can drive a lap around the track. Cole will have to use every bit of determination he has to get in the drivers set and make his way back to the top. John C Riley, Cary Elwes, and Michael Rooker co-star in this fast paced early 90's classic. Check out the trailer here for Days of Thunder.