I Love the South!!

Man I love the south! Growing up in Chicago I did not know any better...until I moved to Georgia! It is January and today it is going to be sunny and mid 60's! Way to nice to be inside! Living in the south makes it easy to cook outside year round as well. Today, I am thinking a little Grilled Chipotle-Lime Pork Chops and Spanish Rice for dinner.

There are two ways to go about this....you can make your marinade fresh like this:
1 chipotle chile, dried, re-hydrated and minced
2 teaspoons oregano
2 crushed garlic cloves (I like more than this though)
1/4 cup olive oil
2/3 cup lime juice
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
1/2 teaspoon salt

Combine all the ingredients and pour over the chops in a plastic bag. Squeeze as much air out of the bag as you can so you get a lot of marinade to chops contact surface. This is good for 4 chops (bone in or boneless)

OR...you can just buy a bottle of the Chipotle-Lime Marinade and save a lot of time. Marinade for at least an hour...overnight if you can!

If you have boneless chops they will cook much faster than bone in chops. Light your grill for high heat/ direct cooking. The times below are assuming that your chops are about 1 inch in thickness.

For boneless chops cook directly over the high-heat for 4 minutes per side (chops should be about room temperature when you take them to the grill). I like to do the quarter turn after 2 minutes on the first side so that I get the nice cross hatch on one side for presentation purposes.

For Bone in cooking, I still use the direct high heat for the same time span as the boneless. When that time is up I move them to the indirect lower heat side of the grill for an additional 8 - 10 minutes.

For the Spanish rice...I wing it! I boil my rice in chicken broth for a little extra flavor, then I add a little paprika for color, some chopped onions, jalapeno (seeds and veins removed), tomato (seeds removed), salt, pepper, and cilantro. I have no idea how much of each I use....guessing, I would say about a teaspoon of each season and a 1/2 cup of each the onions and tomato to a full cup of rice....maybe one jalapeno.

Another month until pitchers and catchers report! Enjoy the day! AND if you have any topics that you would like to see discussed let me know! Otherwise you are just going to see a whole bunch of recipes!