Grilled Maple Chipotle Pork Chops

Morita chiles are red, fully mature Chipotles. This gives them a unique, medium – hot smokey flavor which is popular in many Southwestern dishes. These can be added to sauces (including Mole) to add smokey flavor and maintain the red color of the sauces. These peppers are about 2-4 inches in length, 1 inch in width, and have a deep brick reddish brown color. The word Chipotle translated to smoked chile. Consider the Chipotle a 6.5 on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the hottest). Scoville heat units 7,000-25,000.

Suggested Use:
Use Morita in enchilada sauces, chili, stews, barbecue ribs, and corn bread. Their smoky quality combines well with poultry, meats and fall squash.

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Ingredients:

1/2 cup barbecue sauce
1/2 cup maple syrup
2 Tbsp minced chipotle pepper (soaked in 1/2 cup hot water to soften)
6 (1 1/4 inch thick) bone-in pork loin chops (about 4 1/2 lbs)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper

Instructions:

Preheat grill to 350 to 400 degrees (medium-high) heat. Whisk together the first 3 ingredients. Reserve half.

Sprinkle pork chops with salt and pepper.

Grill pork, covered with grill lid, 9 minutes on each side or until a meat thermometer inserted into the thickest portion registers 155 degrees, basting with remaining half of barbecue sauce during last 5 minutes of grilling. Remove from grill, and drizzle with reserved barbecue sauce mixture.

Serves 6.

Adapted from recipe in Southern Living.