Pork chops with a blue cheese and honey sauce

Growing up, pork chops meant shake n’ bake. I didn’t even know one could eat a pork chop without the stuff until I was a teenager. Nothing against it, but now that I am basically a culinary genius (lie) I like to mix it up a bit.

I picked these pork chops up on sale at Whole Foods and they’re bone-in, which keeps them super juicy. I also decided to grill them, which was both easy and sooooo goooooood.  The inspiration for the sauce came from a bruschetta my aunt prepared last weekend which featured blue cheese and honey.  Traditionally pork chops are served with apple sauce so the sweetness of the honey is sort of playing off of that classic combination.  I also happen to love rosemary with blue cheese so the flavor profile fell together pretty quickly.  The base of the sauce is a basic white sauce, which I lightened up by using 1% milk and a small amount of butter substitute.  This recipe makes enough sauce for four pork chops, but if you’re doing less, leftovers keep well and can be used to top other proteins or even thinned down into a salad dressing.

Well, it ain’t no shake n’ bake, but I have to pat myself on the back for this one (good job self!) because this was delicious. It’s grilled pork chops, and I helped!

Pork chops with a blue cheese and honey sauce

Ingredients

For the pork
However many pork chops you need to feed the hungry masses
olive oil
salt and pepper

For the sauce
1 cup 1% milk
2 tbsp. all purpose flour
1 tbsp. Earth Balance (or butter or other substitute)
1 tbsp. honey
2 tbsp. (plus more for topping) crumbled blue cheese
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
dash black pepper
1/2 tsp. chopped fresh rosemary

1.) Set the grill to medium-high heat. Spread a bit of olive oil on either side of the chops and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Once the grill is hot, cook the chops for 5 minutes on each side. Let rest for 5 minutes before serving.
2.) Heat a small pot to medium heat. Whisk the flour in the pot then pour in half of the milk. Whisk to remove clumps. Gradually add more milk, whisking.
3.) Once all the milk has been added, stir in the honey, blue cheese, earth balance, salt, pepper and rosemary. Stir frequently until thickened (about 10 minutes or less).
4.) Once the pork chops have rested for 5 minutes, top with the sauce (you can also plate it with the sauce underneath the meat) and sprinkle on a bit more blue cheese.