Grilled Pork Chops with Apple and Blue Cheese Sauce
Rubbed chops over the coals, finished with fried apples and melted gorgonzola.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 11 oz
- cal / oz
- 56
- protein
- 42 g
- serves
- 6, scales
- prep
- 20 min
- cook
- 25 min
- total time
- 45 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $$$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Campfire coals
- Grill grate
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Gluten free
- Nut free
- Real dishes
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Pork chops, thick cut | 6 chops | wild hog or store pork, brined at home |
|---|---|---|
| Turbinado sugar | 1 cup | rub base |
| Paprika | 1/2 cup | |
| Kosher salt | 3 tbsp | |
| Coarse ground black pepper | 2 tbsp | |
| Chili powder | 2 tbsp | |
| Garlic powder | 2 tbsp | |
| Onion powder | 2 tbsp | |
| Ancho chili powder | 1 tbsp | |
| Tart apples | 4 | Granny Smith, peeled and cubed at home |
| Butter | 4 tbsp | |
| Brown sugar | 3 tbsp | |
| Gorgonzola crumbles | 8 oz | |
| Bourbon or brandy | 2 tbsp |
Method
- At home: brine the chops overnight in salted apple cider, then rinse, pat dry, and pack them in the cooler. Mix the rub in a jar. Cube the apples and toss them with a little of the brown sugar so they do not brown.
- In camp, build a coal bed and let the flames die down. Set the grate about four inches over it.
- Coat the chops on all sides with the rub. Press it in.
- Grill over the coals, turning once, until the thick part reads 145F. Thick chops take roughly 20 minutes. Pull them onto a plate and cover with foil.
- While the chops rest, melt the butter in a skillet on the grate. Add the apples and the rest of the brown sugar. Cook until the edges catch and go brown, about 8 minutes.
- Off the heat, pour in the bourbon and stir in the gorgonzola. It melts on residual heat. Do not put it back on the fire or it splits.
- Spoon the sauce over the chops.
This is a car-camping dinner, not a pack-in one. Everything about it depends on a cooler and a real fire. What makes it work at a site instead of a kitchen is moving all the fussy work home: the overnight brine, the rub mixing, the apple peeling. In camp you are grilling meat and running one skillet.
The brine matters more than the rub does. Wild hog and lean store pork both dry out fast over coals, and salted cider buys you a margin at 145F. The sauce comes off the heat before the cheese goes in on purpose. Gorgonzola over direct flame breaks into oil and grit; residual pan heat melts it into the apples instead.
Packing
Rub goes in a screw-top jar; you will use maybe a third of it and the rest keeps for the next trip. Apples in a zip bag, cheese in its own bag, butter in a small tub. Chops on the bottom of the cooler on ice.
Variations
- Skip the bourbon and use a splash of apple cider instead. The sauce still works.
- Feta or a firm goat cheese melts about the same way if blue cheese is not your thing.
- Venison backstrap medallions take the same rub and the same sauce, but come off the fire five minutes sooner.
https://realtree.com/timber-2-table-wild-game-recipes/grilled-wild-pork-chops-with-apple-and-gorgonzola-cheese-sauce