Hot Honey Pork Chops Recipe

Hot honey started out as a cult favorite back in the 20-tweens, but by now it's so mainstream that even Pizza Hut is in on the hot honey trend. There are numerous ways that you can use hot honey, ranging from stirring it into your tea to drizzling it on your pizza, but developer Kate Shungu likes to use it on pork chops. As she describes the dish, "The pork chops are meaty and tender with a sweet and spicy kick from the jalapeño-infused honey."

If you're wondering where she found jalapeño honey, she made it herself, which is a super-easy process involving just two ingredients ( jalapeños and honey). Once infused, she says "The honey is pleasantly spicy" and compares the heat level to that of jalapeño-flavored potato chips. "You can taste the zip but it won't burn your mouth off," she tells us, but adds that you can mix some cayenne into the spice blend for the pork chops if you want a more incendiary meal.

To start, you'll need bone-in pork chops, plus salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder to season them. For the sauce, you'll need jalapeños and honey.

Preheat a grill to medium-high heat.

In a small skillet, combine the honey and sliced jalepeño. Heat over low heat until bubbling around the edges. Remove from the heat and let sit for 5 minutes.

Strain the honey through a mesh colander. Set aside the sliced jalapeños for garnish.

In a small bowl, combine the salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder.

Sprinkle the salt mixture evenly over the pork chops.

Grill the pork chops on one side for 3–4 minutes, or until grill marks appear.

Flip and continue cooking for an additional 3–4 minutes, or until the pork is cooked to your desired doneness.

Remove from the heat and place on a serving platter. Drizzle the jalapeño-infused honey over the top and garnish with the reserved slices of jalapeño to serve.

Shungu slices the entire jalapeño, seeds and membranes and all, for the hot honey, explaining,"The seeds and membranes of the pepper come into direct contact with the honey," thus making it somewhat spicier than it would have been if she'd removed them ahead of time. If you want milder honey, however, you can leave these out, while you can also double the amount of peppers to make the honey hotter.

Of course, jalapeños aren't the only way you can flavor honey. Other types of peppers would also work, from milder Anaheims to hotter serranos or habaneros. You could also use dried chiles or other dry ingredients, such as cinnamon sticks, vanilla beans, citrus peel, and culinary lavender. No matter what you choose to infuse your honey, if you want it done quickly, you can heat the ingredients like Shungu does. As she explains, "By warming, the flavor infuses more quickly into the honey." If you're using raw honey, however, you might want to take things slow and let the flavoring ingredients infuse for a few weeks at room temperature.

The chops Shungu uses in this recipe are bone-in and about 1-inch thick, but if your chops are a different size or you opt to go boneless, she advises that you use a meat thermometer to monitor the internal temperature. Pork chops will be tender if you take them off the heat as soon as they hit 145 F, but if you leave them on any longer, they are likely to dry out.

Another precaution you can take is to brine the pork chops before cooking. We're not talking about a days-long brine like you might do with a Thanksgiving turkey, but a 30-minute soak in cold salt water (⅓ cup kosher salt dissolved in 6 cups water) will work wonders for your chops. Not only will the water keep the meat moist, but the salt will season them on the inside as well as the outside.