This Unexpected Ingredient Makes Pork Chops Super Tender

From incorporating hot honey to topping the meat with compound butter, there are lots of ways to upgrade your pork chop dinner. While these methods are great for enhancing the flavor of your meal, ensuring that your chops are as juicy and succulent as possible is equally important. In this case, marinating pork chops in root beer before cooking can exquisitely tenderize meat and create a caramelized exterior, thereby adding some unexpected flavor.

Thanks to its acidic properties, soda is great for marinating meat. Recipes can vary depending on the size and number of pork chops you're marinating, but you'll need about three cans of root beer to marinate four chops (provided that the meat is not thicker than an inch). For the best results, allow the meat to sit in the root beer marinade for a minimum of two hours, but you can also let it rest in the soda overnight if you want your chops to be fall-off-the-bone tender. 

The sugar in root beer (along with its acidity) will also work its magic in our classic pork chop recipe. It's all about caramelization, a process that beautifully alters the flavor profile of sugar. Instead of being merely sweet, caramelization causes sugar to take on a deeper, toasted flavor, complete with nutty notes. These flavor elements are the perfect pairing for pork chops, as they lend richness to the savory taste of the meat. 

As for the flavor impact of the root beer itself, just consider how multi-faceted the soda is. The pleasant spiciness of root beer comes from sassafras, which is derived from the roots of sassafras trees (hence the name of the beverage). Other flavors in the soda include caramel and molasses, although the specific ingredients can vary from brand to brand. If you want to make your soda-tenderized chops even more flavorful, you can use the remaining root beer marinade to create glaze to be ladled over the meat.