Backyardigans: Chipotle Orange Pork Chops

Now that we have one, we're spending a lot of time in the backyard.  It started innocently enough - our dining room table was covered with boxes, so we started eating outside.  Every meal.  We've since moved breakfast back inside, but weekend lunches and all dinners are outside.

Next we unpacked Thatbaby's wheels.  Which meant every free moment, he was asking us to go skate outside.  He skateboards daily.  It's kind of cute and he's made some real progress over the past few weeks.

The final step towards our backyard bliss was getting the blow up pool.  We spent the entire weekend in there.  Sometimes just Thatbaby, sometimes Thatboy and Thatbaby, sometimes me and Thatbaby, and sometimes all three of us.  It's a great summer addition.

I don't really mind spending so much time in the backyard.  It's nice back there - grass, cement, a pool.  And a giant orange tree.  I'm loving that most of all.  You're going to start seeing a lot more recipes involving oranges here, because it's just so easy to grab a couple and use them.  Like this pork dish.  Sure we've been doing a chipotle sauce around here for a while, but this is an orange chipotle sauce.  Which meant I got to go fruit picking while cooking.  I'm sure this would work well with other citrus too, especially meyer lemon, but using oranges has the bonus of giving it a nice sweetness which pairs well with the smokey chipotle.  Plus, we've got oranges.  Lots of oranges.

 Chipotle Orange Pork Chops (From Elly Says Opa)

1/3 cup orange juice

1 chipotle in adobo, chopped

1 tsp soy sauce

 2 cloves garlic, minced

2 pork chops

1.  Combine orange juice, chipotle, soy sauce, and garlic in a food processor.  
2. Place the pork chops in a shallow bowl and pour the sauce over them.  Let marinate for 20-30 minutes.
3. Preheat the broiler.  Remove the pork from the marinade and put on a broiler pan.  Pour the marinade into a small pan and boil until reduced by half.
4. Season the pork with salt and pepper and broil about 3 minutes per side.  
5. Brush the pork chops with the reduced marinade and broil another minute.
6. Flip, brush, and broil another minute.