Bourbon Smoked Paprika Pork Chops

We are back from Maine where had perfect weather (warm and sunny all day for the beach, cool and breezy at night for sleeping), lots of lobster and steamers, and plenty of relaxation time. We will tell you about it once we get ourselves organized. For now, we have a recipe we made the week before we left. Back in July, Chris took a vacation from our New Orleans vacation and went with friends J and L to the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. He's a huge bourbon fan, so this was a real treat, and since then, we've both had a better appreciation for America's spirit. So much that we decided to play around with it in the kitchen a little bit.

This recipe not only uses bourbon, but also a bourbon-smoked paprika we got in one of our Foodzie tasting boxes. This spice mixture is made by Bourbon Barrel Foods and has the flavor of sweet paprika mellowed with the oakiness of bourbon. Perfect for seasoning pork, right? So we created a marinade with the paprika, brown sugar for extra sweetness, and bourbon, then grilled our marinated pork sirloin chops with some cipollini onions that we threw onto the grill grates for a simple but delicious side dish.

Kudos to Chris for those TV-worthy grill marks, huh? Nicely done!

Bourbon Smoked Paprika Pork Chops with Grilled Cipollini Onions

Ingredients:

2 boneless pork sirloin chops

kosher salt to taste

freshly ground black pepper to taste

1/4 tablespoon Bourbon Smoked Paprika

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 ounce bourbon

1 lb. cipollini onions

Season the pork chops with salt and pepper and place in a large zip-type bag. In a small bowl, mix together the paprika, brown sugar, bourbon and additional salt and pepper. Pour the mixture into the bag with the chops and allow to marinate for at least one hour. Place the pork chops and cipollini onions on a heated grill. Grill the pork chops on both sides until cooked through, with the length of time depending on size of chops. Grill the cipollini onions until they are soft and start to caramelize.