Use Chipotle Peppers To Spice Up Your Next Pork Chop Dinner

If you're tired of your go-to pork chop recipe and are looking to literally spice things up, look no further than chipotle peppers. Tasting Table's recipe for chipotle-adobo pork chops uses chipotle peppers in adobo sauce to make a flavorful and heat-filled marinade for the pork chops. 

By marinating the pork chops in a chipotle adobo sauce — which consists of just the peppers, lime juice, garlic, salt, and pepper blended together in a food processor — the pork chops are given a significant flavor upgrade. Recipe developer Joe Dillard says, "Chipotle-adobo pork chops are flavor-packed with just the right amount of spice. Grilling them to perfection helps double down on the delicious smoky flavor that the adobo sauce provides."

Dillard advises that, if you're spice-averse, there's no need to worry because you can adjust the level of spiciness. You can either add a couple of tablespoons of honey to the marinade to bring in some sweetness to balance out the spice or you can simply use less of the marinade for each pork chop.

Maybe you like the idea of pairing spicy chipotles with pork chops but don't want to deal with a marinade or want more control over how much heat there is in each bite. Luckily, there are other ways to incorporate the chipotle flavor into a pork chop dish. For example, you can try making the 2-ingredient canned chipotle dip that we recommend using on just about everything — it consists of only chipotle peppers in adobo sauce and cashews blended together until smooth in a food processor. The spicy, nutty, creamy dip can be spread over an easy pork chop recipe or served as a side for dipping. This way, that chipotle flavor is available at the ready, but you can decide exactly how much of that spiciness you want in each bite.

Cashews and chipotle peppers are paired up once again in our recipe for vegan chipotle mayo: A healthy, spice-filled condiment that you'll want to spread on every sandwich and burger. With this in mind, you can make a pork chop sandwich — potentially inspired by the Chicago street food staple — and slather it with that delicious vegan chipotle mayo.