The Ultra Sweet Soda You Should Be Marinating Pork Chops In

A lean and flavorful cut of meat, pork chops will certainly benefit from a marinade. Since pork chops don't have a lot of fat, a marinade will keep them moist on the grill or in the frying pan. Most importantly, though, marinades introduce new and delicious flavors to complement and add depth to the savoriness of this cut of meat. While you might think that herbs and spices are the flavor agents in marinades, the marinating liquid itself can be a vessel for flavor. But have you ever thought about using a flavored soda? When it comes to pork chops root beer is the ultra sweet soda you need to try.

Sweet and savory is an especially popular pairing for pork, considering iconic recipes like sausage and apples, maple-cinnamon bacon, and honey baked ham. Sodas are also great meat marinades, with examples like Coca Cola marinades for Mexican carnitas. In fact, we even recommend a Dr. Pepper marinade for pork chops. Root beer is a great alternative with an equally unique flavor profile. Root beer's sweetness not only complements the savory flavor of the pork chops, but also creates a beautifully browned, caramelized sear on the meat. Furthermore, the carbonation in root beer provides the acid necessary to tenderize meat. Root beer also has a very unique flavor, once imparted by the herbal, almost medicinal tasting sassafras root extract. It still uses herbal, licorice-like flavors that are great pairings for the pork.

Root beer is a complex flavor agent on its own, but you can then transform the marinade into a flavorful glaze with ingredients that enhance its sweetness with more sugar or create a complementary profile with spicy or savory condiments. For a sweet and spicy glaze, you can add brown sugar and spicy, smoky chipotles to the root beer glaze. You can also balance the sweetness of the soda with umami-rich ingredients like Worcestershire sauce or soy sauce.

If you want to optimize tenderness, you can dry brine the pork chops overnight by sprinkling them with salt, wrapping them in butcher paper, and letting them sit in the fridge. The root beer marinade will infuse and tenderize pork chops within two hours of soaking. You can use a can of root beer like A&W or the classic Barq's brand. One can is enough to marinate two pork chops. Then you can pour the root beer into a pot with other glaze ingredients to reduce. Apply the glaze to the pork chops with a basting brush as they grill or with a spoon if you're using a frying pan.