Slow Baked Barbecue Pork Chops with Golden Vegetable Rice

Recently, I took advantage of some seasonal deals and picked up some very nice thick bone-in pork which is particularly good for slower cooking. The portion that didn’t go into the freezer needed used up soon, and I had a hard time deciding what exactly to do with it. I considered using it for some sort of stew, or for cooking with sauerkraut. I do love me some nice tender pork, and there are so many possibilities.
But, then I thought of one tasty low-effort meal my mother used to make sometimes, using either pork chops or chicken leg quarters. (With the cooking time and temperature adjusted to match.) Growing up, we usually got it saucier over plain salt-and-butter white rice.
Perfect! And simple enough to adjust this basic idea to the meat we had today and some household preferences. It turned out delicious, too.
This would be good served with just about any simple vegetable dish, or a green salad. But, I was in the mood for coleslaw, to go with the lazy barbecue theme.
Slow Baked Barbecue Pork Chops with Golden Vegetable Rice
Materials
For The Meat
- 750 g thick-cut pork chops (1½ lbs.) shoulder, butt, or country style ribs
- 2 medium to large onions fairly thickly sliced
- 6-8 cloves garlic
- seasoning of choice for the meat
- 100 ml water (around ⅓ cup)
- 1 bottle barbecue sauce of your choice I used about half here
For The Rice
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- ⅓ tsp turmeric
- 300 ml rice (1¼ cup) any long or medium grain should be good; I used Basmati
- 500 ml vegetable broth (2 cups)
- 250-250 ml frozen mixed vegetables (1-1½ cups) or to taste
- ½ tsp onion powder
- ¼ tsp garlic powder
- salt to taste I used around ¼ tsp, mainly to take care of the extra veggies
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 160℃/325℉.
- Lightly oil a baking dish. Lay your sliced onion and peeled garlic cloves in the bottom, under where your meat will be.
- Add your meat on top, and season it well on both sides. Here I used a common Swedish "grill seasoning" variant which includes some extra chili flakes.Here I used thick bone-in chops from a cut (fläskkarré) which I think corresponds to Boston butt. Any thick cut with a decent bit of fat marbled in should work fine, preferably with some bone for the extra flavor. This would also be a good use for country style ribs, if you can get them.
- Pour the little bit of water in under the meat, and cover the dish tightly with foil or a lid. (I skipped this, and wished I hadn't.)
- Bake for 2½ hours, or until the meat is fork tender. Then it will be ready for saucing.
Cooking The Rice
- When the meat gets tender, start the rice.Sauté the rice in the olive oil or butter for a few minutes, just until it starts smelling and looking a little toasty. This is optional, but it will give a little extra flavor and a more separate, fluffy texture.
- Add the turmeric, and stir well to coat.
- Once that's well distributed, add in the frozen vegetables, broth, and seasonings.
- Bring to a boil, cover, and then simmer over low heat for 20 minutes.
- Let sit off the heat, still covered, for 10 minutes. Then, uncover and fluff with a fork.After another 10 minutes or so to steam off, this can be covered up again to hold hot until the meat is ready to serve if necessary.
Finishing The Meat
- Uncover the meat, and spread with barbecue sauce to your satisfaction. I went relatively light here, and used about half that bottle.
- Put back in the oven for 20-30 minutes
- Let rest outside of the oven for 10-15 minutes before serving.
- Enjoy!We ate this with some coleslaw that I put together last night, with a garlic-herb sour cream dressing. A green salad would also be delicious on the side.