Peking Pork Chops

This recipe comes from "Make It Fast, Cook It Slow" by Stephanie O'Dea. She writes the crockpot356 blog about using her crock pot everyday for a year.

Peking Pork Chops

The Ingredients:
6 pork chops
1/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp five-spice powder
1/2 cup gluten-free soy sauce
1/4 cup ketchup
4 garlic cloves, chopped

The Directions:
Use a 4-quart slow cooker. Put the chops into the stoneware. In a small bowl, combine the sugar, spices, soy sauce, ketchup, and garlic. Pour evenly over the top of the chops. Cover and cook on LOW for 6-8 hours, or on HIGH for about 4 hours. Serve with rice and veggies and ladle the sauce on top. These chops freeze and reheat well - yay!

My thoughts:
I use a 3-quart round slow cooker, and had plenty of space. Unless your chops are of the monsterous variety, I don't know that you need a larger slow cooker. I also cooked mine on HIGH for about an hour, and then reduced the heat to LOW for 2-3 hours. They were falling apart tender! Also, I wouldn't use those beautiful center loin chops for this. Put those babies on the grill. Use the chops that aren't bone-in, but that have more connective tissue and fat on them, and don't trim any of it off. I didn't have time to do my usual "no fat enters the crock pot!" trimming and was glad for it when we sat down for dinner. The chops had that wonderful "rib-y" flavor that only comes from cooking meat low and slow. The secret is that the connective tissue and fat melt away and make the meat more tender as it slowly cooks. The other thing I liked about these was now that I have a basic formula, I can pretty much put any seasoning on them and let them cook. Asian? Mediterranean? Bring it!