I’m always a little leery of foods with Caribbean spice blends. They always sound great to me, with a lot of the Latin flavors I love like citrus, cumin, and tropical fruits. But they also usually include some traditionally autumnal spices (for those of us who live in the US) like cinnamon, cloves, and allspice. I once had a bad experience with a Jamaican Jerk recipe that left my chicken wings tasting like pumpkin pie and I’ve been gun shy ever since.
When the quantities are perfect however, magical things happen. I had a good feeling about this Caribbean Rubbed Pork Chips with Mango Salsa recipe I saw in this month’s Cooking Light (and let’s face it; you all know I can’t resist a mango salsa) so I gave it a shot. I thought the spice mix was spot-on and the mango salsa was the perfect addition. My whole family loved it, and the fact that it can be on the table in under 30 minutes is a bonus!
Ingredients Needed
This is just a preview of ingredients and method, keep scrolling for full printable recipe.
Pork Chops
- Spice mix – Coriander, cumin, granulated sugar, ginger, salt, allspice, red pepper.
- Pork chops – Bone in, center cut, about 1/2 inch thick. Can you use other pork chops? Sure, just adjust cooking time as necessary. Note that boneless pork chops cook faster and can dry out more easily if overcooked. Thicker chops will need longer on the grill to come to temperature.
Mango Salsa
- Fresh mango
- Plum tomatoes – Roma tomatoes are a variety of plum tomato. These are nice for the salsa because they have fewer seeds and less juice inside to clean out before dicing. Any variety of tomato you like will do, though.
- Cilantro – Fresh. If you’re one of those who taste soap when you eat cilantro, you can omit it or replace it with parsley, mint, or basil.
- Red wine vinegar
- Extra virgin olive oil
How to Make Caribbean Rubbed Pork Chops with Mango Salsa
- I like to make my salsa first and let it rest in the fridge while I cook my pork chops, but you can also make it while the meat is on the grill. You’ll just toss your diced mango and tomato with some cilantro and dress with oil and vinegar.
- For the pork chops, you’ll mix up and east spice mix, then rub it on the pork chops. Then you’ll pop those on the grill and cook until they reach 145°F.
- Serve pork chops topped with mango salsa.
Storing and Other Tips
- Store leftovers separately in airtight containers in the fridge for best results. I would recommend using up the salsa within 2-3 days and the meat within 3-4.
- If you’d like to plan ahead, you can make the spice rub and salsa a day ahead of time.
- These pork chops would be great with this Lime-Cilantro Pineapple Rice.
Frequently Asked Questions
These are best hot off the grill, and they cook up fast! You can definitely mix up the salsa and the spice rub for the pork ahead of time, though!
You could definitely try the spice rub with a small pork tenderloin. Chicken thighs would probably be great as well! I would avoid chicken breasts, personally, unless you cut them thin and grill them fast, cooking just until internal temperature reaches 165°F.
Sure. I bet red onions would be a delicious addition!
Caribbean Rubbed Pork Chops with Mango Salsa
Ingredients
Mango Salsa
- ½ cup mango diced, peeled
- ½ cup tomato, plum diced
- ½ cup cilantro chopped
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
Pork Chops
- 1 ½ teaspoons coriander ground
- 1 ½ teaspoons cumin ground
- ¾ teaspoon sugar
- ¾ teaspoon ginger ground
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon allspice ground
- ⅛ teaspoon red pepper ground
- 4 6-ounce pork chops bone-in center cut, (about ½inch thick)
Instructions
Mango Salsa
- Combine mango, tomato, cilantro, red wine vinegar, and olive oil in a small bowl; toss gently. Set aside.
Pork Chops
- Combine coriander, cumin, sugar, ginger, salt, allspice, and red pepper in a small bowl.
- Place pork chops in a dish or bowl. Pour spice mixture over pork chops and use hands to rub the spice mix thoroughly onto each pork chop.
- Heat a grill pan over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. (Or heat an outdoor BBQ grill and lightly brush grates with vegetable oil.) Add pork to pan or grill and cook 3 minutes on each side, or until a thermometer registers 145℉ (slightly pink).
- Top pork with salsa before serving.
Notes
- Store leftovers separately in airtight containers in the fridge for best results. I would recommend using up the salsa within 2-3 days and the meat within 3-4.
- If you’d like to plan ahead, you can make the spice rub and salsa a day ahead of time.
- These pork chops would be great with this Lime-Cilantro Pineapple Rice.
Questions & Reviews
WE TOTALLY DO THE CHICKEN THING TOO!! I think my mom thinks we’re going straight to hell for lying to our kids constantly. I say, if they eat it, who cares?!?! Now that they are getting older, they want to know the real names, but it’s stil just CHICKEN! Whenever we have skewers, it’s “Castle-Guy Chicken” cause it looks like our food just came off of a sword. This looks fabulous. And THANK YOU THANK YOU for the recipe box saving thingy. You ladies are the BEST!
looks delicious!!! we rarely eat pork, but i think this will be great.
also looking for something to serve alongside….. some sort of rice maybe?
Yep, try coconut rice; it’s awesome with it!
This sounds like the perfect weeknight meal! And it sounds like I’m going to be having a lot of princess dinners in my future!
Use brown sugar and “NO SALT” and if ya don’t like clintro…parsley will do.
Hahaha what a great trick with the kids!!! The pork is delicious looking! Love the spice rub combined with a fruit salsa! And it’s so great that the salsa doesn’t have onion like most salsas… I hate raw onion 🙂
I had to get a chuckle of how you relate the food to a movie character or other attractive thing to your kids; I used to tell my kids that Broccoli was a treestar from the land before time series and it is what Littlefoot was always looking for; they fell for it and my son who is 14 still eats his broccoli (but won’t touch a piece of lettuce, go figure).
We also made your Rockin’ Italian meatloaf last night and everyone LOVED it!!
This sounds delish… but hubby doesn’t like fruit and meat together. 🙁
I love your Mom Trick – by the time they’re old enough to not be impressed, they’ll be used to trying all sorts of new things. (And you can always say, “well, you liked it when you had it last time.”)
I was wondering what would be yummy to serve with this. The spices sound great but frankly they are throwing me off here as to what to put with it. Any suggestions please?
Try out one of our rice dishes- coconut rice would be awesome!
I was just going to comment like Darla, the ice cream shows up, instead of the pork (FYI) in the recipe box. No worries for me though, I’d rather eat ice cream for dinner anyway! I’m excited to try this, but even more excited that I make a shopping list from your website now!! So easy to meal plan! Thank you!!!
My 3-yr-old sits down to dinner and asks, “What kind of chicken is this, mommy? Is it fish?”
Fortunately, he’s willing to eat all kinds of “chicken” so we’re lucky!