Baked Pork Chops — The Recipe That Gets Into the Freezer and Stays Ready

Brandon made breakfast on Saturday — pancakes from a box, as is the custom — and I drank my coffee and let him. The week was a spring week, the kind where the light through the kitchen window arrives at a particular angle and the freezer hums in a different register depending on the temperature in the garage. I made notes in my prep notebook on Sunday afternoon, the way I always do: meal name, ingredient list, cost per serving, prep time, freezer instructions. Twenty-eight bags. Two hours and eleven minutes. A little slow this week, by my standards, but Brandon was helping and the conversation was good, and I have learned, slowly and against my own grain, that the conversation is sometimes the point and the time is sometimes a courtesy I extend to my husband for being willing to chop onions on a Sunday afternoon.

The children are doing what they do, which is the central report of every week of my adult life. Ethan is 20, in Manila on his mission, and his last email mentioned a chicken adobo so good he is going to make me make it when he comes home. Olivia is 19, at BYU studying elementary education — the path she chose at age seven and has not deviated from once. Mason is 16, finishing high school, with calluses on his hands and a plan that does not yet have words. Lily is 14, in high school, asking the kind of questions in Sunday School that make the teachers uncomfortable, which I find difficult and also, secretly, admirable. Noah is 12, the comedian, the performer — the kid who does an impression of my disappointed face in front of company, and gets away with it. That is the family report. I do not have a system for these reports. I just listen and remember and call back when I said I would call back, which is most of the time and not all of the time, and the difference between most and all is the territory of motherhood.

The recipe of the week was Hawaiian chicken, which I have made some specific number of times in my life and have refined to a system that I now hand to other people in printed form. The version I made this week fed eight, cost under fifteen dollars, and required twenty-six minutes of active prep, which is within my requirements and not a coincidence. The freezer in the garage is the freezer of record. The freezer in the pantry is the freezer of convenience. The distinction matters. I have stopped explaining the freezer-meal philosophy to people who already follow my work, and I have stopped apologizing for it to people who do not. The philosophy is simple: tomorrow is coming whether you are ready or not. You can either be ready or not. I pick ready.

I prayed on Thursday morning for the first time in two weeks, which the therapist would call worth noting. I noted it. I am still a Latter-day Saint. I am also a woman who has sat in front of a casket the size of a bread box. I do not see those two things as contradictions, but I do not pretend they sit easily together either. The bench in the chapel where I sit on Sunday is the same bench. The woman is not. The faith makes room for the woman. That is what I have learned to ask of it.

Dinner is in the freezer. Tomorrow is coming. I am ready.

Ethan asked me to make him chicken adobo when he gets home, and I have already written it in the notebook — but this week, it was pork chops, marinated and bagged and stacked in the garage freezer the way everything useful in my life eventually gets stacked. Hawaiian chicken got the headline, but the pork chops are what finished the batch, and they are the recipe I keep coming back to when I need something that requires very little of me on a Tuesday and gives a great deal back. Brandon chopped the onions. I made the marinade. That is, lately, enough.

Baked Pork Chops

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 35 min | Total Time: 50 min | Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 6 bone-in pork chops (about 3/4 inch thick)
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

Instructions

1. Make the marinade. In a small bowl, whisk together the soy sauce, olive oil, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, onion powder, smoked paprika, salt, pepper, and thyme until the sugar dissolves.
2. Marinate the chops. Place pork chops in a zip-top bag or shallow dish. Pour marinade over chops, seal, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or up to 8 hours. For freezer prep, seal chops with marinade in a labeled freezer bag and freeze flat for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before baking.
3. Preheat the oven. When ready to cook, preheat oven to 400°F (205°C). Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil and place a wire rack on top if available.
4. Arrange and bake. Remove chops from marinade, letting excess drip off, and arrange in a single layer on the prepared pan. Bake for 30—35 minutes, or until the internal temperature reaches 145°F on an instant-read thermometer.
5. Rest and serve. Let chops rest for 5 minutes before serving. Tent loosely with foil to retain heat.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 310 | Protein: 34g | Fat: 15g | Carbs: 7g | Fiber: 0g | Sodium: 620mg