Grilled Hawaiian Pork Chops make a flavorful and easy summer meal that the whole family will love. Pork chops are marinated in a Hawaiian sauce, grilled to perfection and topped with a sweet pineapple salsa. We like to serve these with a green salad and sweet corn.
Summer is all about grilling in my house! I love having a variety of new grilling recipes to try out each summer.
Grilled Hawaiian Pork Chops are one of those new recipes that we loved and will be making time and time again.
Not only are these grilled pork chops super easy to make, they are flavorful and juicy. If you love tropical flavors, this is the meal for you.
A lot of people I talk to about pork often say that when they were younger they would eat pork and it tasted dry or overcooked. I am in this camp as well.
Back in the 80’s and 90’s I ate one too many overcooked pork chops. Because of this many people are turned away from cooking pork. Well I am here to change this for you and teach you how to grill the perfectly juicy piece of pork.
I love a good pork chop from time to time like these Breaded Oven Baked Pork Chops, Grilled Hawaiian Pork Chops, BBQ Baked Pork Chops, Parmesan Crusted Pork Chops, Easy Pineapple Pork Chops or my Maple Bourbon Pork Chops.
Today’s Grilled Hawaiian Pork Chops are simple to make. It is the perfect recipe to start with when grilling pork chops.
The marinade uses four simple ingredients: soy sauce, ginger, crushed red pepper and garlic.
It creates the perfect marinade for your pork chops. You start by marinading the pork in a ziplock bag for 2 hours in the fridge.
If you have been following along here at A Cedar Spoon you will know that I love marinades and use them a lot when grilling meats.
I like that they help infuse flavors into the meat and keep them juicy when grilling.
Recipe Ingredients You’ll Need
- Pork: This recipe uses six pork loin chops that are about 1 1/2 inch thick. I used boneless pork chops. I find that they grill nicely!
- Marinade: The marinade for these pork chops uses soy sauce, ground ginger, crushed red pepper and garlic. This marinade infuses so much flavor! Salsa: The salsa is a sweet pineapple salsa mixing fresh pineapple, jalapeños, bell pepper, red onion and lime juice.
How to Make Grilled Pork Chops
When you are ready to cook the pork remove it from the fridge and let it sit out while you heat the grill.
Once the grill is heated to medium-high heat you place the pork chops on the grill and let them sit for 6-7 minutes.
Flip the pork to the other side and continue to cook until the internal temperature reaches 145 degrees {about another 7 minutes for me}.
The cook time of course depends on the thickness of your pork chops.
As you can see I used thicker pork chops so they might take a bit longer.
You will see a slight blush of pink when the pork is at 145 degrees. That is ok! In this case that little bit of pink is your friend.
It means the pork ins’t overcooked and will be juicy and packed with flavor.
Once you pull the pork off of the grill place it in a baking dish and loosely cover the dish with foil.
Let it rest for 3 minutes to ensure those juicy really set in!
Place the grilled pineapple on a plate with the pineapple salsa and you have yourself the perfect summer meal!
How Long to Cook Boneless Pork Chops
Like I mentioned you can use either bone-in or boneless pork chops for this recipe.
If you pick boneless just make sure you watch the pork chops so they don’t overcook. I find that boneless pork chops can cook quicker and become dry easier.
I suggest you cook them around the 375 degree temperature or even 400 for a crispier skin. See below for how long to cook them based on their thickness.
| Pork Chop Oven Temp | Boneless Pork Chop Bake Time | |
| ½ in / 1 cm thickness | 1 in / 2½ cm thickness | |
| 350°F | 10-12 min | 20-22 min |
| 375°F | 8-10 min | 18-20 min |
| 400°F | 7-8 min | 15-18 min |
| 425°F | 6-7 min | 12-15 min |
Can Pork be Slightly Pink?
I often hear this question from people. The answer is yes!
The internal temperature should be 145 degrees F in the deepest part using a meat thermometer for pork chops and they will be slightly pink which means they are juicy and perfectly safe to eat.
If you overcook them to the point where there is no pink and the pork is slightly grey it will be tough and dry.
More Pork Recipes
Grilled Hawaiian Pork Chops
Ingredients
- 6 Pork Loin Chops {1 1/2 inch thick for each pork chops}
For the marinade:
- 1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger {1 Tablespoons fresh ginger}
- 1/4 crushed red pepper {optional}
- 3 garlic cloves, chopped
- 1/8 teaspoon ground pepper
For the Pineapple Salsa:
- 2 cups fresh pineapple, diced
- 1 jalapeno, seeds removed, chopped
- 1/2 red bell pepper, seeds removed, diced
- 1/4 cup red onion, chopped
- 1/2 of a lime, juiced
- Dash of salt
Instructions
- In a medium mixing bowl whisk together the soy sauce, ground ginger, crushed red pepper, garlic and pepper.
- In a large ziplock bag combine the pork chops and the marinade and refrigerate for 2 hours, making sure to massage the marinade into the pork chops.
- Pre-heat grill or grill pan over medium-high heat.
- Place pork on the grill and let sit for 6-7 minutes. Flip the pork to the other side and continue cooking until it reaches an internal cooking temperature of 145 degrees {the total time will depend on the thickness and type of pork chop you use}, about another 6-7 minutes.
- Remove pork from the grill and cover loosely with foil. Let rest at least 3 minutes to ensure juicy pork.
- Place the grilled pork chops on each plate and top with a spoonful of pineapple salsa on each pork chop.
Notes
Thanks to Ohio Pork for sponsoring today’s post. I am excited to be partnering with them this year to share more about pork and provide delicious, easy recipes for you to try!
The flavors in these pork chops are outstanding! This will become a regular recipe for my summer grilling menu!
Yes! The flavors are so good!
This looks really good. In fact, I badly want to try this so, I am going out tomorrow and grab some ingredients. Thank you for sharing this recipe. I am so excited to enjoy this Grilled Hawaiian Pork Chops.
I hope you like them! They are a favorite around here.
I love pineapple on pizza :D. This looks really delicious i’d really love to try this