If you’re dreaming of escaping to sunnier climbs now that the weather has turned cooler, this colourful Caribbean-inspired recipe may just help. The pork chops marinated in warming jerk spices and served with a vibrant and zesty pineapple salsa, which is sure to banish any winter blues.
Normally I would be tempted to buy jerk paste, but this time I was determined to make my own and it surprised me with how easy it was. This reminded me of when my grandma would make her own spice mix for her chicken that she would serve with the most delicious dumplings. Sadly I never got the recipe, however, I’m pretty pleased with how my own has turned out.
Everything simply needs to be blitzed in a food processor until smooth and you can make a big batch to store in a jar until you need it again next time. I only marinated the pork for a few minutes, but you could leave it overnight for the meat to really take on those flavours.
A colourful Caribbean-inspired dish to help brighten up a grey day.
- 4 pork chops
- 3 tbsp Jerk paste (recipe below)
- 1 small pineapple (cubed)
- 16 cherry tomatoes halved
- Juice of 1 lime
- zest of 1 lime
- 1 garlic clove minced
- 1 small red chilli finely chopped
- 1 red onion finely chopped
- 1 handful of coriander chopped
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 1 red onion
- 1 scotch bonnet pepper (remove seeds if preferred)
- 1 inch fresh ginger peeled
- 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 2 tbsp light brown sugar
- 2 tbsp lime juice
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Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.
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Coat the pork chops with the homemade jerk paste and leave to rest for a couple of minutes. They can be left overnight if you prefer.
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While the pork is cooking you can make the salsa. Simply prepare all the ingredients, mix in a bowl and season to taste.
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Transfer the pork to an ovenproof dish and cook 10-15 minutes, depending on the size of the pork chops. Allow to rest for a couple of minutes once cooked.
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Serve with the pineapple and chilli salsa and your favourite sides.
Aiden is in a transition phase with his naps, which means he still needs one but won’t actually go down for one unless we’re in the car. He’s beginning to phase them out, which means a much earlier bedtime – sleeping at 10 pm isn’t unusual. As we try to gauge his new bedtime, quick meals like this are essential as the evenings can get pretty busy for us especially on nursery days and squeezing in dinner and bathtime before an overtired toddler has a meltdown. Alfie and Aiden polished off their plates, which always makes me very happy. We’ll definitely be making this again, and the pineapple salsa really complements the jerk spices. We served ours with homemade sweet potato wedges, but I think something like rice and peas would be lovely too.
Love those jerk spices?
This looks so yum! Pork chops are hard to do sometimes as they can be a bit boring so this is a great idea to jazz them up!
oh wow i love your site every time i come over theres something even more tasty than the last recipe this looks so refreshing
Aww thanks much!
Wow this looks delicious. We’re a bit stuck in a rut with meals at the moment, so something so packed with flavour is definitely what we need.
Oh this sounds delicious! I love jerk chicken but I have never tried jerk pork, I’m sure it’s super tasty!
Omgosh that plate looks so good and healthy too! I would love to try making the salsa with pineapple at home. Love the colors.
Thanks Claire! The salsa is very refreshing.
I love love pineapple salsa. For some reason I rarely make it. I need to change that. Soon.
Me too, this has reminded me how good it is.
This recipe sounds so delicious! The pineapple salsa gives the dish a really exotic taste and compliments so well the jerk spices in which you’ve marinated the chicken.
It’s actually pork, but chicken would be perfect for this too. ?
I’m not sure I’ve ever had jerk meat but the ingredients in the jerk paste sound yummy. The dish looks so fresh, colourful and healthy.
Thanks Linda. It’s a lovely way to bring excitement to a meal.
We love jerk seasoning. I never thought about making a pieneapple salsa before, looks delicious!
It’s really refreshing against those jerk spices.
Ooh that looks delicious! Your photos are great too.
Thanks Emily!
I will save the recipe of Jerk paste and will slather any meat with it. It looks so tasty. Great recipe.
Thank you. I hope you like it.
I really like your recipes and food pics, so tempting!! Will try this recipe with lamb chops.
Thanks so much. I think it would be lovely with lamb.
OMG this sounds absolutely delicious and not too hard to make either. I love mango salsa so I think pineapple would be a good one for me too! xxx
A mango salsa would work just as well with the jerk spices!