Hi Everyone! So, if you have followed my writings for a bit you may know that I absolutely love cookbooks. I have quite a collection – though not as many as I would like to have. Sad but true. I could spend a fortune on them if I had a fortune to spend. The space to keep them is also an issue. I have them stashed everywhere it seems. I wish that I had a big old library with a section just for cookbooks. Well, one of my cookbooks is the Mayberry Cookbook. Yep, you read that right. I said Mayberry – as in The Andy Griffith Show and the home of Barney Fife. I love, love, love that show. I’m pretty sure that I have every episode memorized. I know that I can usually tell what episode is coming on by listening to the first 10 seconds. Again, sad but true. I am definitely showing my age here…and my level of sophistication.
One of our favorite references from that show is saying we want to go uptown to get a bottle of pop. Yeah, it’s corny but still makes us chuckle. We don’t even call soft drinks pop in my house. I don’t want to kick off any controversy or major debate, but it is soda here. Except for this recipe, it is pop. One of my favorite recipes from the Mayberry Cookbook is Bottle of Pop Chops. We have made them for years and never tire of them. They are super easy to make. You can get them in the oven in about 10 minutes. They do need to bake for an hour, but it is well worth the wait.
The sauce is made with just a few simple ingredients – including cola. I like to use Pepsi, but Coke works just as well. Actually, any cola will do. Just don’t use diet. You won’t get the same sweetness to the sauce and I am always a little apprehensive of cooking with something that has an artificial sweetener. You never know what the heat of the oven may do to it. This dish also uses boneless pork chops, ketchup, a little salt and pepper and brown sugar. If you find the pork chops on special this is also a very economical dish and it feeds several people easily. These chops are tender and moist with a wonderfully sweet and yet tangy sauce.
To start off, you will need to lightly spray a 9 X 13 baking dish with cooking spray and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Arrange your pork chops in the dish. I normally use 6 to 8 chops. It really depends on the size of the chops. The package that I used this time had more than 8 but some were smaller, so I just fit them all in like a pork jigsaw puzzle. Sprinkle the chops with a little salt and pepper. Set this aside.
In a medium bowl or large measuring cup, mix together the ketchup and soda with a fork or a small whisk. Stir together until well blended. The soda makes the sauce fuzz up a bit so it looks like I have more than a cup of each ingredient here.
Pour this mixture over the pork chops as evenly as possible. Sprinkle the brown sugar over the sauce and chops. I used ½ cup this time. You can add more if you like. It seems that the more you add the thicker your sauce gets.
Put all of this in the oven and bake for 1 hour. Take them out and serve with a little of the sauce spooned over the top. Cue up an episode of Andy Griffith and revel in a simpler time when getting a soda at the gas station was an event worth savoring with friends.
Bottle of Pop Chops
These chops are tender and moist with a wonderfully sweet and yet tangy sauce.
Ingredients
- 6 to 8 pork chops (boneless or bone-in)
- 1 cup ketchup
- 1 cup cola
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar (more if you prefer)
Directions
- Step 1 Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Step 2 Lightly spray a 9 X 13 baking dish with cooking spray.
- Step 3 Arrange the pork chops in the dish in a single layer and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Set aside.
- Step 4 In a medium bowl or large measuring cup, whisk together the ketchup and cola until well blended.
- Step 5 Pour the sauce over the pork chops evenly.
- Step 6 Sprinkle with brown sugar evenly.
- Step 7 Bake, uncovered, for 1 hour.
