Sweet BBQ pork, smoky beans and cold Ashley’s Slaw make this feel like a backyard cookout without the backyard-cookout grocery bill. Thirty minutes, one skillet, and nobody has to stand over a grill in September.

A bowl is a forgiving format. It is also a format where two things go wrong that would never show up on a plate. The pork gets sliced, and everything ends up touching.

Both problems are solved at the counter, before you cook anything.

Boneless Pork Chops Come from Four Different Places

“Boneless pork chop” is not a cut. It is a shape. The loin runs most of the length of the pig’s back, and where along that run your chop was taken decides almost everything about how it eats.

Cut from the blade end, up near the shoulder, a chop has the most marbling and the most intramuscular fat on the whole loin. It is the most forgiving chop in the case and the hardest one to dry out. From the rib end, next down, you get a chop that is still fatty and very consistent — a good all-purpose choice. The center cut is the lean, pale, uniform one most people picture, and it is the one people ruin, because there is almost no fat in it to cover for an extra ninety seconds. The sirloin end, back toward the hip, has several muscle groups running different directions in the same chop, which is why a sirloin chop sometimes comes out tender in one bite and chewy in the next.

In a tray at a chain store you get whatever the machine cut that morning, unlabeled. At a counter you ask, and we tell you.

For this recipe, ask for the blade or rib end. Here is why that matters more than usual: you are slicing the pork into strips and putting it in a bowl with beans and slaw. Lean center-cut pork, sliced thin, goes stringy and dry the second it leaves the pan. There is no gravy in this dish to hide behind. Fat is what keeps sliced pork tasting like pork.

The Bowl Is a Sweet Problem, and the Slaw Is the Fix

Count the sugar in this recipe. A cup of BBQ sauce, which is roughly a third sugar. A can of baked beans, which are baked beans. Brown sugar in most of both.

That is two sweet elements out of three, sitting in the same bowl, touching. Left alone it reads like dessert by the fourth bite, and people will not be able to tell you why they stopped eating it.

Ashley’s Slaw is not a garnish here. It is the acid, and it is the only thing in the bowl doing that job. Which is why two details in the steps are not negotiable: it goes on cold, and it goes on last. Warm slaw in a hot bowl goes limp and loses its bite in about four minutes, and a limp slaw is just more sweet. Keep it in the refrigerator until the bowls are built, then scoop it on top.

The smoked paprika in step one is the other counterweight — it is there for bitterness and smoke, not heat. If you find yourself wanting to add more BBQ sauce at the table, add more slaw instead. That is almost always what the bowl is actually asking for.

BBQ Pork Chop Bowls with Ashley’s Slaw

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Serves: 4

You’ll Need

• 4 boneless pork chops
• 1-2 packs of Ashley’s Slaw
• 1 can baked beans
• 1 cup BBQ sauce
• 1 tablespoon oil
• Salt
• Pepper
• Garlic powder
• Smoked paprika

Let’s Cook

1. Pat the pork chops dry and season both sides with salt, pepper, garlic powder and smoked paprika.
2. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
3. Add the pork chops and cook for 3–5 minutes per side, depending on thickness, until they reach 145°F internally.
4. During the last 1–2 minutes of cooking, brush both sides with BBQ sauce, turning once so the sauce gets sticky without burning.
5. Transfer the pork chops to a cutting board and let them rest for 5 minutes.
6. Meanwhile, heat the baked beans according to package directions.
7. Slice the pork chops into strips.
8. Divide the baked beans between bowls, add sliced BBQ pork and finish each with a generous scoop of cold Ashley’s Slaw.

Sweet BBQ pork, smoky beans and cold Ashley’s Slaw make this feel like a backyard cookout without the backyard-cookout grocery bill.

The Rest of the Pork Case

Chops are cut by hand from whole fresh local pork, in house, in whatever thickness you ask for. Tell us it is going in a bowl and we will cut you the fatty end.

Also in the case: stuffed pork chops if you want the plate version instead, and boudin and stuffed jalapeños if the cookout feeling is the point and you want something to go with it.

Ashley’s Slaw is in the shop with the rest of the sides — it is one of the things you have to come in for, because it is not on the website. Everything for these bowls is one stop at the meat counter.

Tips from Behind the Counter

• Ask for the blade or rib end. It costs the same as the center cut and it is a better chop for slicing.
• Rest five minutes, then slice against the grain. Every cut surface is an exit for juice. Resting first means the juice stays in the pork instead of pooling under the beans.
• 145°F with a three-minute rest is the whole pork rule, and it is lower than most people were taught. We made that case in Honey-Garlic Pork Chops with Mac and Cheese and Broccoli; the USDA safe minimum temperature chart says the same thing.
• Sauce in the last two minutes, not before. Step four is timed that way because sugar on a hot skillet has about that long before it turns black.
• Keep the slaw cold until the bowls are built. Room-temperature slaw is a wasted ingredient.
• Do not crowd the skillet. Four chops in a ten-inch pan will steam. Cook two at a time if you have to; the first two rest while the second two cook.

Ways to Change It Up

• Add a scoop of rice under the beans and it feeds six instead of four.
• Swap the baked beans for black beans if you want the sweetness dialed back another notch.
• Use a vinegar-forward Carolina-style BBQ sauce instead of a sweet tomato one and the acid problem mostly solves itself.
• Pile it into a bun instead of a bowl and you have a pork sandwich with slaw on top, which is the same idea in a different container.
• Grill the chops instead of pan-searing them, keeping the same last-two-minutes sauce timing.

One Stop for Thursday Dinner in Hattiesburg

Family owned and operated in Hattiesburg since 1991. Hours: Monday–Tuesday and Thursday–Saturday, 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Closed Wednesday and Sunday. Phone: 601-261-2765. Address: 1910 Broadway Drive, Hattiesburg, MS 39401. Smoked sausage ships nationwide; also on shelves across Mississippi and the Gulf South.

Thursday is our first day back after being closed Wednesday, so the case is full.

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• Honey-Garlic Pork Chops with Mac and Cheese and Broccoli
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