These easy oven pork chops are just the thing for when you’re wondering what to do with those pork chops! Thick pork chops or pork steaks, oven cooked slowly with a generous BBQ sauce, for a delicious pork dinner.
I have a zillion recipes for cooking chicken. Pork chops, not so much. They are always a challenge for me, yet I always have a package or five in my freezer. I suspect I’m not alone, so I thought I’d share one of my “go to”, easy oven pork chop recipes. It’s not the prettiest dish, for sure, but it’s definitely tasty!
These St. Louis Style BBQ Pork Chops are both easy and delicious. And saucy. And crowd-pleasing. And made with basic pantry items. And mostly just cooks off in the oven, so the hands-on time is minimal. All good things!
Ingredients and Substitutions
Pork Chops or Pork Steaks – This recipe calls for bone-in, thick pork chops with some fat marbling. This will ensure that your pork chops are nice and moist. While you don’t need a super-thick pork chop, it’s best not to start with the super-thin ones, as they are a little skimpy for this dish and more likely to overcook.
Crushed Tomatoes – use a large can of crushed tomatoes or if you only have whole canned tomatoes, you can puree and measure out after pureeing.
Grainy Mustard – this is the mustard with the whole mustard seeds in it. If you don’t have grainy mustard, substitute Dijon mustard.
Recipe Tips
You can adjust the amount of chilli powder you add to taste and/or who you’re serving.
The cooking time will vary depending on how thick your pork chops are and whether they are bone-in or not.
If your sauce is still a little thin after broiling, simply flip your pork chops over, stir the sauce around a bit and broil again.
What to Serve with St. Louis Pork Chops
Serve this saucy pork chop dish with mashed potatoes and a green veg, for an easy and delicious meal!
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Get the Recipe: St. Louis Style BBQ Pork Chops
Ingredients
- 4 slices bacon, diced
- 1-2 teaspoons chili powder, to taste
- 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 1/2 small onion, chopped
- 2 cups canned crushed tomatoes, or if you only have whole canned tomatoes, you can puree and measure out instead
- 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
- 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1/4 cup whole-grain mustard, or Dijon mustard
- 1 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- 1 Tablespoon kosher salt, plus more to taste (less if using fine salt)
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 6 thick bone-in pork chops, about 3 lb., 3/4-1 inch thick with some fat cap and marbling of fat
- 2 Tablespoons cooking oil
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350 F.
- In a large saucepan, heat bacon over medium heat. Cook, stirring, until just starting to brown, about 5 minutes. Add chili powder, garlic and onions and cook, stirring, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add tomatoes, sugar, vinegar, mustard, Worcestershire, salt and pepper. Stir to combine. Bring to a boil. Cook for 5 minutes. Taste and add additional salt and pepper, as needed, then remove from heat and set aside.
- Season pork with salt and pepper. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Working in batches, add meat and cook, turning once, until browned on both sides, about 3-4 minutes per side.
- Transfer pork to a 9 × 13-inch baking dish and pour sauce on top of pork, to cover pork chops. Bake, uncovered, about 30-40 minutes, or until pork is cooked through (140F when tested with thermometer). *NOTE: Baking time will be totally dependent on the thickness of the chops you start with. Thicker pork will take longer. Thinner will take less.
- Remove from oven and heat the broiler in your oven, with a rack at about 6-8 inches away from the heat source. Return baking dish to oven under the broiler for a 3-5 minutes to caramelize the sauce on the chops slightly.
Notes
More Pork Chop Recipes to Love!
Hi! I’m Jennifer, a home cook schooled by trial and error and almost 40 years of getting dinner on the table! I love to share my favourite recipes, both old and new, together with lots of tips and tricks to hopefully help make your home cooking enjoyable, stress free, rewarding and of course, delicious!
My partner who claims to hate BBQ sauce said this was delicious! (And I agree with him…)
So glad to hear, Jessica :) Thanks so much!
Jennifer I want to say I agree with you. We also have frozen packs.now the last of the kids moved out only the mrs boss and myself I think I will try this as our Thursday night meal. Thanks!
Do enjoy, Pat :)
This recipe is absolutely delicious! The sauce captures the flavor of real St. Louis style pork steaks but with great texture to the sauce. It was almost like candied onions!
I’d like to try this on chicken too! I did use a bit less sugar than the recipe called for. I also seasoned my steaks with salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, oregano, and thyme. Came out great, thanks for the recipe!
So glad you enjoyed it, Elizabeth! Thanks so much :)