Ellie's BBQ Pork Chops

My 2 years old daughter and I recently went to "Farm Days" at our local university. She LOVED it. She got to hold a baby chick, pet a lamb, rabbit, and goat; and see all sorts of animals she loves. As I was trying to convince her that yes it really was time to go home we found a table with this on it:

She went crazy over it. "This is my recipe! I'm a make it for dinner." She said this over and over on the way home and was sooo excited to make dinner for us. When she got home and told her daddy about the recipe she told him the baby chick gave it to her. Weeeellll....that wasn't exactly true but close enough in a 2 year old's mind.

So what's a mother to do? We made them! I should mention that Ellie poured all of the ingredients into the bag to marinate them and we told her she made them but, no, I did not let a 2 year old cook them on a hot stove, give me some credit! :)

 They turned out to be pretty yummy. We used Sweet Baby Ray's bbq sauce which made them slightly sweet. The flavor bbq sauce you use will effect the flavor of your pork chops so make sure it's one you like! They turned out great and they were easy so I am sure we will make them again!

Ellie's BBQ Pork Chops
1/4 cup Italian dressing
1/4 cup barbecue sauce
1 tsp chili powder
4 boneless pork chops

Combine first 3 ingredients in a plastic ziploc bag and squish around to mix (a great job for small hands helping in the kitchen). Add pork chops and marinate in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes, or overnight.

Heat a non-stick skillet over medium heat. Remove pork chops and place on the skillet. Save the remaining sauce for cooking later.

Brown pork chops on each side for about 4 minutes. Pour the saved sauce over pork chops, cover and let simmer for about 5 minutes. Make SURE not to skip the simmering step, as the sauce will not be safe to eat unless it's simmered!


I would love to say that she ate them up but she didn't. She would not touch them at dinner time. Talk about the weird mind of a toddler, because we can always get her to try a new thing and she usually ends up liking it. Hopefully she hadn't misconstrued it in her mind and she thought we were eating baby chicks...because I wouldn't have eaten them either if I thought that!