Hickory Smoked Apricot & Sausage Stuffed Pork Chops

To test and review a new entry in the family of BBQ wood pellets, Pacific Pellet Gourmet BBQ Pellets, for my Blog, I visited a local grocery store and found these Apricot & Sausage Stuffed Pork Chops.  After speaking with the person behind the meat counter I discovered that these were Pork Loin Butterfly Chops which are actually a double chop, about two inches thick, which comes from the boneless loin eye muscle. It was sliced in half to form two sides resembling a butterfly and layered with Pork Sausage and Apricots before being rolled and tied off.

After getting them home I noticed that these Pork Loin Butterfly Chops had more fat then I would have preferred but none the less would work just fine.  They were sprinkled with some Parsley and here I show both sides.

Preheated the MAK 2 Star General Wood Pellet BBQ Smoker-Grill to 225ºF using Hickory Gourmet BBQ Pellets.  The Gourmet BBQ Pellets performed exceptionally well providing a fragrant Hickory smoke aroma and flavor with a very low pellet consumption holding the temperature steady during the cook.  I was pleased to observe on the MAK 2 that the temperature swings rarely strayed outside the ±5ºF range.

At 225ºF it took 3 hours and 20 minutes for the Stuffed Pork Chops to reach an Internal Temperature of 160ºF.  After the cook I confirmed how very efficient the Gourmet BBQ Pellets performed when I measured only 2 tablespoons of ash.

Threw together some Cole Slaw and boiled some Yellow and White Corn on the Cob to accompany the Hickory smoked Apricot & Sausage Stuffed Pork Chops.

The Money $Shot$ … A Hickory Smoked Apricot & Sausage Stuffed Pork Chop with Corn 0n the Cob and a side of Cole slaw … The Stuffed Pork Chop had a wonderfully infused Hickory Smoke flavor and the Apricot provided a nice sweet contrast.

As I stated, there was more fat than I would have preferred for a Pork Loin cut but it served it’s purpose well for my initial test of the Gourmet BBQ Pellets.  There’s a lot to be said for stuffing your own Pork Loin and I learned that I can butterfly a Pork Loin, slice it about 2 inches thick, smoke/cook a small portion and freeze the rest for future use.