Pork chops belong to many peoples’ favorite foods, but what to serve them with? If you’re wondering what the best sauces for pork chops are, you’ve come to the right place. I’ve got a whole list of epic sauces lined up for you…and some you’ll want to avoid!
So, what are the best sauces for pork chops? Mustard sauce is extremely popular for pork chops. Variations such as mustard cream sauce and blackberry-honey mustard sauce are great too. Another delicious pairing is BBQ sauce, or a variation (Alabama white sauce, honey BBQ sauce, or mustard BBQ sauce). Cherry plum sauce offers something fruity, whereas garlic sauce also works well.
Now, let’s explore the recommendations above in greater detail and also go into what sauces you want to avoid!
The Best Sauces For Pork Chops
Garlic Sauce
A creamy garlic sauce is a sauce few people can resist, and it goes really well with pork chops.
Thankfully, a nice and creamy garlic sauce is easy to make. You need a base of chicken stock and cream, roux (butter or oil and wheat flour), or another way of thickening the sauce if you’re gluten intolerant, and garlic.
Salt and pepper to taste.
Some people like to add lemon juice and/or fresh parsley to their garlic sauce.
If you want to make the sauce have a smoky flavor, skip the pepper and add some chipotle sauce.
This is not a traditional kind of garlic sauce, but as a chipotle fan, I put it where I can.
For a somewhat healthier option, some people like to use sour cream instead of plain cream. It does alter the taste, though, so beware!
Cherry Plum Sauce
If you like fruity sauces, then this sauce is a winner, for sure!
This sauce also happens to be easy to make.
You boil some shallots and plumcots in cherry juice and balsamic vinegar.
Reduce it to about half, add some butter, and season with salt, et voilà–you’re good to go!
Cherry Pan Sauce
Prefer proper cherries? Well, then, I have a recipe for you!
After frying your pork chops, use the same pan to make some cherry pan sauce!
Cook some pitted sweet cherries and thyme in port wine. Cook until it’s reduced to about half. Add butter. Season with salt.
Are cherries sauces easy, or what? Sometimes one thinks that making a nice sauce is such a bother, and it would just be easier to buy the sauce in a bottle at the store.
However, a lot of sauces are actually incredibly easy to make.
Blackberry Honey Mustard Sauce
While on the sweet and fruity sauces, how about some blackberry honey mustard sauce?
For this sauce, you’ll need blackberries, sugar, honey (I told you it’s sweet!), mustard, and olive oil.
The blackberry honey mustard sauce is a tad more difficult to make than the cherry sauce.
It requires you to boil the sugar and blackberries, then strain the sauce.
After that, you pop all the ingredients in a blender and blend.
As this sauce is best served cold, you’ll want to leave it in the fridge for one to twelve hours before serving.
Mustard Sauce
Traditional mustard sauce goes really well with pork chops (incl shake and bake pork chops) and is easy to make, too.
Mustard sauce is made with a base of chicken broth.
It also contains shallots, butter, mustard, cream, and lemon juice.
You can add some freshly chopped parsley, too (at the last minute).
Time to make this sauce? Including the chopping of parsley and shallots, it will take you 10-15 minutes.
Mustard Cream Sauce
Want something a little bit creamier? Then try this mustard cream sauce!
Ironically, while the recipe above for mustard sauce calls for cream, this mustard cream sauce only calls for sour cream!
A tad healthier than just cream, fortunately.
Of course, you could sub with real cream if in a pinch or feeling like something a little extra!
This is another sauce that is really easy and quick to make.
To prepare it, you need to chop some shallots and mince a clove of garlic.
Then you simply sautée those, pour in some dry white wine and sugar, and cook till it’s reduced by half (about three minutes, so certainly not a long process).
After that, remove from the heat and stir in some sour cream, salt, and pepper, and you’ve got some mustard cream sauce ready to serve with your pork chops.
Alabama White Sauce
A white BBQ sauce? Yes, it really does exist!
Made with a mayonnaise base, it also contains distilled white vinegar, sugar, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, and salt and pepper to taste.
Naturally, as all you have to do is stir the ingredients together, it’s an easy sauce to make!
Tip: If you love mustard, but want a mayo-based, quick-to-make sauce, then you can simply mix some mustard with mayo, a tiny pinch of salt, a little bit of honey, and perhaps some tarragon.
Mustard BBQ Sauce
And we’re back to the mustard again!
The cool thing about this sauce is that once you’ve made it, you can store it in the fridge for up to three months–making it really easy to have on hand.
And it only takes about ten minutes to make in the first place!
For this sauce, you cook up mustard, sugar, honey, apple cider vinegar, cayenne pepper, and black pepper.
Takes about five minutes till the sugar melts. Then you let it cool, pop it in the fridge, and that’s that!
Honey BBQ Sauce
This is another BBQ sauce you can put together in a jiffy–but it does require that you cook it, just like the mustard BBQ sauce.
In fact, you cook it for about half an hour, so it’s not as quick as the mustard BBQ sauce, though still extremely simple.
Simply pop honey, ketchup, lemon, Worcestershire sauce, and butter in a pan and cook it. Easy.
You can cook pork chops in a BBQ sauce like this or serve it as a side.
You can, obviously, pop down to your local grocery store and buy some BBQ sauce, too…
These days there are plenty of brands that have gotten rid of unnecessary ingredients and make honest-to-goodness BBQ sauce, just the way mama made it!
Kansas BBQ Sauce
Ketchup, apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, sugar, chili powder, cayenne powder, celery seeds, salt, and garlic powder are the ingredients you need to make this BBQ sauce.
And you don’t even need to heat it, so it’s simply a matter of whisking the ingredients together, and you’re ready to roll.
If you want to give your sauce a smoky flavor, sub the chili and cayenne for chipotle powder instead.
Read more: What Is Kansas City BBQ Sauce?
BBQ Sauce
If you’re planning to BBQ your pork chops in BBQ sauce, then this sauce is a perfect choice.
However, you can serve it as a side, too, if you’ve already cooked your pork chops.
You need ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, sugar, apple cider vinegar, mesquite seasoning, Dijon mustard, salt, garlic powder, and cracked pepper.
Simply whisk it together in a pot and cook for about five minutes.
Let it cool, and serve at room temperature, or use it to cook your pork chops!
What Types of Sauces Pair Best Pork?
When it comes to pork chops, most people like sauces that offer a little heat or sweetness.
As we’ve seen above, a lot of people favor mustard sauces for their pork chops.
Usually creamy mustard sauces, but you’ve also got the fruity blackberry mustard sauce.
And fruity sauces are popular with pork chops–a lot of people enjoy their pork chops with a cherry or cherry plum sauce.
Then there are the BBQ sauces–from white BBQ sauces to the traditional red ones; they’re a favorite with pork chops.
While I’ve mentioned some BBQ sauces above, there are many, many BBQ sauces to choose from.
You might even have your own family recipe for the perfect BBQ sauce!
I’ve also included a garlic cream sauce in addition to the mustard cream sauce.
You could also make a parsley cream sauce, or why not a horseradish cream sauce?
Experiment to find out what you enjoy.
What Sauces To Avoid Serving With Pork Chops
While BBQ sauces made with ketchup and a plethora of mustard sauces are popular to serve with pork chops, you don’t usually serve just mustard or ketchup. Maybe if you’ve already grilled them in a BBQ sauce.
If you BBQ your pork chops, there’s nothing saying you can’t have some ketchup, mustard, and BBQ sauce on the side.
However, it feels a bit tame (if convenient) to serve pan fried pork chops with these kinds of condiments.
Likewise, while your grilled pork chops will likely taste nice with bearnaise sauce, traditionally, you serve grilled beef or chicken with bearnaise sauce.
Check out my other pork-related sauce recommendations:
Hello, I’m Jeremy, a sauce enthusiast and taste trailblazer! My endless pursuit of new flavors has led me on a journey to master sauce making at home, along with try out a range of exciting brands and sauce offerings. Now I share my recipes, tips and recommendations on WeWantTheSauce to help fellow foodies find the perfect sauces.