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Pineapple Barbeque Chops with Colada Slaw is sweet and spicy with a delicious kick of Caribbean flavors and tropical macadamia nuts and coconut chips.  It’s an amazing dinner you’ll love.

If you like piña coladas and getting caught in the rain.  If you’re not into yoga, if you have half a brain.  I have had this song stuck in my head for the better part of the week.  But only just this part of the song.  Remember when I asked a few days ago if you get food stuck in your head like a song? Well, I’ve got this song stuck in my head about food.

This week Constance from Cosmopolitan Cornbread is hosting a celebration of coconut in honor of Pina Colada Day.  So we put on our thinking caps and got cooking in the kitchen for some piña colada recipes this week.  Thus, we cooked up some interesting creations.

 

Now, I have to say, I’m a bit jealous. 

My husband doesn’t really like coconut all that much.  Nope.  No coladas.  No samoas.  And no macaroons.  He’ll have none of it.  If I use coconut, I have to be sure that there’s no real coconut flavor in there at all.  It’s rather disappointing.

You see, when I was little, the best Christmas treat we used to have every year was a fresh coconut.  Well, fresh for us.  It wasn’t green at all.  The outer shell was brown, but the meat and the water inside was fresh.  As opposed to that stuff you buy sweetened or toasted into a bag in the baking aisle.  Yeah, that kind of “fresh.”

Consequently, for me to marry someone that doesn’t like coconut AT ALL is a little disappointing.  Sort of like me not liking salmon or asparagus is disappointing for him.  Give and take.  And I’m only disappointed that I won’t get to make such delicious coconut items as German chocolate cake, coladas, macaroons, homemade samoas, etc. 

There’s a ton of things I won’t make because he doesn’t like coconut.  Not that I CAN’T make them, I just feel selfish laboring in the kitchen when I know he won’t enjoy it.  I want to labor on items we both enjoy.  Or items he enjoys.  I’m not opposed to cooking salmon or buying him salmon and me swordfish or something like that, but he’ll have none of it! 

It’s sort of funny how we’re alike in that way.

To say it was a stretch for him to not only eat but make this delicious dish is an understatement.  Yes, dear readers, I did the research and wrote the recipe, but he made the sauce and the chops.  I made the slaw.  I knew that I would have to keep some of the slaw sans coconut for him.  So, I made some, served up my portion that I added the coconut chips to, and saved the rest for him to nibble on.  I didn’t want to leave him without lunch the next day, since he’s at home now.  Oh?  I didn’t tell you that story?  Maybe I’ll save that for another post.  This one is supposed to celebrate coconut and piña coladas.

Fast forward a few years later and I’ve graduated college.  My parents surprise me with tickets and a trip to Puerto Rico.  Holy wow!!  It was one of the most amazing trips I’ve ever been on.  Of course, being a “tropical” place that even has a rain forest on such a small island, you’re bound to encounter fresh, and I mean FRESH coconut almost everywhere you go.

You see, my father was there for work.  Yeah, I know, lucky him!  Mind you, this was coming off a three-week stint in the US Virgin Islands.  REALLY lucky him!!  So, he had a “guide” from the home office there to show him around the island, tour some farms (because he was USDA), and even bring him fresh fruit and mangoes from his own trees in his front yard.  I think it was the first and only vacation where I lost weight.  Imagine breakfast being a bowl of fresh sucre piña, mangoes, oranges, papaya; you name it. 

THAT was breakfast!!  SO so good.

In addition to all this goodness, we had fresh coconut once.  The milk was so different from what I remember it tasted like growing up and eating ALL those coconuts.  It was much lighter and more like water.  We didn’t eat the flesh when we were finished, but I’m sure it was just as delicious.  I see them in the store.  I wonder if I can sneak one home…

And, of course, since we were in a tropical land, you have to – and I mean HAVE to have piña coladas.  I have to tell y’all, those were, without a doubt, some of the best piña coladas I’ve ever had.  EVER!  Because it’s hard to beat fresh coladas made with those little sucre piña pineapples they have there.  For those that don’t know, they’re smaller than regular pineapples but they taste almost like candy when you eat them.  They are THAT SWEET!  Every time I see them in the store I have to buy them.  You really should try them.

In short, all of this banter explains my love of coconuts, pineapples, and piña coladas.  Because of this, I wanted to put all this love into this dish.  This delicious dish that boasts sweet Caribbean flavor in the barbeque sauce and piña colada flavor in the crunchy cole slaw.

The barbeque sauce is sweet and tangy.  There’s a hint of Caribbean spices with a hint of heat.  It’s so good!  I could eat it with a spoon.  And the slaw?  Oh my.  That’s also sweet and tangy to compliment the barbeque sauce.  But it also has crunch from the macadamia nuts and the coconut chips.  This slaw addictive.  Pineapple, coconut, macadamia nuts with slaw dressing?  KILLER!  It’s definitely going to take you the tropics.

What’s the best piña colada you’ve had?

Coco-Nutty Main Dishes

• Piña Colada Chicken and Rice by Cindy’s Recipes and Writings
• Pineapple Barbecue Chops with Colada Slaw by A Kitchen Hoor’s Adventures

“Col-lots-a” Desserts

• Cookies and Coconut Cream Popsicles by Books n’ Cooks
• Creamy Dairy-Free Vegan Coconut Ice Cream by Positively Stacey
• Easy Piña Colada Fudge by Hezzi-D’s Books and Cooks
• Island Breeze Piña Colada Panna Cotta by The Weekend Gourmet
• Piña Colada Energy Balls by Wholistic Woman
• Piña Colada Ice Cream by Palatable Pastime
• Piña Colada Trifle by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Pineapple Coconut Pudding by Magnolia Days
• Toasted Coconut Sour Cherry Sundae by Pies and Plots
• Tropical Fruit Cups by The Freshman Cook

Sweet to Sip Beverages

• Coconut Banana Rum Smoothie by Desserts Required
• Lime Coconut Lassi by Food Lust People Love
• Piña Colada Freeze by Grumpy’s Honeybunch