Sweet & Sassy Pork Tenderloin

Category: Main Dishes | Blog URL: http://datenightdoins.com

This recipe was entered in The Foodista Best of Food Blogs Cookbook contest, a compilation of the world’s best food blogs which was published in Fall 2010.

Photo: Ken & Patti Fisher

Ingredients

Ingredients:

2 pounds boneless pork loins, about 2 each

inch Rice a Roni, prepared as below, divided half

2 cups broth. I like mushroom but chicken or beef works, too

2 cups cilantro, chopped

1 cup garlic, chopped

1 pound bulk sausage

Grandville’s Tropical Gourmet BBQ Sauce

Grandville’s Cajun Gourmet BBQ Sauce

Preparation

Directions:

Butterfly the pork loin by slicing down the center lengthwise. Be careful not to cut completely through.

Fry sausage in deep saucepan (less grease splatter) until no longer pink. With a slotted spoon, transfer meat into a large bowl. Discard all but two tablespoons of the drippings. Add rice stirring until golden. Add broth, seasoning packet, cilantro and garlic, bring to a boil. Cover and simmer 25 mins. Uncover, and stir in cooked sausage.

Divide rice mixture in half. In the first bowl add:

Cup pineapple bits, drained

Cup pecans, chopped

Cup raisins

Note #1: My raisins were hard so I refreshed them in 1 tablespoon sherry for 30 sec. in the microwave. You can use any liquid. I’ve used white wine, broth and fruit juice. If you prefer, instead of pineapple & pecans, you can use peaches and macadamia nuts. Of course, Ken being Ken, he likes pineapple and macadamia nuts. Have fun with your personal fruit and nut combinations.

Blend ingredients and spread onto first pork loin. Tie closed with string.

In the second bowl of rice, add:

T. red pepper flakes

T. chipotle powder

T. ground white pepper

T. Worcestershire sauce

Mix and spread as above but, after tying with string, lay strips of bacon around the meat.

We had leftover stuffing, so we just put them on the grill in a greased casserole dish.

Cooking Directions: Traeger

Open the lid and set the dial to “smoke”, after a few minutes shut the lid. Give it about 10 minutes to heat up. Notice in the picture above Patti lined the drip pan with foil, makes for easy clean up. Place the pork loin directly onto the grill and just let it hang out in the smoke and get happy for 30 minutes or so.

After 30 minutes, turn the digital control up to 250 degrees. This will give you a temperature around 300 at the stack or dome thermometer. Just let it go for 1 ½ hours.

After an hour and a half turn the digital control to the smoke setting for another half hour and brush on your BBQ sauce. Steve from Grandville’s Gourmet BBQ Sauces had sent us some really nice sauces to try. Tonight we used Tropical and Cajun. These sauces are so good you can eat them with a spoon. (And we have, a little.)

When your internal temp reaches 160 degrees you are good to go…

Note: I use a spray bottle when cooking on the grill filled with a Worcestershire sauce and liquid smoke mix that keeps things moist and adds tons of flavors. (Mix is 3 parts Worcestershire with 1 part liquid smoke)

Cooking Directions: Gas & Charcoal Grills

Preparing Grill: Low Indirect Heat

Preheat your grill to medium heat (250-300) and turn off one side so you will be cooking with indirect heat. Add your wet wood chips over the fire and oil the grill. A cooking spray is easiest for this. (Note: you can add your hickory directly to the grill or you can use foil smoke packets. (Two handfuls wet chips and one dry, fold foil into a packet, poke holes in it with a fork and you’re good to go.)

Adjust your fire for a temperature around 300 for 2 hours. Add more wood chips, turn heat down and brush with BBQ sauce.

When your internal temp reaches 160 degrees, it’s ready.

Preparing Charcoal Grill

Get the smoker ready, you will want your temperature around 250-300 degrees. Remember, you are going low and slow here. This will take some time to do it right (2 hours), make sure you have plenty of cold beer.

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About

A Cajun and Tropical Pork Loin
We love to do pork loins because they’re so versatile and reasonably priced. It’s all meat and no waste, and you can stuff them so many different ways. We’ve used our favorite recipe box stuffing mix with all kinds of different add-ins, leftover mashed potatoes with vegetables or some interesting leftovers. This time we used mild sausage, but hot sausage works really well, too. Ken nicknamed this “Patti’s Fatty” because of the sausage stuffed pork covered in bacon.

Remember that a recipe is simply an outline; it is not written in stone. Don’t be afraid to make changes to suit your taste.
Take it and run with it….
Enjoy,
Ken & Patti