Grilled Pork Tenderloin

Grilled pork tenderloin that is tender and so full of flavor  I’m in love with this. Lots of sriracha sauce which gets tempered by some brown sugar.

 I made it Sunday evening and it was fabulous but of course it was too dark to take any photos.  I guess I could have taken photos but they wouldn’t have done justice to this delicious meat.  So, MaryJo was at the store yesterday and picked up a full pork tenderloin.  Like 4 1/4 pounds of meat.  That’s enough meat for us to have grilled pork tenderloin again and thick pork chops 3 more times.  And this minimally processed meat was only $2.49 a pound!  $10.58 for 4 meals worth for MaryJo and I.

Pork Tenderloin

A great thing about pork tenderloin is that it has very little fat and the fat that is on the meat gets trimmed off making a very lean, low calorie meat.  When you buy pork tenderloin, try to find some that is not treated with salt and water fillers.  The small print on the label should say if the meat has been injected with a sodium solution. Here’s a good article on this…Got Enhanced Meat?

This tenderloin was untreated and you can see that there was quite a bit of fat to trim off.  I used about a pound of the loin and it was enough to fill 4 good sized skewers.  Enough grilled pork tenderloin for 4 people.

The first step is to trim the fat and cut the meat into pieces about 1 inch square.  Equal sized pieces will grill and cook evenly on the skewer.  If your loin is untreated, you should salt it and let it rest for about 30 minutes.  This will enable the meat to hold more moisture while cooking, making a more moist meat when finished.  If your meat has the added water, you should skip this step.

While the salt is doing it’s magic, mix up the glaze which is super easy.  Also, get your grill heating up.  I have a gas grill so I just push a button. If you use charcoal, start a chimney and when the coals are turning white with ash, pour the coals into one half of the grill so the heat is concentrated on one side.  You want to grill the pork with high heat, and this will give you more concentrated heat.

Grill the Meat

Coat the meat with the glaze and place on skewers.  In the photo above, the meat is too close together and I spaced it further apart before putting it on the grill.  Spray the meat and the grill surface with cooking oil to keep the sugar from sticking too much.  Have a tool ready in case you need to help the meat off the grill.

Two to two and a half minutes per side is all it takes to cook the meat through.  Check to make sure that there are no pink spots on the meat.  You could also use an instant read thermometer and make sure that it reads at least 140 degrees.  Take the meat off the grill and cover with foil for five minutes and the residual heat will keep cooking the meat for a couple minutes.

Grilled pork tenderloin that is prepared like this is nice and crusty on the surface and still moist in the middle.  The sugar balances the heat of the sriracha sauce and the meat is not hot as you would expect.  Just full of delicious flavors.  Stir up some of this easy to make glaze.  This is Grilled Pork Tenderloin goodness!

Enjoy!

Here are some more pork recipes you may like to try. Pork Tenderloin Steaks with Spicy Salsa,  Breaded Pork Tenderloin Sandwich, Stir Fry Pork with Rice Noodles.

Grilled Pork Tenderloin

Very tasty barbecue seasoning for grilled pork.

4.43 from 7 votes

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Course: Grilled meat

Cuisine: American

Prep Time: 45 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 55 minutes

Servings: 4 skewers

Calories: 179kcal

Author: Joe, adapted from Cook's Illustrated

Ingredients

• 1 pound pork tenderloin , fat trimmed and cut into 1 in. squares
• 1 tsp Kosher salt , (it using untreated pork)

Glaze

• 3 tbsp light brown sugar
• 1 1/2 tbsp Sriracha hot sauce
• 1 tsp cornstarch

Instructions

• Coat pork with 1 tsp Kosher salt in a bowl, 30 minutes, (if your meat is minimally processed)
• Mix glaze in a small bowl
• Pour glaze on the meat and turn to coat fully
• Slide meat onto metal skewers, leaving about1/4 in. space
• Spray meat and grill with cooking spray.
• Place on hot grill, 2 to 2 1/2 minutes per side until meat reaches 140 degrees.
• Remove and cover with foil for 5 minutes.
• Garnish with chopped cilantro if desired.

Nutrition

Calories: 179kcal

Yum