Grilled pork loin 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 loin. Like 4 1/4 pounds of meat. That’s enough meat for us to have grilled pork loin 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 Loin
A great thing about pork loin 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 loin, 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 pork loin 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 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 loin 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 Loin goodness!
Here are some more pork recipes you may like to try. Pork Loin Steaks with Spicy Salsa, Breaded Pork Tenderloin Sandwich, Stir Fry Pork with Rice Noodles.
Grilled Pork Loin
Ingredients
- 1 pound pork loin , 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
Well, the meat involved here is not a pork tenderloin. It is a pork LOIN. A tenderloin weighs about a pound and sells as two tenderloins packaged together. Incorrect identification of ingredients makes folks buy the wrong thing.
Recipe looks good and I’ll try it. But I will use pork LOIN.
Hey Michael, thanks for the comment. I admit my ignorance of pork cuts. Definitely two different things and the page has been updated. Thank you.
We enjoyed this one. Added a piece of sweet onion between the meat cubes. Next time we’ll add a little more hot sauce. Anyway, we’ll do this one again.
Glad you liked it Bill. A little more hot sauce
never hurts.
Absolutely loved this simple and VERY TASTY recipe!!! We are putting this one in the rotation for this summer’s grilling season! Thank you Joe!!
Thanks for the great comment April. Glad you liked the recipe.
Hello, any way of cutting down on the sodium ?
Thanks a bunch!
Rita…just don’t salt the meat as in the first step. This just tenderizes the meat a little, but the pork should be plenty tender anyway. Just coat with a lot of the glaze and it will be delicious.
Thank you Joe. This recipe is so tasty! Will definitely make again 🙂
Yep, I think this really is the best grilled tenderloin recipe! So simple and EASY and yet so tasty. Our local food co-op started carrying natural duroc pork, and this recipe definitely did it justice. I picked some fresh green bell peppers from the garden, chopped them up and alternated the pieces with the pork. I’ll be making this again!
Hey Josie, Glad you liked the sriracha, brown sugar blend.
Any reason I couldn’t let this sit in the marinade overnight before grilling?
Hi Heather, thanks for the comment. I don’t see any reason why you couldn’t marinate over night. It may even intensify the sriracha flavor which would be good! Let me know how it works out.
Joe
looks good im going to try this
could I use chulula sauce instead of Siracha?
I think that would work fine Eileen. Thanks for asking.
I had leftovers for lunch today on a tortilla with the avocado sauce from a couple of days ago and the combination was amazing!