Glazed Pork Tenderloin

Pork tenderloin is a great cut of pig and a pretty frequent meal over at my house. More often than not, we cook it on the barbecue and the end result is always juicy and flavorful.

While flipping through a borrowed copy of Real Simple magazine, I came upon an (oddly enough) really simple recipe for a glazed pork tenderloin with pineapple slaw that caught my eye. The picture put me in a tropical mindset, which seemed like a good enough reason to make it in late May with summer just around the corner.

Ingredients:

2 Pork Tenderloins (1-1 1/2 lbs. each)

6 Tablespoons of Ketchup

3 Tablespoons of Honey

1/2 Teaspoon of Ground Chili Pepper

Steps/Analysis:

In the interest of full disclosure, the recipe that follows is slightly different from the version I discovered in Real Simple. Originally, it called for one pork loin, stating that it would feed four. There are some big meat-eaters in my family and I wasn't sure that would cut it, so I went for two and doubled up the ingredients for the glaze.

Speaking of the glaze, the original recipe called for ground chipotle peppers, specifically. I couldn't find that at my local Shoprite and defaulted to a more standard ground chili pepper. The meal didn't seem to suffer from the substitution.

Now that that's out of the way, let's get cooking! First, combine the ketchup, honey, and ground chili pepper in a small bowl and stir to combine.

Next, start heating a little olive oil in a large, oven safe pan over Medium-High heat. Also, set your oven to 400 degrees.

Get your tenderloins to a cutting board and remove any excess fat that might be on there. Season generously with salt and pepper and carefully arrange them in the pan. Sear each side of the tenderloins for a few minutes, or until a tasty, brown crust starts to form. Once that is accomplished, kill the heat and spread half of the glaze on the meat. Then, throw the entire pan in the oven.

Set your timer for six minutes. At that point, turn the tenderloins over in the pan and continue to cook for another six minutes.

Place the pork on a large platter. Spoon on the remaining glaze and allow the meat to rest for about five minutes before slicing.

Serving/Notes:
This is a really quick recipe. From start to finish, the entire process took me just over half an hour. The finished product was nice and moist. I may have mistakenly skimped on the searing process, though. More crust is more better, so really be patient with it.

Two tenderloins may have been a little much for my family. I'd say you could easily feed 6 people using this recipe. There's nothing wrong with leftovers, though.

Tune in later this week to learn how to make the pineapple slaw!