So awhile ago, I blogged about my new favorite side dish. And it’s still pretty much my favorite side dish, except now that fingerling potatoes are difficult to come by, I just buy a bag of red potatoes and pick out the smallest ones I can find and it works beautifully.
One of my favorite things about those potatoes isthis flavorful, garlicky/salty/tangy rosemary-infused crust that develops. Once, as I was secretly snacking on the roasted garlic crumbles washing the dishes after dinner, I was completely stricken with how fabulous the rub would be on a roasted pork tenderloin. And I tried it. And it was fabulous.
One of the best things about pork tenderloins is that they cook quickly and feel fancy, so, say you have a romantic Valentine’s Day planned with lots of skiing and canoodling and you want to cook a nice, romantic dinner at home, but you don’t want to spend all day in the kitchen. Or…say you spend Valentine’s Day wrangling children and cleaning up messes and you’re at your wit’s end and you want a nice dinner, but you’re too tired to cook. Well…lucky you…this recipe works either way!
Seriously–thirty minutes, you’re done (and a good chunk of that is spent sitting on the couch while the pork is roasting). You can mix a little extra olive oil with a little of the rub and toss it with some diced potatoes and bake them right on the pat at the same time. Or serve it alongside some asparagus or blanch some green beans for a minute or two and saute them in a little butter and garlic and Happy Valentine’s Day to YOU.
Garlic-Rosemary Pork Tenderloin
Ingredients
- 1 large or 2 medium or small pork tenderloins
- 2 1/2 Tbsp. olive oil
- 2 1/2 Tbsp. chopped rosemary leaves strip them from the woody stem first
- 2 1/2 Tbsp. coarse mustard
- 5 cloves garlic minced
- 1/2 tsp. Kosher salt
- A few turns of freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and spray with non-stick cooking spray. Set aside.
- Rinse pork tenderloin in cool water and trim any excess fat or the silvery membrane on the meat. Pat dry and place on the prepared baking sheet.
- In a small bowl, combine olive oil, rosemary leaves, mustard, garlic, Kosher salt, and black pepper. Carefully rub all over pork roast, particularly on top. Place in heated oven and roast until an instant-read thermometer reaches 155 degrees. When the meat is done, remove from oven and allow to stand 5-10 minutes before slicing.
- Now...say your instant read thermometer angered you and you threw it away and then you find yourself roasting a pork tenderloin, cursing yourself for throwing your thermometer away, then realizing a thermometer that doesn't tell the correct temperature wouldn't do you any good, anyway. All of this is completely hypothetical, of course. Anyway, if it boils down to the fact that you don't have a thermometer, you're going to have to do a little guesswork because if you overcook it, it will be tough, but you also don't want to get sick. The tenderloin I used this go-around was definitely on the large side and I roasted it for about 25-30 minutes; the center wasn't pink, but it was juicy and the ends were definitely done. For a smaller piece of meat, start around 20 minutes and go from there. Of course, large and small is all relative and a good meat thermometer is definitely an asset in your kitchen, so just be sure to make it known when you do find a good thermometer that you have very little tolerance for inaccurate temperature measurements...
Questions & Reviews
My family loves this recipe!! We made it last night!
Would a crock pot work in lieu of an oven? If so, do you have advice for thats method?
I probably wouldn’t make this particular recipe in a slow cooker because the rub is meant to be roasted to form a delicious crust. You can technically cook tenderloin in a slow cooker, but it won’t be a sliced steak like this, it turns into shredded pork. So I would probably just do some type of marinade/sauce. If however you’d like to try it, just pop it in there on low (you’ll need to add some broth for liquid) for about 6 hours.
This turned out fabulous. We’ve made it twice now. The second time I served it with some rotini and blackberry pasta sauce. Total flavor profile winner together.
Thanks for sharing!
Absolutely stunning dish!!!! I just made it today: my boyfriend & I were amazed how flavorful the pork was!…. THANK YOU! Thank you!
P.S. I made it with sautéed cauliflower as a side dish..
Made this for Valentine’s Day. It was amazing!!! I used the pan juices to make a sauce. So good!
made this tonight, and wow!!! ended up. having to broil for the last bit to get a nice crust, but the flavour was fabulous! I was worried it would be too mustardy, but not at all. definitely a recipe I’d do again.
Thank you, this made me laugh so hard! I could so see myself doing that with a meat thermometer or any other inaccurate kitchen gadget for that matter.
This may seem like a dumb question, but the mustard is that a dry mustard or like a sandwich mustard?
It’s actually a mild whole grain sandwich mustard. Not dumb at all! 🙂
Has anyone tried this on chicken breasts? I don’t have pork but I have chicken and I need something to make for dinner tonight!
I worried that it wouldn’t be very flavorful since it wasn’t marinated ahead of time like some of the other pork tenderloin recipes in your cookbook but it really was tasty and so easy! My husband was very impressed and 3 out of 4 kids downed it without complaint. Can’t wait to try some of the other variations.
I plan on putting the rub on the tenderloin before freezing it. I wonder if it will give it a more intense flavor. I’ll let you know how it turns out !
I’ve made this recipe several times, and we love it. I have also made baked BLSL chicken breasts with the mustard-garlic-rosemary-oil mixture. My newest favorite way to use this recipe, though, is on turkey. I bought a turkey breast on sale recently and was wracking my brain for a seasoning or flavoring that I already had all the ingredients to make. The only one I could think of was this one, and it was a winner. The turkey was moist and flavorful. I would not hesitate a moment to put it on a whole turkey.
There is a good thermometer buying guide at amazingribs.com. I purchased both instant-read and grill thermos based on “meathead” recommendations and it improved my cooking and gripping immensely.
Looks so good! Do you think you can cook it on the grill?
For sure!! It would be awesome! In fact…I think I’m going to do that this week! 🙂
Kate- I’ve made this twice now and love the results, so tasty and juicy! My problem is that both times it totally smoked up my oven and kitchen and made the smoke alarm go off. Is there a secret to containing whatever ends up burning on my pan? (the juices I guess…)
Adding on to Amber’s reply–buy a Thermapen. They run about $75 and they are entirely worth it. Otherwise you’ll keep buying cheap thermometers that don’t work. I’ve had one Thermapen for the past 8 years and it’s all I need.
Hello! I just found your website…what a gem of a site! Hope to access you again. I SOOOO related to the meat thermometer problems…. my last one just went out when I roasted the chicken breasts for this weeks menu to take to work. sigh…. I need to do some research on what type,kind etc. It seems like the “cheap ones” are simply not reliable…but I can’t afford the pricey ones. Any ideas are appreciated!