Pork Tenderloin

Pork Tenderloin is one of the easiest meats to make.  It's all about the marinade and cooking it to the perfect medium-rare temperature.  Here is my go to recipe for pork tenderloin.


Place the tenderloin in a large zip lock bag with the following (as usual I don't measure anything):
soy sauce,
a little peanut oil,
fresh or dried ginger powder,
fresh or dried garlic powder,
onion powder,
as much Sriracha sauce as you like


Place this in the fridge all day so the marinade can really get in the pork.  You can even do this a day or two ahead of time.  If you're like me, you'll get the pork ready and then not want pork for dinner, so you leave it for the next night....then that next night rolls around and you still don't want pork but you force yourself to make it anyway.  It's so delicious that you can't believe you ate pizza the night before, what were you thinking?!


Preheat oven to 425.
Spray a broiler pan with cooking spray.  I have no idea if this is really a broiler pan or not, but it's the kind of deep dish pan with a rack that sits on top with holes in it.  You put the pork tenderloin on this rack.  Be sure to spray the rack when it's in place on the pan so that the bottom of the pan gets sprayed as well.  Because the juices from the pork drip down onto this pan while cooking, they can easily burn on the bottom and you'll have a hell of a time scraping this junk off...so if you hit it with a little cooking spray, it makes your life a lot easier.  Aaaaaanyway.... remove the pork from the marinade and place it on the rack while the oven is heating up.  When ready, stick it in the oven and set the timer for 25 minutes.  This is a great time to start some rice pilaf because they take about the same amount of time to cook.  After 25 minutes, check the temperature with a thermometer.  The temp should be about 135 - 140.  I believe the correct temp for pork is 145 but in my opinion that is too done.  Remove the pork (if ready) from the oven and transfer to a cutting board.  Let rest for at least 5 minutes!  Don't even think about touching this pork before 5 minutes.  Then slice into about 1/2 inch thick slices at a slight angle (for looks) and you should have perfect, juicy pork tenderloin. 


I always like to serve this with rice pilaf and sauteed vegetables.  I've been adding a dash of toasted sesame seeds to my veggies right before they are done cooking, it adds that extra little something that makes them better in some way.