For a quick and easy weeknight dinner, there’s nothing quite like a perfectly reverse-seared pork tenderloin that has been quickly marinated in a flavorful, spicy mixture. After cooking this tenderloin to perfection, we chopped it up and made a blistered tomato salsa (recipe coming, also) for a quick taco dinner. Using your Traeger grill, this flavorful spicy tangerine pork tenderloin comes out perfect every time.
SPICY PORK TENDERLOIN IS PERFECT ON THE TRAEGER
There are lots of ways to prepare pork tenderloins for dinner. They’re tender, juicy, flavorful and can take on a huge range of flavors and seasonings. It’s one of the things I love most about pork tenderloin– it can be Asian, BBQ, Mexican or any number of other dinner genres in no time.
Plus, they are fairly thin and that means they defrost quickly (an hour or so if you’re in a hurry), marinate in no time (20-30 minutes is all you need) and cookup pretty fast. All those things make pork tenderloin an ideal family dinner on a weeknight.
In our house, a single pork tenderloin is perfect because it makes enough meat for me and my wife and the twins (who are 14 months) and some for leftovers. The kids love it diced up small– you should hear our son “purr” while he eats and our daughter still has no teeth so small is important for her. And as a teacher, I try pretty hard to be disciplined and take lunch a few times a week for myself. At this point in time, one tenderloin does the trick.
We find that often tenderloins are packaged two-to-a-pack. If they’re frozen, we found that you can partially defrost them– and then pull them apart and put one back in the freezer in new packaging. Since they’re still largely frozen when you do this, we don’t think it counts as defrosting-and-refreezing. But to each their own!
MARINADING PORK IS IMPORTANT
In this recipe for spicy tangerine pork tenderloin, we use a variety of ingredients to create a bold and flavorful marinade. The hot sauce adds some heat, the tangerine is acidic and starts to tenderize the meat, the maple syrup counters the acidic flavor and spice, and the yellow mustard is the ideal base. The combination of vinegar and mustard in the yellow mustard helps to also tenderize the meat, which is important even with a short marinade.
By creating a fairly thick paste, you can coat the pork with great flavor that will then cook into the meat to create an incredible crust. Trust us– it should be pretty thick so that there is a good coating on all sides of the meat.
PRIMARY INGREDIENTS
- Pork tenderloin
- Tangerines
- Yellow mustard
- Maple syrup
- Hot sauce
- Pork rub of your choice
WHY COOKING THIS ON THE TRAEGER WORKS
Reverse searing is an ideal way to cook something like pork tenderloin. If you ask your parents, they probably have memories of terrible pork dinners. In our parents’ generation, pork needed to be cooked to 165*, until it was grey throughout and tough and dry. In reality, though, pork can be safely cooked to 145* with a short rest.
At 145*, pork will be what is considered “medium rare” but it also means it’s cooked safely, moist throughout and tender. You can obviously cook it longer and higher heats, but once you have pork cooked to 145*, you’ll wonder why you ever agreed to eat shoeleather pork.
When reverse searing pork, I like to cook it to about 130* on a low and slow method (often bathed in wood-fired flavor from the Traeger) and then I sear it until the internal temperature hits about 140*. With a short rest, the carry-over cook will get the pork to a safe 145* and dinner will be ready.
You get the best of both worlds when reverse searing– tender, juicy and flavorful inside with a good sear and crust on the outside. You will definitely get that with this recipe for spicy tangerine pork tenderloin on the Traeger.
STEP-BY-STEP
- Defrost your pork tenderloin.
- Get your ingredients organized.
- In a dish or pan, combine the juice of the tangerines, the hot sauce, mustard, maple syrup and rub and whisk until well combined.
- Add a little water to the mixture if it’s too thick.
- Unwrap the pork tenderloin and pat dry with a paper towel.
- Then place the tenderloin in the pan and sauce and turn to coat.
- Cover the pan and place in the fridge for at least 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, preheat the Traeger grill to 225* with the super smoke feature enabled.
- When the grill is hot, remove the meat from the pan and place it in the middle of the grates.
- Do not wipe off any excess marinade– it becomes crusty flavor as it cooks!
- Cook the tenderloin in the Traeger until the internal temperature reaches about 125-130* (about 40 minutes).
- Remove the meat from the grill and bump up the temperature to 375* or higher.
- Place the meat back in the grill and cook the entire tenderloin another 5-8 minutes until the internal temperature is about 140*. It should be browned all over.
- Remove the tenderloin to a cutting board and tent with foil.
- Allow the meat to rest for 5-10 minutes, then slice and serve.
Pork tenderloin on the grill 
Spicy tangerine pork tenderloin being seared
RECIPES SIMILAR TO SPICY TANGERINE PORK TENDERLOIN
- Another recipe similar to spicy tangerine pork tenderloin that I really like with pork, which highlights the delicious nature of mustard as a crust/binder is this pork roast.
- If you’re in the mood for pork chops rather than tenderloin, try this honey garlic pork chop recipe.
- You can also find a terrific pork tenderloin recipe in my cookbook, which you can get here.
PRODUCTS USED IN THIS COOK
- Traeger Timberline XL Grill
- Cambro pan
- Yellowbird Hot Sauce
- Christie’s PK rub by Spiceology
- Messermeister knives
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Spicy Tangerine Pork Tenderloin on the Traeger
Equipment
- Traeger grill
- Cambro pan or dish
- Boning knife
- Instant read thermometer
- Cutting board and aluminum foil
Ingredients
- 1 pork tenderloin
- 2 tangerines or mandarin oranges
- ÂĽ cup yellow mustard
- 4 tbsp maple syrup
- 4 tbsp hot sauce
- 2 tbsp pork rub of your choice
Instructions
- Defrost your pork tenderloin.
- Get your ingredients organized.
- In a dish or pan, combine the juice of the tangerines, the hot sauce, mustard, maple syrup and rub and whisk until well combined.
- Add a little water to the mixture if it’s too thick.
- Unwrap the pork tenderloin and pat dry with a paper towel.
- Trim as necessary to remove silver skin or loose pieces.
- Then place the tenderloin in the pan and sauce and turn to coat.
- Cover the pan and place in the fridge for at least 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, preheat the Traeger grill to 225* with the super smoke feature enabled.
- When the grill is hot, remove the meat from the pan and place it in the middle of the grates.
- Do not wipe off any excess marinade– it becomes crusty flavor as it cooks!
- Cook the tenderloin in the Traeger until the internal temperature reaches about 125-130* (about 40 minutes).
- Remove the meat from the grill and bump up the temperature to 375* or higher.
- Place the meat back in the grill and cook the entire tenderloin another 5-8 minutes until the internal temperature is about 140*. It should be browned all over.
- Remove the tenderloin to a cutting board and tent with foil.
- Allow the meat to rest for 5-10 minutes, then slice and serve.
Love this marinade Adam!