Sweet and Savory
One of my favorite flavor combinations of all time is probably sweet and savory. Last week, we had the sweet, tart, and spicy Spiced Apple Chutney. And this week, we have a salty and savory Bacon Wrapped Pork Tenderloin! These two recipes are a match made in heaven and their contrasting flavors create a greater depth of flavor!
My love for sweet and savory food is something I never realized about myself until my sister pointed it out. And when I started thinking about it, I realized that it may stem from my Chinese culture. In Chinese cooking, there’s a lot of sweet and savory flavors in dishes. I believe that because I grew up eating these sweet and savory foods, I developed a preference for them.
A Bacon Lattice
This Bacon Wrapped Pork Tenderloin is fairly simple. I’d say that the only tricky part is creating the bacon lattice, but even that isn’t too complicated. If you’ve ever seen a pie, which I’m sure many of you have, it may have had a lattice patterned top crust. A lattice is basically a criss cross pattern where horizontal strips alternate from going over and under the vertical strips or vice versa. This can be a little difficult to understand through text, if you’ve never seen one, so I’ve included some images as a reference.
I mainly chose to use a lattice pattern for the bacon because I felt like the stitching would be more secure and add a litle “oomph” to the recipe. However, if you really don’t have the time to get your lattice game on, feel free to just wrap the strips of bacon around the pork tenderloin.
I’d also like to point out that, in the photos, I only used 8 slices of bacon. However, upon reviewing the recipe, I felt that 9 slices of bacon worked better. So, you can still use the photo as a reference, but just be sure to add an additional slice of bacon so that you have 5 strips laying vertically and 4 strips laying horizontally. After that’s all settled, then you can start overlapping and “underlapping” your strips so that they match the lattice pattern in the photo.
Christmas is Near!
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Christmas is almost here, y’all. Yes, we’ve made it through Thanksgiving, so you better start planning your Christmas menus! This Bacon Wrapped Pork Tenderloin with the apple chutney is the perfect dish to add to your table! Both of these recipes are fairly easy to make, but will definitely impress everyone. The bacon lattice pattern and the apple chutney are little touches that you can add to a basic pork tenderloin that will bring it up 10 notches and make you seem like a culinary genius. Just saying that you made a chutney from scratch will impress people! But they don’t have to know how simple it was to prepare everything.
This Bacon Wrapped Pork Tenderloin is perfect for the holidays and has a seasonal element to it thanks to the spices in the apple chutney. I definitely would not make the pork tenderloin without the chutney because that’s just sacrilegious. The pork tenderloin and apple chutney are a package deal. Together, they give you that wow factor you’re looking for. Be sure to make this recipe, and, hopefully, I can transfer you over to team sweet and salty — if you weren’t already. I hope you all have a great day, and I’ll catch you in my next post for some more Christmas recipes!
Bacon Wrapped Pork Tenderloin with an Apple Chutney
Ingredients
- 1 (22 oz) Pork Tenderloin (trimmed of fat and silver skin)
- 9 Slices Bacon
- 1 tbsp Dijon Mustard
- 1 tbsp Honey
- 1 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 2 Garlic Cloves (minced)
- 1 tsp Chopped Thyme
- 1 tbsp Chopped Sage
- As Needed Kosher Salt
- As Needed Ground Black Pepper
- 1 cup Apple Chutney (recipe linked in notes)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400˚F.
- In a small bowl, mix together the mustard, honey, oil, garlic, thyme, and sage. Coat the pork tenderloin in the mixture and season it with salt and pepper. Set aside.
- On a piece of parchment paper or a cutting board, arrange your bacon into a lattice pattern. There should be 5 slices of bacon laid vertically and 4 slices laid horizontally. Please use the photo in the blog post as a reference!
- Place the pork tenderloin in the center of the bacon lattice. Fold the bottom lattice edge of bacon up over the tenderloin. Then roll the tenderloin upwards so that the top lattice edge of bacon is now tucked in on the bottom of the tenderloin.
- Line a sheet tray with parchment paper and place a wire rack on top of it. Place the pork onto the wire wrack and transfer it into the oven to cook for about 35-40 minutes or until the pork reaches 145˚F. In the last 3-5 minutes, move the pork to the highest rack and broil until the bacon becomes crispy.
- When the pork is done, remove it from the oven and allow it to rest for 10 minutes before slicing. Top the pork with apple chutney and enjoy!
